Entries by Fernanda Fraga

Dual-Energy X-rays for Coronary Calcium and How SpectralDR Can Help

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DUAL-ENERGY X-RAYS FOR CORONARY CALCIUM AND HOW 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝐃𝐑ᵀᴹ CAN HELP

The world is experiencing an alarming increase in cardiovascular disease. In the US, for example, cardiovascular disease is already America’s costliest disease, but costs are expected to increase to $1.1 trillion USD by 2035.

Coronary calcium provides proof of coronary artery disease; successful detection will improve healthcare for many patients. Traditional Digital Radiography (DR) will usually fail at highlighting coronary calcium due to its poor bone/tissue differentiation. CT is effective; however, it is expensive, and not widely accessible.

Studies show that standard dual-energy scans are better able to detect coronary calcification than standard chest X-rays. However, old approaches of dual-energy have their own limitations – being the overall radiation dose for the procedure one of them. A novel technology, which allows for a single-exposure dual-energy X-ray solution, can overcome these limitations.

Download the white paper to learn more about how SpectralDR™ can help visualize Coronary Calcium and see a real case.

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World Cancer Day: Raising Awareness and Thinking of Ways to #CloseTheCareGap 

Equality in healthcare is a complex and ongoing issue. In the United States, for example, despite having one of the most advanced healthcare systems in the world, many Americans face disparities in access to quality healthcare based on factors such as race, income, and geographic location. 

Inequality in access to healthcare, particularly for cancer care, can have serious consequences for individuals and communities. Some of the reasons why unequal access to cancer care is a problem include health disparities, late diagnosis, financial burden and inadequate treatment.  

In order to address these issues, it is important to ensure that everyone has access to the quality cancer care they need, regardless of their socioeconomic status or other factors. This can help to reduce health disparities, improve health outcomes, and promote greater equality in healthcare. 

World Cancer Day: Raising Awareness and Thinking of Ways to #CloseTheCareGap 

 

World Cancer Day is an annual event that takes place on February 4th to raise awareness about the global burden of cancer and to encourage actions to prevent, detect, and treat the disease. 

This year’s World Cancer Day’s theme, “Close the Care Gap”, is about celebrating the progress that has been made – and encouraging people to continue the fight. 



Learn more about the campaign

Lung Cancer: a global issue 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, accounting for over 1.8 million deaths in 2018. In the same year, it was estimated that there were 2.09 million new cases of lung cancer globally. 

“Individuals with low income are more likely to smoke, have a higher risk of lung cancer, and are less likely to participate in preventative healthcare, such as LDCT lung screening” said Karim S. Karim, CTO of KA Imaging. In fact, according to the American Cancer Society, as of 2021, only about 10% of eligible individuals have undergone lung cancer screening. 

“Access to higher tech imaging such as CT scanning is not equally available to all,” said Dr. Phil Templeton, Radiologist and Chief Medical Officer at KA Imaging. In the US, access to lung cancer screening varies depending on the availability of screening facilities, insurance coverage, and patient demographics. 

For example, racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to lack health insurance coverage and have lower income, which can affect their access to preventive care and treatment options. People living in rural areas also often face challenges in accessing healthcare services due to a shortage of providers and facilities. 

Innovative X-ray everywhere is our way of contributing 

“KA Imaging started as a company because we wanted to democratize access to healthcare,” said Karim. The company, founded in 2015 as a spin-off from the University of Waterloo, was created to commercialize the disruptive imaging technology that was being developed in the university labs.  

Now branded SpectralDR™, the technology enables dual-energy subtraction, providing bone and tissue differentiation with a single standard X-ray exposure. It acquires three images simultaneously (DR, bone and soft tissue dual-energy X-ray images). The technology mimics the workflow, dose and techniques of state-of-the-art mobile DR X-ray detectors. 

In 2022, the company announced the initial results from a study examining the diagnostic value of single-exposure dual-energy subtraction radiography in lung lesion detection. Quoting directly from the poster, “lesion visibility reportedly increased in 45% of the cases when supplemental dual-energy images were included1.” Findings were validated using CT. 

