By Dezmen Southward
For WisBusiness.com
Going to a doctor for a breast screening can be nerve-wracking for women — and for anyone they bring along to the appointment.
Then after the tests, the radiologist can report an agonizing wait before the results come in. Or even worse, there can be a false reading, either positive or negative, that leads to hours or days of anxiety. Or the patient can get a clean bill of health, only to find out that the cancer diagnosis was missed in the first screening.
Imagine this uncertainty cut down to nothing through instant results, with little chance of error. Quantitative Insights is looking to offer people just that with its Quant X product.
Quantitative Insights Inc. has developed Quant X, an all-in-one breast imaging workstation, that is not only more cost efficient, but provides more accurate results almost instantly. The multi-modality viewing system allows for the radiologist to simultaneously view the MRI, ultrasound and mammographic images all at one workstation.
Keith Tipton, senior executive officer, expanded on exactly how Quantitative Insights has improved its imaging workstation.
“A general rule is that when things light up, it’s generally bad news,” Tipton said. “Magnetic resonance imaging machines are good but can be a little inaccurate because many times things light up that aren’t cancerous. With Quant X the readings are much more accurate and come almost instantaneous.”
Quant X was developed and launched out of the University of Chicago, Tipton said.
“It basically stemmed from many radiologists being frustrated with the current tools used for looking at breast cancer in their patients,” he said. “The methods used for years could be inaccurate, hard to read, and took longer than many people were interested in waiting for their results.”
According to Tipton, Quantitative Insights product will reduce radiologist examination times from 25 minutes to six. Compared to an industry competitor, he said, it’s 30 percent more accurate in diagnoses.
With breast cancer incidences rising, many people know of women who have directly or indirectly suffered, sometimes after initial diagnoses were less than accurate.
“There is a push not only help women who have breast cancer but to also educate people on the matter. We hope to do both,” Tipton said. “The challenge is that education is a two-fold process, patients must seek more knowledge, and companies have to do a better job of relaying information.”
Quantitative Insights was the winner of the 2010 Chicago Biomedical Consortium Business Plan Competition, and was selected as Chicago Booth’s top healthcare company in the 2010 New Venture Challenge. The company is now positioned to launch its flagship product in the United States and selected global markets and the QuantX product has been submitted for FDA review.
— Southward is a senior in the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication.
