Israeli AI company partners with medical service to provide better cancer screening for NHS patients

Israeli-based medtech company Ibex Medical Analytics Ltd. has teamed up with digital pathology provider LDPath Inc. to provide AI applications for cancer detection in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

The timing comes as the world recovers from Covid-19 and the global surge in hospital admittances remains high. The United Kingdom, a county with one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks, has seen pressure mount on its healthcare infrastructure. It is expected that Ibex will assist LDPath in the UK’s rising demand for pathologists at a time where the supply is decreasing by the year.

Ibex CEO and Co-Founder Joseph Mossel spoke exclusively with CTech about how it can help the healthcare industry in times of Covid: “There’s a lot of crossover between Israel and the UK. One is the shortage of pathologists — 97% of labs in the UK are understaffed. With Ibex, LDPath will be able to provide services to 24 different NHS trusts with something that is more accurate and faster.”

Ibex uses artificial intelligence to help pathologists detect cancers in biopsies. While its current capabilities focus on prostate and breast cancer, the company hopes to one day expand to “a wide coverage” of different cancers.

While it’s true there is a supply and demand issue between pathologists and those needing pathology scans, Ibex places itself in an uncomfortable discussion around the idea of AI and its impact on healthcare professionals. For example, radiology is starting to see wide-spread disruption as patients begin to place more trust in machines than their human counterparts.

“I don’t see algorithms replacing pathologists,” Mossel claims. “They will work together in the same way that a pilot operates a jet plane — there’s auto-pilot to help you. It will become negligent to practice pathology without using the AI to help.”

The inclusion of such technology is expected to reduce waiting times for patients and help identify potential misdiagnoses by overworked and understaffed pathologists in the UK.

Ibex currently has 25 employees working out of its Tel Aviv office and has completed $13.6 million in Series A funding.