Meet the ABUS Researchers

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Meet the ABUS Researchers

Introducing the ABUS Research CommunityResearch is a key pillar in establishing automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) as an essential part of the breast care pathway. Since the start of the original SomoInsight trial in 2008, we recognized the need for evidence to show the unique clinical value of ABUS. With the launch of Invenia™ ABUS in 2014, we began to expand our research to include investigator-sponsored projects. Several projects were initiated in the U.S., Asia, and Europe to explore a variety of questions about implementing this new technology globally. We are grateful for these long time partners who have worked with us over the past 5-10 years to help define where ABUS can have the greatest impact.

In 2018, we launched two Calls for Proposals for short-term retrospective research and long-term prospective research. The projects also cover a diverse but focused range of clinical questions including investigating ABUS alongside and against established modalities like DBT, HHUS, CESM and MRI for screening, diagnostic use, and treatment monitoring. Our partners are also interested in understanding patient experience, economic value, workflow improvements, and understanding how radiologists can read ABUS exams most effectively and efficiently.

We know all of these topics are very important, and recognize the responsibility to obtain evidence that is applicable globally. If you are interested in joining our community of ABUS researchers, please connect with us; we would be happy to have you join the evolution!

Tanya CarrilloResearch Manager,Automated Breast Ultrasound

Expansion of mindshare through innovation and research

Execution and expansion of mindshare through call for proposal – smart and broad investment

Reading & Learning Curve• UPMC (Nishikawa)• BWH (Wolfe)• Kansas University (Inciardi)• Zurich (Berger)• Hokuto Hospital (Suzuki)

Diagnostic Use & Treatment Monitoring• MGH (Lehman)• Utrecht (Pijnappel)• Leeds (Sharma)

High Risk Screening• North Valley (Grady)• UK Multicenter (Gilbert)

ABUS for Screening with DBT• Acibadem University (Aribal)• UK Multicenter (Gilbert)• UPMC (Chough & Gur)• Cairo University (Helal)• Diagnostic Mammography Center (Vourtsis)

ABUS Compared to HHUS• Pink Monarch (Tidwell)• Zurich (Marcon)• Fleury (Giselle)• China Multicenter (Qiao)

• Japan multicenter (Tohno)• Cancer Hospital China (Jia)• Sungkyunkwan Univ (Choi)

2008Somo•v Insight multi-center clinical trial

launched

2009Somo•v ABUS commercial availability

2012PMA Approval

2013GE Healthcare

acquires U-Systems

2014Invenia ABUS

launched

2015Globalization of

ABUS distribution

2016Installed 200th

system

2017Investment in

multi-center trials in U.S., Japan,

China

2018Invenia ABUS 2.0

launch in U.S.A., CFP 1&2 grants awards

Current Research Collaborations

M. Erkin Aribal, MD Professor of Radiology Acibadem Altunizade Hospital & Acibadem University, Turkey

Prof. Aribal is a Professor of Radiology at Acibadem Altunizade Hospital & Acibadem University. He has nearly thirty years of experience in radiology, interventional radiology, oncology imaging, breast imaging, and radiologic contrast media.

Prof. Aribal is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for his study which explores compares DBT and ABUS for dense breast screening. His project will enroll 3,000 subjects and is expected to complete enrollment in 2020. The final results will be published in 2021.

Nicole Berger, MD RadiologistBalgrist University Hospital, Switzerland

Dr. Berger is a Professor of Radiology at University of Hospital Zurich.

Dr. Berger is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for her study which evaluates the specificity of ABUS images using the coronal plane only. Her study will complete in 2019 with publication expected in 2020.

Ji Soo Choi, MD, PhD Assistant ProfessorDepartment of RadiologySamsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Korea

Dr. Ji Soo Choi, PhD is an assistant professor in the department of radiology at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul.

Dr. Choi is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for her study which compares ABUS and HHUS in preoperative evaluation of patients with early stage breast cancer. This study will be executed at Samsung Medical Center, Seoul National University Hospital, and SeoulNational University Bundang Hospital in collaboration with Professor Jung MinChang and Professor Sun Mi Kim. The study will enroll 675 subjects with final report and publication expected in 2022.