“SpectralDR bridges the gap between X-ray and CT. The promising results from this trial show that spectral images can play an important role in earlier detection for better outcomes,” says Amol Karnick, President and CEO of KA Imaging. 

Currently, the technology is available in the Reveal 35C detector (FDA cleared, Health Canada approved). Reveal Mobi Lite, KA Imaging’s first full mobile system, is expected to be launched in 2023. 

“SpectralDR is our way of helping reduce the inherent inequity in lung-cancer risk by offering a solution for better imaging that can be easily deployed globally,” said the executives. 

  

  1. S. L. Maurino, K. S. Karim, V. Venkatesh. Diagnostic value of single‐exposure dual‐energy subtraction radiography in lung lesion detection: initial results. European Congress of Radiology-ECR 2022, 2022. 

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Grand River Hospital To Transform X-Ray Technology with KA Imaging’s Reveal™ 35C

With the support of the CAN Health Network, Grand River Hospital is commercializing a Canadian-made solution for improved patient care ONTARIO, NOVEMBER 2022 – Grand River Hospital (GRH) and KA Imaging are partnering on an innovative commercialization project supported by the Coordinated Accessible National (CAN) Health Network. Looking to transform existing hospital x-ray technology, GRH […]

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KA Imaging To Develop Fully Made-In-Ontario Mobile X-Ray System With Government Support

The mobile X-ray will have increased imaging diagnostic capacity for a variety of patients

 

Waterloo (Apr 18 2022) – KA Imaging is investing $1,488,000 to create the world’s first dual-energy mobile X-ray system using their Reveal 35C dual-energy X-ray detector. The mobile X-ray will have increased imaging diagnostic capacity for a variety of patients, including those in critical care and for those located in rural and remote communities where stationary X-ray machines such as CT scans and MRIs are not feasible or accessible. The project will receive $967,200 through the Ontario Together Fund and will create four new jobs.

 

“Through the Ontario Together Fund, our government is making strategic investments in innovative homegrown businesses with the ideas and solutions to help us support Ontario’s vibrant innovation and medtech ecosystem,” said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

 

The Ontario Together Fund aims to increase the manufacturing of domestic medical supplies and the development and export of homegrown solutions and innovations.

“Ontario Together funding will allow us to accelerate the development of the mobile X-ray system that has been on KA Imaging’s product roadmap for some time,” said Dr. Karim S. Karim, Founder and CTO of KA Imaging. “This system will be the first made-in-Ontario mobile X-ray and coupled with KA Imaging’s unique spectral Reveal 35C X-ray detector, it will become an essential component for improving Ontario’s resilience to future pandemics while growing Ontario’s high tech cluster and economy. We’re grateful for this opportunity where KA Imaging can directly benefit Ontarians by commercializing an innovative medical product that originated from fundamental research carried out at the University of Waterloo.”

 

“Waterloo Region is well-known for research, development and innovation, and I am very happy to see KA Imaging at the forefront this ground-breaking technology that will help a lot of people,” said Mike Harris, MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga. “I am very pleased to see KA Imaging working with the Ontario Together Fund to get this project going, and I’m thankful for the job opportunities it will provide in the community.”

 

KA Imaging is a homegrown medtech company incubated from the University of Waterloo that specializes in developing X-ray imaging technologies and systems. The company’s intellectual property portfolio includes 80 global patents.

 

Contacts:

Fernanda Fraga 
Media Relations
ffraga@kaimaging.com
T: 226.215.9897

 

Read more:

Province Makes Strategic Investments to Strengthen Ontario’s Medical Technology Ecosystem | Ontario Newsroom

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From Theory to Practice – the Culture of Innovation

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.

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Reveal 35C Clinical Case: Bilateral Consolidations and Tube Localization

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.



Learn more about Reveal 35C

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International Day of Women and Girls in Science

“‘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!

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KA Imaging Secures Taiwan License for Reveal 35C Dual-Energy X-ray Detector

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, […]

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Introducing Discover Med, the Reveal 35C’s DICOM software

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.

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