The Sectra enterprise imaging platform will be available with integrated vendor-neutral access for machine learning capabilities.

The new feature will provide users with access to machine-learning applications developed by Sectra and virtually any other application, regardless of the vendor, offering a unified entry point to a best-of-breed portfolio.

“A user can right-click their way directly into an external application without additional logins and the results can be sent back to the workstation for inclusion in the report without launching, searching or sending data to an external application or to a web service,” Dr. Torbjörn Kronander, CEO and president of Sectra AB, told HCB News. “Sectra's own applications will, when possible, use the same interface for our applications and machine learning tools. Ahead, we also see strong opportunities in applying machine learning to improve workflow itself, being able to triage and separate cases needing urgent attention from those likely to be benign.”

Specific capabilities added include imaging analysis, diagnostic services and computer-aided detection (CAD) systems with the interface eliminating the need for users to log into separate applications or manually connect over DICOM when using these tools.

The introduction of vendor-neutral access for machine learning also offers more freedom of choice and the ability to speed up access to new innovations.

Kronander says though that such a feature should not be confused as a replacement for physicians, but instead, as a tool for assisting them.

“Machine learning will make a huge impact in medicine of tomorrow, but not as a ‘Machine doctor,’" he said. “Replacing doctors with computers will not, in our judgment, happen for a long time, if ever. The doctor will still be in control and the final decision-maker. But the doctors of tomorrow will have a completely new and extremely powerful toolbox available for increasing their effectiveness and capability.”

A report last month from Sectra explores the value of machine learning in radiology by incorporating answers from radiologists on where it would be most effective in their diagnostic work and where it should be applied the least.

Sectra plans to introduce vendor neutral access to machine learning in future products. Examples of in-house applications and external machine learning applications that are available on the platform will be on display at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual conference this month in Chicago.

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