Denise Chough, MD Associate ProfessorDepartment of RadiologyUniversity of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Dr. Denise Chough, MD is a diagnostic radiology specialist in Pittsburgh, PA and has been practicing for 25 years. She graduated from University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine in 1989 and specializes in diagnostic radiology.

Dr. Chough is completing an innovative research study focused on recall rates of ABUS alone as well as ABUS as a supplementary modality to DBT during screening and it includes 600 individual cases undergoing DBT and ABUS during the same visit with 500 of whom undergo a second year of screening. Each examination is independently reviewed by two qualified radiologists. Dr. Chough presented preliminary results at RSNA 2017. Final results and publication are expected in 2020.

Prof. Fiona Gilbert, PhD Professor of RadiologyUniversity of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, United Kingdom

Prof. Gilbert has over 30 years of experience in breast imaging with over 200 peer reviewed publications and over £20M in grant funding. She is President Elect of the European Society of the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI), past Chair of the Royal College of Radiologists Breast Group (renamed British Society of Breast Radiologists), previous co-lead of the NCRI PET Research Development group and immediate past Chair of the Research committee of the Royal College of Radiologists and past Chair of the NCRI Imaging Advisory group. Her current research interests are in risk-based breast screening, non FDG radiotracers in cancer, and breast MRI. She is interested in using imaging to gain a better understanding of tumour physiology. She is an NIHR Senior Investigator.

Currently Prof. Gilbert is leading a multi-center study testing the feasibility of ABUS, CESM, and MRI as supplementary imaging techniques for women at increased risk of breast cancer. The study is being executed at Cambridge, Leeds, and Manchester in collaboration with Dr. Nisha Sharma and Dr. Anthony Maxwell. This project is part of the BRAID trial and has received funding from Cancer Research UK. The study will recruit 12,000 women, conducting 3,000 examinations, and will complete in 2024.

Ian Grady, MD, FACS Assistant Clinical ProfessorUniversity of California, DavisFounder of North Valley Breast Clinic

Dr. Grady is a practicing surgeon and founder of the North Valley Breast Clinic. He is an assistant clinical professor at the University of California. Davis and has been in practice for over 33 years.

Dr. Grady is a long-time published ABUS research partner and a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for his study which determines cost efficacy ratios for adding ABUS imaging to mamographic screening for women with dense breasts or who are at high risk of breast cancer. His study is based on Medicare SEER data and is expected to publish in 2020.

Giselle Guedes Netto de Mello, MD RadiologistFederal University of São Paulo & Fleury

Dr. Netto de Mello graduated from the Federal University of São Paulo and received her doctorate in medicine (Clinical Radiology) from the Federal University of São Paulo in 2001. She is currently a radiologist at the Federal University of São Paulo, medical coordinator at Fleury Medicina e Saúde and a radiologist at Fleury. She focuses on imaging methods in the evaluation of breast diseases and breast cancer.

Dr. Netto de Mello’s is conducting a comparative study of automated breast ultrasound and handheld ultrasound performed by physicians for differentiation of benign and malignant breast masses using ACR-BI-RADS® criteria. Her study will include 500 subjects with final report and publication expected in 2020.

ABUS for Screening with DBT Reading & Learning Curve Diagnostic Use & Treatment Monitoring ABUS Compared to HHUS High Risk Screening CFP 2018 Awardee Multicenter

Maha Helal, MD Professor of RadiologyNational Cancer InstituteCairo University

Prof. Maha Helal completed her medical studies in Radiology from Ain Shams University. She was the Head of the Radiology Department at the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University for three years. Prof. Helal spent fifteen years as the Head of the Female Imaging Unit at the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University. She is one of the most recognized radiologists in Egypt working in the field of breast cancer screening & diagnosis. Dr. Helal is an active member in the Women’s Health Outreach Program at the Ministry of Health.

Dr. Helal is a long-time GE Breast Research partner and a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for her study which investigates the use of ABUS with DBT for screening women with dense breasts compared to DBT alone. Her study will include 3,000 subjects with final report and publication expected in 2022.

