This is a great example of how the two extra Dual Energy images can greatly enhance the confidence of the reading physician, especially in cases where the reader is not a trained radiologist. Watch the video to see how the soft tissue image helped visualize a left apical pneumothorax.
A University of Waterloo Start “Invaluable” for KA Imaging
It all started with a handshake.
“We shook on it, and that’s how the game began,” said Dr. Karim S. Karim, CTO and co-founder of KA Imaging, about his partnership with Amol Karnick (CEO). “It was just a little agreement between the two of us.”
Dr. Karim credits the University of Waterloo with making the introduction to Karnick, and for developing a culture that values the relationships and collaborations with students necessary to develop innovative technologies for commercialization.
At the time, Karnick was an executive in residence at Communitech, a community that helps companies in the Waterloo region to start, grow and succeed. After travelling overseas, working extensively on X-ray technologies for more than 20 years, and learning from different healthcare systems, Karim wanted to start a new company.
“Karim had the technology, I had the business experience,” said Karnick. Karnick has been an executive in the imaging field for over 20 years. After being in the healthcare market for so long, it was easy for him to spot an opportunity.
“Accessibility has always been an issue globally. I knew we could make a difference,” he said.
This is how the two Waterloo graduates began KA Imaging in 2015, intending to make a difference in the world.
They also invited engineer Sina Ghanbarzadeh to start the company with them. Sina was part of the nascent Silicon Thin-film Applied Research (STAR) group at Waterloo with Professor Karim, where early research on the X-ray technologies that would later originate KA Imaging started.
CTO Karim S Karim and engineer Sina Sina Ghanbarzadeh working at the KA laboratory in 2016.
“Of course, I had to do my part, and Amol had to do his part, that’s why KA Imaging is where it is today, but the university was the foundation. The university made the introductions and helped us get everything up and running … anytime we need something – we ask them,” said Dr. Karim.
This involvement, the ongoing work and the value placed on innovation and ideas, has continued. KA Imaging consistently hires promising students and professionals for both permanent and co-op placements from various schools and engages the university at every opportunity.
“That’s another piece of the university that just carries on the culture,” said Dr. Karim. “I can tell you, Sina (Ghanbarzadeh), Sebastian (Maurino), and Chris Scott were all my students. Some (KA Imaging employees) also worked with colleagues of mine.”
Co-founder Ghanbarzadeh, who helped transform KA Imaging and dedicated his studies to the Reveal™ 35C detector, died from lymphoma in February 2021.
Dr. Chris Scott, a Technical Lead at KA Imaging and University of Waterloo graduate, completed his PhD in electrical and computer engineering under the supervision of Dr. Karim. Scott said quite a few employees came from Dr. Karim’s lab, and they shaped the early part of the company. Different teams focus on different projects and products at KA Imaging, but almost all of the work originated at the University of Waterloo.
Engineer Chris Scott presents his research at MRS 2019
“Everything started at KA (Imaging) was a research project in Karim’s lab. There’s a lot of innovation going on in that lab, and the only way to get it out there is to get investment, create a company and actually build real things,” said Scott. And that is what they did.
Scott said that Dr. Karim changed his outlook on a lot of things, because Scott thinks he tends to be more pessimistic.
“Some days I wonder how we pulled this off,” he said. “I don’t think we could have, without his (Dr. Karim’s) vision and optimism.”
Sebastian Maurino, Imaging Physicist and Engineer also came to the company by way of Dr. Karim’s lab. Although his work took him in a few different directions, he said that he was attracted to the idea of medical applications and always liked imaging.
His Master’s thesis on the design and optimization of a stacked three-layer X-ray detector was focused on the theoretical side of it, and when he finished school, he thought that was it. But his research work and dedication to dual energy allowed him to truly see the Reveal 35C project from conception to formation.
“Dr. Karim had obviously seen some of the same results I had seen on the triple-layer project, and he wanted to see where it would go,” said Maurino.
The company soon switched their focus somewhat from original projects to this new one, which Maurino explained was “fantastic” for him.
“It’s very rare that one gets to see the research project from their graduate work get attention from a company that actually wants to build it and take it to the market,” said Maurino. “Research ends three ways – you either prove that it doesn’t work, you prove that it works but it goes nowhere, or it ends up being a product.”
Luckily for Maurino, Reveal 35C, the world’s first portable, triple-layer dual-energy X-ray detector has not only received FDA 510(k) clearance and a Health Canada Medical Device Licence – but it is also currently being used in two clinical trails with promising early results.
The team installs the Reveal 35C detector for the first clinical trial at Grand River Hospital.
“For me, this has been an incredibly satisfying learning opportunity to get to see this product from the beginning … from us sitting around a table, trying to figure out the problem with dual energy, to shipping out the first product,” said Maurino.
Maurino is also excited to see what the next few years will bring.
