Medical tech company partners with Google to improve breast cancer screenings

Medical technology iCAD Inc. announced on Monday it has signed a commercialization agreement with Google Health to utilize its artificial intelligence technology for the improvement of breast cancer screenings.

In a statement, iCAD said Google will be licensing its AI tech for "breast cancer and personalized risk assessment." This marks the first instance in which Google has entered into a commercial partnership to use its AI imaging technology for clinical practice.

Google said in its own statement that its mammography AI technology will be incorporated into iCAD's products. According to both companies, the ultimate goal of this partnership is to improve breast cancer detection and assessment of short-term personal cancer risk.

“Joining forces with Google marks a historic milestone for our Company, as leveraging Google’s world-class AI and Cloud technology elevates the caliber of our market-leading breast AI technologies and may also accelerate adoption and expand access on a global scale,” said Stacey Stevens, iCAD's president and CEO.

iCAD already uses AI technology in its breast cancer screenings. Steven said the inclusion of Google's AI will allow her copmany to "improve the performance of our algorithms for both 2D and 3D mammography."

Greg Corrado, head of Health AI at Google, called the partnership an "inflection point."

"After several years of investment and intentional research and testing, we’re now ready to partner with iCAD to take the next steps toward integrating this technology into a real-world clinical setting and work together to make a difference in the lives of millions of people undergoing breast cancer screening," Corrado said.

In 2020, a study was published that found Google's AI outperformed radiologists in both the U.K. and the U.S. when it came to accurately detecting breast cancers, reducing the rates of false-positives and false-negatives.