Marc Inciardi, MD Associate Professor of RadiologyUniversity of Kansas Health System

Dr. Inciardi is a Radiologist and works full-time in an academic breast practice at University of Kansas Medical Center (he was formerly private practice for 18 years). He was also the Principal Investigator for the Somo Insight Study and an ABUS instructor/peer educator for GE Healthcare. He grew up in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

GE Healthcare has collaborated with Dr. Inciardi on ABUS research since the original SomoInsight Study. He is also a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for his study investigating the accuracy in reading time of two different reading styles: Coronal vs. Coronal/Transverse. His study is expected to start in 2020, with results towards the end of the year. University of Kansas Health System is also participating in GE Sponsored Research for Case Collection for use in future reader studies.

Mengmeng Jia, MD, PhD (candidate) National Cancer Center/Cancer HospitalChinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, China

Dr. Jia collaborates with Dr. You-lin Qiao on his large multi-center study in China. She is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for her study which explores the possibility of applying Automated Breast Ultrasound System (ABUS) to population-based breast cancer screening. Her project provides additional analysis of the data collected by Dr. Qiao and is accepted for oral presentation at RSNA 2019.

Dr. Jia earned her MD in preventive medicine from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. She is currently pursuing her PhD in cancer epidemiology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College. Dr. Jia’s research focuses on the screening and early detection of breast cancer and evaluation of different screening modalities, especially in resource-limited areas.


Connie Lehman, MD, PhD Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical SchoolDirector of Breast Imaging & Co-DirectorAvon Comprehensive Breast Evaluation Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Dr. Lehman received her undergraduate education at Duke University and her MD and PhD at Yale University. Dr. Lehman serves on several key national committees including the National Cancer Institute’s Breast Cancer Steering Committee and the American College of Radiology’s (ACR) Committee on Breast Imaging for Appropriateness Criteria and Guidelines. Dr. Lehman has co-authored breast cancer screening recommendations by the American Cancer Society, the ACR, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. She has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

GE Healthcare has collaborated with Dr. Lehman on ABUS research since her days at the University of Washington. Since joining the Massachusetts General Hospital, she was awarded as part of the GE Healthcare Call for Proposal for her study investigating the performance of ABUS vs. Hand-held Ultrasound in the diagnostic setting. The study will enroll 500 patients with final results publishing in 2020.

Magda Marcon, MD RadiologistZurich University Hospital

Dr. Marcon is a radiologist at the Zurich University Hospital. Dr. Marcon is a breast and musculoskeletal radiologist. Her current research interests are in breast ultrasound, breast MRI and in artificial intelligence applications in breast imaging. She has coauthored more than 35 publications. She has been an ABUS peer educator since 2018.

Dr. Marcon is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for her study which investigates the diagnostic performance of ABUS versus HHUS using MRI as a reference standard. Her study will include 600 subjects with final report and publication expected in 2021.

Robert Nishikawa, PhD Director, Imaging Research DivisionProfessor, Department of RadiologyUniversity of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Prof. Nishikawa has over 20 years of experience in breast imaging. He is currently a professor and Director of Imaging Research Laboratory at University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include: Evaluation of computer-aided diagnosis systems for breast imaging, development of quantitative imaging and radiomic methods for breast imaging and improving the efficacy of mammographic screening.

Prof. Nishikawa is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for his study Investigating the effect of priors on the recall rate in breast cancer screening with Invenia. Plans to publish the results of this prospective study in 2020.


Ruud Pijnappel, MD, Prof. Professor of RadiologyUtrecht University, Netherlands

Prof. Dr. Ruud Pijnappel is a breast radiologist practicing at the Department of Radiology at the University Medical Centre Utrecht, the Netherlands and at the Dutch Expert Centre for Screening, LRCB, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Prof. Pijnappel is conducting a study investigating the diagnostic accuracy of ABUS alone and in combination with conventional imaging modalities to diagnose breast cancer. The study will include 600 subjects from the Dutch Breast Cancer Screening Program with BI-RADS Mammography results. The study is expected to complete with final results and publication in 2021.