“The value we have as a company is being nimble, and Karim very much understands that. Being nimble means being able to change … this is something I have grown to value in his teachings,” Maurino said. “And to have a city and an institution that appreciates innovation, that’s incredible. That’s a place I want to be.”
For the future, Maurino expects they will continue to innovate and continue to make a difference.
“I always say that we’re called KA Imaging, not KA X-ray, so I can only imagine that the aspirations are much broader than that. To continue to grow where we can make a difference, that’s what matters,” he said.
Any professional who works in Emergency Rooms and Intensive Care Units knows that mobile imaging can be a challenge. For various reasons, the mobile X-ray images may not be as good as needed, increasing the financial burden when extra resources are needed to confirm the diagnosis and wasting valuable time before treating a patient.
Watch the video below to learn how the Reveal 35C’s Dual-Energy images helped in this Bilateral Consolidation and Tube Location case.
“‘You are the only girl in the class!’ The sentence I heard a lot and told myself a lot!
Hi! I am Sahar Adnani, and I am working in the field of X-ray detectors for medical/industrial imaging. I love fixing things and finding the root cause of the problems. I am eager to understand how simple things around us work. I chose this path because I would have the opportunity to create new tech devices and I could understand the science behind them. Technology is all around us, and I’ve always wanted to be a part of it.
Being a girl in this field has its own challenges. I’ve been faced with comments that I can’t compete with men, or I should choose careers that are more suited to women. This shouldn’t discourage anyone; on the contrary, it should encourage us to make ourselves better. Certainly, you can find others that are better than me, but not because they are men. When people tell me that the quality of my work is gender-related, they are implying that this is out of my control, and I should stop trying. I encourage all girls to try Science and Engineering, maybe this is your passion, and you just haven’t tried it yet. I hope one day I can work with more girls in my field, and we can hang out later! :D”
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Today is International Day of Women and Girls in Science and we would like to recognize how essential they are in this field. Thank you so much for your hard work and incredible achievements. Thanks, Sahar, for sharing a bit about your experience and for being with us.
To all the “only girls in the class” – you ROCK!
InnoCare Optoelectronics Corp (睿生光電) is the official local distributor Waterloo, Feb 03 2022 – KA Imaging’s portable single exposure dual-energy X-ray detector can now be sold in the Taiwan market. The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration has licensed the Reveal 35C detector as a Second Level Medical Device, authorizing its distribution for 5 years. Recently, […]
Applications Specialist Jay Potipcoe has prepared a brief demonstration of Discover Med, the Reveal 35C’s DICOM software.
Reveal™ 35C is a single exposure, portable, digital dual-energy subtraction (DES) X-ray detector that overcomes previous DES technical limitations. This detector raised the possibility of a DES retrofit in existing digital X-ray rooms. The portability of a single exposure DES detector also allows for point-of-care high quality diagnostic imaging to increase access in underserved regions.
With the same radiation dose as a chest X-ray, it is possible to create 3 different images without motion artifacts (your regular DR, soft tissue and bone) to give you the ability to see the lungs and soft tissue without having bones obstructing the view, as well as identify calcified tissue.
Showcasing Emerging Technologies for Low-Resource Settings
Waterloo, Ont. (September 07, 2021)
KA Imaging’s Reveal™ 35C has been included in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) compendium of innovative health technologies for low-resource settings, launched August 31, 2021.
This compilation features emerging technologies assessed and found to potentially improve health outcomes, the quality of life or offer a solution to unmet medical needs. The WHO performs technical, health technology, regulatory system, quality system, management, and safe use assessments.
The information provided is manufacturer-reported and meant to inform professionals in the medical field about the advantages and challenges involved with implementing innovative health technologies in low-resource settings.
This fifth edition of the compendium prioritizes the need for COVID-19 response and other current health issues.
Reveal 35C is the world’s first portable dual-energy X-ray detector with USA FDA 510(k) clearance and a Health Canada Medical Device Licence. It is currently being used at two clinical sites in Canada, with promising early results. The application for use screening COVID-19 pneumonia is of particular significance now.
About KA Imaging:
A spin-off from the University of Waterloo, KA Imaging specializes in developing innovative X-ray imaging technologies and systems, providing solutions to the medical, veterinary, and non-destructive test industrial markets. For more information, visit www.kaimaging.com.
Our CTO Karim S. Karim was one of the speakers on the sidelines of the 2021 Islamic Development Bank Group Annual Meeting in Uzbekistan. Dr. Karim introduced Reveal 35C as a solution for low and middle-income countries to screen for Covid-19 and other infectious diseases during the session “Showcase of Innovation of Tomorrow Powered by Transform Fund”.
“Health Care is governed by metrics of quality, cost and access,” said Karim. He continued: “When technologies come out, they tend to focus on just one of those aspects. It works in some societies, but it will not work out here [in mountainous regions]. Good technologies will achieve at least two of the requirements quality and cost; quality and access… But it’s very rare to find a technology that can meet quality, cost and access simultaneously. In the mountain regions of Central Asia access is critical. Everybody who has lived in a remote mountain community that gets blockaded 4 months in the winter because of snow will appreciate what I mean by access. Innovation is hard. Reveal 35C is meant to address all 3 metrics of quality, cost and access.”
