Kiwi software leads US market in breast cancer imaging

Media release

1 September 2014

Kiwi software leads US market in breast cancer imaging

New Zealand company Matakina Technology has won a United States technology award for its world-leading Volpara Solutions range of software that is catapulting advances in the early detection of breast cancer.

Matakina’s Volpara Solutions, designed and developed in Wellington, is the winner of the 2014 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation Leadership – hailed as a market leader in automated assessment of breast density – a major risk factor - and key visionaries in radiation dose monitoring and breast imaging analytics.

Volpara Solutions applications - Volpara Dose, Volpara Density, Volpara Analytics and Volpara Research – are now being used at hundreds of screening clinics and research sites spread over 29 countries around the world.

As well as leadership in density assessment, Volpara is also praised for pioneering the world’s first radiation dose measurement tool specifically for breast imaging which is helping monitor and reduce patient radiation dose in mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis systems.

“Frost & Sullivan lauds Volpara Solution’s thoughtfulness in identifying the unmet need for dose tracking in breast imaging, and a clear vision for what analytics can achieve in the early detection and treatment of breast cancer,” says said Frost & Sullivan Research Director, Advanced Medical Technologies Group, Siddharth Saha.

“It is necessary to measure volumetric breast density to control the dose, and Volpara Solution has emerged as a pioneer in leveraging the megatrend of dose reduction by acknowledging patient-specific dose tracking and reporting as a white-space opportunity.”

A key success factor is that Volpara Solutions applications are compatible with full-field digital mammography and digital tomosynthesis systems from all the main vendors of these technologies including GE, Siemens and Hologic.

“This is of high relevance in the industry, as tomosynthesis is quickly gaining currency, with 30 percent of the members of the Society of Breast Imaging in the United States already using it,” says Saha.

Furthermore, by enabling radiologists to track density and dose scores across time, Volpara Solutions is helping support the global movement toward personalising breast cancer screening. Women with lower density have a lower risk of breast cancer, and researchers are looking at incorporating breast density into risk models which may support personalised screening protocols.

Volpara Solutions’ founding CEO and Chief Scientist Ralph Highnam, Ph.D. says: “As a Kiwi company, we are very proud to be recognised for the innovative solutions we have brought to the breast imaging market already, and to have our vision and commitment to address unmet needs in the detection, prevention and treatment of breast cancer endorsed by this in-depth market research.

“We are taking breast cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment to the next level and truly believe that we, and the industry, are on the verge of an evolution in the early detection of breast cancer, and the saving of many lives.”

ENDS

About Volpara Solutions Founded to enable radiologists to give women the most accurate information possible regarding their breast health, Volpara Solutions is the wholly owned sales and marketing arm of Matakina Technology Limited of New Zealand. Matakina’s founders and Board of Directors includes Sir John Hood, PhD, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford, UK; Ralph Highnam, PhD, former CEO of Mirada Solutions, one of the University of Oxford’s most successful spin-outs of recent times and co-author of the seminal book Mammographic Image Analysis; and Professor Sir Michael Brady, a serial entrepreneur who recently retired from the University of Oxford where he was Professor of Information Technology for 25 years; and Roger Allen AM, one of Australia’s most successful IT entrepreneurs.

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