Health Canada Licensing of DISCOVERY™ Smart Assistant System
Mississauga, ON – March 17, 2021 – PENTAX Medical, a healthcare industry leader in diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy solutions, announced today the Health Canada licensing of its DISCOVERY™ Smart Assistant System.
DISCOVERY™ is an innovative technology working with Artificial Intelligence. This product is meant to assist endoscopists in finding potential polyps during a colonoscopy examination. The Adenoma Detection Rate (ADR) still is one of the big challenges in endoscopy today. Studies demonstrate that up to 26% of adenomas are still missed in colonoscopy1. One big element is the human factor, while time and environment also contribute. 27% more polyps are detected in the early morning2 sessions compared to the later sessions. 13% of the time, physicians are distracted3 during the examination by, for example, phone calls or people coming in or leaving the room. Studies show that 50% of all interval carcinomas arise from missed lesions during colonoscopy4.
Approximately 27,000 people are diagnosed with interval colorectal cancer (iCRC), and 9,000 die per year in Canada5.
DISCOVERY™ aims to improve Adenoma Detection Rates by highlighting lesions with a unique algorithm based on a database of thousands of images, including the most difficult lesions, annotated by renowned Colorectal Cancer (CRC) centers worldwide.
DISCOVERY™ is designed to:
- Positively impact clinical outcomes, by assisting the endoscopist in finding more lesions.
- Increase confidence in the examination outcome and patient’s quality of life, by helping to increase the ADR and appropriate exam intervals.
- Help decrease healthcare costs, by helping to reduce the interval colorectal cancer (iCRC) rate.
“By introducing the first artificial intelligence System for colonoscopies in Canada, PENTAX follows its mission to improve the standard of patient care and enhance patients’ and providers’ experience by providing the best endoscopic products and services”, says Dustin Lee, Director of Sales & Marketing. “We are excited to introduce DISCOVERY™ in Canada and believe we are at the beginning of the next technological leap in endoscopy.”
About PENTAX Medical
PENTAX Medical is a division of Hoya Group. Its mission is to improve the standard of patient care and enhance patients’ and providers’ experience by providing the best endoscopic products and services with a focus on QUALITY, CLINICALLY RELEVANT INNOVATION, and SIMPLICITY. Through leading-edge R&D and manufacturing, PENTAX Medical provides endoscopy solutions to the global medical community. Headquartered in Japan, PENTAX Medical has a worldwide focus and presence with R&D, regional sales, service, and in-country facilities around the globe. PENTAX Medical employees represent the diverse countries where we do business, allowing us to provide innovative solutions tailored to meet local needs. For more information, visit pentaxmedical.com/ca.
Contact Information
Dustin Lee
dustin.lee@pentaxmedical.com
800-750-5558
1 Hannes Seibt, Albert Beyer, Michael Häfner, Christian Eggert, Harald Huber, Timo Rath: Evaluation of a real time artificial intelligence system using a deep neural network for polyp detection and localization in the lower gastrointestinal tract; Nov 2019 DDW
2 Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Volume 7 Issue, November 2009, Pages 1141-1142
3 “Do absorption and realistic distraction influence performance of component task surgical procedure?” Jon R. Pluyter et al; Surg Endosc. 2010 Apr; 24(4): 902-907 Published online 2009 Sep 30
4 Pohl H, Robertson DJ. Colorectal cancers detected after colonoscopy frequently result from missed lesions. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2010; 8:858-64
5 https://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-type/colorectal/statistics/?region=on#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20about%201%20in%2014,For%20more%20information,%20go%20to%20Canadian%20Cancer%20Statistics.