The IsDB Meeting is held annually to discuss development issues and institutional matters, promoting partnerships, cooperation, and knowledge sharing.
Watch the session:
The DE subtraction technique has superior sensitivity and aids in detecting any soft tissue abnormalities in the lungs. In fact, the 2013 study showed that DE imaging enhanced localization of lung tumors on 95% of the DE images
Reveal™ 35C’s detective quantum efficiency (DQE) is as high as 75%, and this higher DQE requires less
radiation to produce a better image. DE imaging showed improvement in the 2013 study by an average factor
of 4.7 compared to conventional X-rays without increasing image acquisition dose.
Read the blog post below for a summary of the article.
Lung cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer in the world, and the leading cause of malignancy-related deaths2. In the United States, lung cancer accounts for 13% of all cancer diagnoses, but 22% of all cancer deaths1.
In the US, approximately 154,000 lives are lost, and 228,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer every year. Only 21% of those that are diagnosed survive five years or more1.
The process of diagnosis often includes X-ray and computed tomography (CT) to scan for abnormalities and masses, followed by biopsies and other testing to target therapy. There are many treatments available such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.
Diagnosis is often made only at advanced tumor stages due to the lack of visibility of many small growths. It is of the utmost importance to find lung cancer sooner so it can be treated more effectively in the future.
Tumors also need to be visualized to determine the treatment needed, and often must be localized multiple times throughout treatment, like in kV-based image-guided radiation.
The first known study on comparing dual-energy (DE) imaging to conventional X-ray imaging in terms of tumor visibility for patients undergoing this therapy (in 2013), showed that DE can play an important role3, and is a better solution than conventional X-ray.
Reveal 35C is KA Imaging’s portable dual-energy X-ray detector that can be a great option for localization of lung tumors to assist the process of radiotherapy treatment of lung cancer.
Here are some reasons why:
1. The DE subtraction technique has superior sensitivity and aids in detecting any soft tissue abnormalities in the lungs. In fact, the 2013 study showed that DE imaging enhanced localization of lung tumors on 95% of the DE images3.
2. Reveal’s Detective Quantum Efficiency (DQE) is as high as 75%, and this higher DQE requires less radiation to produce a better image. DE imaging showed improvement in the 2013 study by an average factor of 4.7 compared to conventional X-rays without increasing image acquisition dose3.
3. Reveal provides a high-quality conventional X-ray image, a bone-subtracted image, and a tissue-subtracted one in one shot. The unique triple-stacked layer design allows for easy integration and high quantum efficiency. The bone subtraction image could aid in the visualization of previously unseen small tumors. This study showed that DE subtraction resulted in the complete disappearance of overlying bone in 100% of the images3.
4. Only 12% of these images in the study had some motion artifacts3. The streaks that occur due to unavoidable motion, such as a human heartbeat, can invalidate images and mislead radiologists. This study noted that motion artifacts could be significantly reduced if a faster kV switching generator were used. Reveal could be an ideal alternative to kV switching techniques due to a single exposure detector design that entirely eliminates motion artifacts. This is only possible because Reveal’s multi-layer detector design obtains all images in a single exposure, unlike kV switching which requires a second exposure to obtain dual energy images.
Dual-energy subtraction could be a good solution to the shortcomings of accurate soft tissue visualization in conventional X-ray for the process of lung tumor localization during treatments for patients with lung cancer. DE images have been shown to produce clearer soft tissue (bone subtracted) images thus enabling better tumor visualization. KA Imaging’s dual-energy solution Reveal 35C is motion artifact free, portable, and completely retrofittable for any existing X-ray imaging infrastructure.
References
KA Imaging’s Flat Panel Sight™ has received a Canadian Medical Device Licence from Health Canada. With the licence, the digital X-ray detector can be officially sold in Canada.
Among its main features, Sight™ can be called featherweight, as it weighs only 2.7 kilos in its 38 X 46cm version and 3.2 kilos in its 46 X 46cm version. In addition, Sight has a Wi-Fi option with a two-second image transfer. It is also IPX6 rated for water. AED allows use with any system.
“Sight™ is a powerful and affordable solution in the medical and veterinary fields”, says Karim S Karim, CTO of KA Imaging. “It is a product that came to complement KA’s line of solutions, so we can better address the different needs of radiologists, considering both technological and financial aspects,” says Amol Karnick, President and CEO of KA Imaging.
About KA Imaging
KA Imaging was founded in 2015 as a University of Waterloo spin-off. The company has successfully developed a line of innovative x-ray imaging products in the areas of micro-computed tomography, high efficiency x-ray area detection and multi-energy spectral separation detection. KA is proud to strive to understand the needs of its customers, ensuring to stay ahead of the innovation curve.