MORE Health将其云端影像诊断工具提交FDA审核

总部位于美国加州的高科技医疗公司MORE Health此前开发了一个可供中美双方医生协作、为患者共同会诊的中英双语联合会诊平台。最近，MORE Health又开发出一项可以让肿瘤科医生能够更好地为患者诊断的医学影像工具，这也与公司打造“虚拟医院”的长期目标相契合。

今年秋天，为了使医生能够更加便捷地为患者制定放疗计划，公司计划向FDA（美国食品和药物管理局）申请510（k）以批准其基于云端的影像诊断工具。在电话采访中，MORE Health工程副总裁Dale Seavey表示，该服务将与任何支持DICOM医疗成像标准的医学数字成像系统和通讯系统相兼容。他将其称为“云端的DICOM RT”。

公司发言人Johnny Wong详细介绍了该计划的工作流程：MORE Health的医疗合作伙伴将含有癌症患者诊断图像的放疗计划上传至MORE Health平台。接下来，MORE Health的放射学专家即可阅读及评估该计划，并与患者的主诊医生共同合作，讨论最优治疗计划，如共同决定该放疗计划方向是否正确、以及放射剂量是否为最优等。

这个产品背后的理念是为了节省邮寄含有扫描影像的CD的时间。Seavey补充说，由于图像在MORE Health自己的平台上传输，体验相较于从Dropbox一类的软件上下载更好。

Seavey和Wong均表示，虽然DICOM RT不是一项新技术，然而将其运用在医疗健康领域却是一项创新的举措。此外，加入DICOM RT功能的另一个好处是它可以减少患者赴美就医的需求。

“一直以来，我们始终为打造一个医生协作的平台而努力。（我们新开发的云端影像诊断工具）就是一个极好的补充方案”Seavey表示。

Seavey表示，公司之所以决定开发影像诊断的功能，是出于考虑到合作伙伴对于如何进一步提高诊断质量和更好服务患者的反馈。

公司官网显示，目前在美国有来自12家医疗卫生机构和医院的医生在使用MORE Health的平台，包括斯坦福大学医疗中心、加州大学旧金山分校医疗中心等。

“他们提出了需求，我们收集反馈意见，并纳入为我们整体平台的一部分。”Seavey表示。

MORE Health公司总部位于美国加州的福斯特城，目前，联合会诊平台拥有英文和简体中文两个版本，Wong表示在今年晚些时候还会增加西班牙语和繁体中文版本。

 英文原文：

MORE Health to submit radiation therapy planning consult tool for FDA review

MORE Health, a health IT startup that developed a collaborative bilingual platform to support second opinion consults for physicians and their patients is expanding into medical imaging with a clinical decision support tool for oncologists. It is part of the company’s long-term goal to support a “virtual hospital.”

This Fall, the company is planning to apply for 510(k) clearance with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its cloud-based diagnostic imaging tool to make it easier for physicians to do radiation therapy planning for their patients. In a phone interview, Dale Seavey, vice president of engineering, said the service would be compatible with any system that supports the DICOM medical imaging standard or Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine. He referred to it as DICOM RT in the cloud.

Here’s how it works. MORE Health’s healthcare partner uploads the radiation therapy plan, which includes diagnostic images of the cancer patient, onto MORE Health’s platform. A medical physicist on MORE Health’s team would access that plan, including images, and work jointly with the attending physician on an optimal treatment plan, according to company spokesman Johnny Wong. Together, they would make a determination on whether the images indicate that radiation therapy is being rendered in the correct direction and at the optimal dosage.

The idea is that the company’s approach would save the time it takes to send CDs of scans by mail. Seavey added that because the im

ages are transmitted within MORE Health’s own platform, it’s a more seamless process than downloading images from something like DropBox.

Although Seavey and Wong noted that DICOM RT isn’t new, they believe that using it in a collaborative approach to healthcare is innovative. Another benefit of adding the DICOM RT function is that it could reduce the need for patients to travel.

“The direction we have been moving in has been for more of a collaboration platform for physicians and this was a logical offshoot of that,” Seavey added.

Seavey said the company decided to add clinical decision support for images to its platform based on feedback it had received from partners on how to better support diagnostics and patient care.

Physicians from at least 12 health systems and hospitals use MORE Health’s platform, including places such as Stanford Health Care, University of California San Francisco Medical Center and Cleveland Clinic, according to the company’s website.

“It was something they brought up so we went ahead and developed it as part of an overall platform,” Seavey said.

Currently, Foster City, California-based MORE Health’s second opinion platform is available in English and Mandarin but Wong said it plans to add Spanish and Cantonese later this year.