HAMMOND, Indiana, and Boston, Massachusetts, June 18, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alverno Laboratories, a provider of high-quality diagnostic testing services and one of the largest integrated laboratory networks in the United States, and Ibex Medical Analytics, the leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cancer diagnostics, today announced the launch of the Ibex’s AI platform in routine practice within Alverno’s laboratory network in Illinois and Indiana. The phased launch encompasses AI-centric solutions for cancer diagnosis across multiple tissue types, including prostate, breast and gastric, that support pathologists and other physicians in providing the utmost quality of care for their patients. The laboratory system has recently completed phase 1 of its launch plan, enabling AI-powered prostate cancer detection for prostate biopsies, followed by breast and gastric.
Alverno serves over 30 hospital laboratories and thousands of physician offices and other care facilities, touching over 8 million patients’ lives per year across the Midwest. Alverno was also among the first laboratories in the United States to digitize its pathology services, harnessing the high-throughput capabilities of the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution across its system. The combined power of digital pathology and AI levels up the services provided by Alverno to hospitals, physicians, patients and caregivers by improving diagnostic accuracy and turnaround time.
“When looking for an AI partner, we wanted a shared vision for innovation yet a relentless drive for execution. We chose Ibex because of its high-quality, innovative products and customer service. Throughout our implementation and onboarding process, the Ibex team was active and responsive, something not always experienced when working on new projects,” said Sam Terese, CEO and President of Alverno Laboratories. “For us, the notion of going digital with AI is just something we would do, it's about who we are. It's about delivering appropriate and great care to our patients while speeding up time to results and ensuring the highest possible quality result any lab can deliver, and we are really thrilled to have a partnership with Ibex to help us along in that journey.”
Ibex’s suite of solutions supports Alverno pathologists in a variety of tasks during routine review of prostate, breast and gastric biopsies. The solutions help with case prioritization, AI-powered cancer detection and reporting and optimization of immunohistochemistry workflows and other productivity-enhancing tools. This implementation of AI on a large scale across the entire laboratory network has the potential to improve pathologists’ productivity and user experience, reduce operational costs and improve overall service levels. Ibex is the most widely deployed AI technology in pathology and is used as part of everyday clinical practice at laboratories, hospitals and health systems worldwide. Ibex demonstrated outstanding outcomes across multiple clinical studies performed on various tissue types and diagnostic workflows.1,2,3,4,5
“Alverno has a very clear commitment to innovation and continually improving the delivery of care for its community, and this commitment is demonstrated by the successful implementation of the Ibex’s suite of solutions,” said Joseph Mossel, CEO and Co-founder of Ibex Medical Analytics. “AI enables Alverno pathologists to work more consistently, reproducibly and efficiently to enable the highest level of diagnostic laboratory services for the patients in the community for which they serve. We're honored and excited to partner with their team and support them in providing the highest quality of diagnostic services."
For additional information on Alverno Laboratories, please visit alvernolabs.com and LinkedIn. For additional information on Ibex Medical Analytics, please visit ibex-ai.com, LinkedIn and X.
About Alverno Laboratories
Alverno Laboratories, located in Hammond, IN, provides clinical and anatomic pathology services and testing to communities throughout Illinois and Indiana. Alverno’s focus is providing the best patient care utilizing advanced technologies such as digital pathology, AI, Precision Medicine/Next-Gen Sequencing and complex automation. As a joint venture between Franciscan Alliance and Ascension Illinois, Alverno Laboratories operates over 30 hospital laboratories and provides laboratory testing to over 2,500 physician offices, freestanding urgent care facilities, and research organizations. Innovation is at the center of laboratory operations as demonstrated by the acquisition of one of the largest digital pathology networks in the country. Digital pathology, coupled with artificial intelligence technology, will decrease turnaround times of oncology cases and enhance outcomes. Advanced automation in microbiology rapidly increases the diagnosis of bloodborne infections that can lead to sepsis.
About Ibex Medical Analytics
Ibex Medical Analytics is transforming cancer diagnostics with world-leading clinical grade AI-powered solutions for pathology. Empowering physicians and supporting pathologists, Ibex is on a mission to provide accurate, timely and personalized cancer diagnosis for every patient. Ibex is the first and most widely deployed AI-powered platform in pathology. Pathologists worldwide use Ibex as part of their everyday routine to improve the accuracy of cancer diagnosis, implement comprehensive quality control measures, reduce turnaround times, and boost productivity with more efficient workflows.
The Ibex suite includes solutions which are for Research Use Only (RUO) in the United States and not cleared by the FDA. Multiple solutions are CE marked (IVDD and IVDR) and registered with the UK MHRA. For more information, including indication for use and regulatory approval in other countries, contact Ibex Medical Analytics.
[1] Pantanowitz et al., “An Artificial Intelligence Algorithm for Prostate Cancer Diagnosis in Whole Slide Images of Core Needle Biopsies: A Blinded Clinical Validation and Deployment Study,” The Lancet Digital Health (Aug 2020)
[2] Sandbank et al., “Validation and Real-World Clinical Application of an Artificial Intelligence Algorithm for Breast Cancer Detection in Biopsies,” npj Breast Cancer 8, 129 (2022)
[3] Comperat et al., “Clinical Level AI-Based Solution for Primary Diagnosis and Reporting of Prostate Biopsies in Routine Use: A Prospective Reader Study, European Congress of Pathology (2021)
[4] Raoux et al., “Novel AI-Based Solution for Supporting Primary Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer Increases the Accuracy and Efficiency of Reporting in Clinical Routine,” USCAP (2021)
[5] Sandbank et al., “Validation and Clinical Deployment of an AI-Based Solution for Detection of Gastric Adenocarcinoma and Helicobacter pylori in Gastric Biopsies,” USCAP (2022)
Paige Gonzalez, marketing manager Alverno Laboratories paige.gonzalez@alvernolabs.com
