In the month since oncologists at New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health began using iNav — an artificial intelligence-enabled diagnostic tool developed in-house — people with pancreatic cancer have been getting “connected to care, days, if not weeks, earlier in their care trajectory” than ever before, Daniel King, MD, PhD, assistant professor at the Institute of Cancer Research at Northwell’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y., told Becker’s.
Dr. King and two of his Northwell colleagues — Sandeep Nadella, MD, a gastroenterologist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, and Tiffany Zavadsky, NP, RN — developed the iNav technology, which won Northwell’s 2023 Innovation Challenge.
iNav is able to analyze high volumes of CT and MRI scan reports — more than 10,000 abdominal scans per week — to find any indication of a mass or lesion on a patient’s pancreas. It is able to weed out mentions of “no apparent mass,” as well.
Notable records are then referred by iNav to a coordinator who confirms the existence of a pancreatic mass that needs to be biopsied.
The healthcare system is investing $500,000 in the iNav program, which Dr. King said will expedite diagnoses and treatment of pancreatic cancers that, without the AI technology, would have been found at a much later stage of progression.
In fact, it’s already doing just that.
Most often, patients seek medical care for conditions that cause pain or other symptoms; pancreatic cancer usually goes undetected until it is in the later stages, Dr. King said. However, the scans patients get for those other conditions sometimes reveal pancreatic masses that went unaddressed.
Dr. King described a particular case that underscores the importance and validity of iNav. A patient received a CT scan to confirm a kidney cyst after being seen by a urologist. The scan revealed the kidney cyst was benign, “which means the patient normally would have waited two weeks or more for a follow-up appointment with their physician,” Dr. King said.
However, this particular scan report noted something else: a 4-centimeter mass in the patient’s pancreas.
iNav was able to find that note in the patient’s medical record and, after verifying the existence of the mass, the coordinator was able to refer the patient to Dr. King’s team. Next steps, he said, are biopsy and continued care if necessary.
Northwell Health has a multidisciplinary clinic dedicated to treating pancreatic cancer where patients are able to see a surgeon, medical oncologist, gastroenterologist and social worker. By bringing all of these services together, patients are connected to care faster.
The earlier the disease is detected, “the more likely we’ll catch it at a time that it can be removed and potentially cured,” Dr. King said.
Northwell Health is planning to sell the iNav technology to other healthcare systems, Richard Mulry, president and CEO of Northwell Holdings & Ventures, told Becker’s.
iNav could also bring Northwell a multimillion-dollar return on its $500,000 investment due to increased follow-up appointments made by pancreatic cancer patients.