You-lin Qiao, MD, PhD DirectorDepartment of Cancer EpidemiologyNational Cancer Center, Cancer HospitalChinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, China

You-lin Qiao, MD, PhD, professor and Director for Department of Cancer Epidemiology, National Cancer Center, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Beijing, China. Before returning back to China in 1997, he was training for 11 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and Cancer Prevention Studies Branch, NCI/NIH, USA. He is also director of International Collaboration Department, Cancer Foundation of China, and Deputy Director of the MOH National Expert Committee for Cancer Screening and Prevention in China. He is an author on over 480 peer reviewed publications in both English and Chinese. As an expert in cancer prevention and control, he served as WHO Director-General’s Cancer Control Advisory Committee and WHO’s Cancer Technical Advisory Groups for helping to promote cancer prevention and control programs in developing countries. He is involved in many national and international projects to study etiology, primary intervention, and early detection of a variety of cancers through multidisciplinary and global collaborations. Dr. Qiao is a long-time ABUS research partner. He completed an initial multi-center study on the diagnostic accuracy of ABUS that will be published in 2020. Additionally, he started his next project which is a nation-wide multi-center ultrasound-based breast cancer screening cohort program in China. This study will enroll 63,000 subjects over a 3 year period. The first publication is expected in 2022 reporting on cancer detection and recall rate. The second publication is expected in 2024, reporting on specificity and interval cancer detection rate. A final publication is expected in 2028, reporting on sensitivity, survival rate, mortality rate, quality of life, screening related harms, and health economic evaluation.


Kartini Rahmat MD, Prof. Professor, MBBS (Mal), FRCR (UK), MRad(Mal), EBBIUniversity of Malaya, Malaysia

Dr. Kartini is a Professor and Consultant of Radiology at the Biomedical Imaging Department, University of Malaya Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur. She obtained post-graduate qualifications from University Malaya and furthered sub-speciality training in Royal Perth Hospital (Aust) and Queensquare Hospital London. Her clinical interests and research contributions are focused on breast imaging, cancer radiomics/artificial intelligence, neuroradiology, advanced MRI and ultrasound applications. Dr. Kartini currently heads the University of Malaya Imaging Research Unit. She is currently a holder of multiple research grants in breast oncology, cancer radiomics, neurodegenerative disease and seizure disorders.

Dr. Rahmat is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for her study which investigates the use of ABUS with DBT for screening women versus DBT alone. Her study will include 3,000 subjects with final report and publication expected in 2021.

Nisha Sharma, MD Director of Breast Screening & Clinical Lead for Breast ImagingLeeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Dr. Nisha Sharma (MBChB, BSc(hons), MRCP, FRCR, MSc) is Director of the Breast Screening programme in Leeds and is also a Professional Clinical Radiology Advisor for Public Health England. She is the secretary of the BSBR (British Institute of Radiology) and is the radiology representative on the surgical breast screening audit committee. She has been instrumental in formulating new guidance around the treatment of B3 lesions to help standardize practice within the UK breast screening programme. She is active in research with numerous publications. She is the PI for the PROSPECTS trial which is a Prospective Randomised Trial of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) Plus Standard 2D Digital Mammography (2DDM) or Synthetic 2D Digital Mammography (S 2D) Compared to Standard 2D Digital and PI for the BRAID and MyPebs trials.

Dr. Sharma is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal Awardee for her study which investigates the role of ABUS as an alternative to breast MRI in assessing response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Her study will include 100 subjects with final report and publication expected in 2022.

Georgia Giakoumis Spear, MD Chief of the Department of Breast ImagingNorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, Illinois, USA

Dr. Spear is Chief of the Department of Breast Imaging at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Illinois. She is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in Hyde Park, Illinois. She serves on the Breast Program Leadership Board at NorthShore and has special interest in Breast Imaging research. She is also active in legislative initiatives which have resulted in breast density inform legislation and diagnostic mammography coverage in the state of Illinois.

GE Healthcare has collaborated with NorthShore on ABUS research since 2015. Currently Dr. Spear is conducting a prospective study evaluating efficacy of ABUS as an adjunct screening modality for the detection of breast cancer in women with dense breasts. The study has been ongoing since 2016 and will enroll up to 1,000 subjects. The study is looking at a variety of clinical endpoints as well as patient satisfaction. Dr. Spear plans to publish in 2020. In addition, she is acting as Principal Investigator on a GE Sponsored Research project.


Megumi Suzuki, MD Breast SurgeonDepartment of Breast Surgery, Hokuto Hospital

Dr. Suzuki is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for her study which assesses the diagnostic impact of the coronal view compared with the transverse view in reading ABUS. She presented preliminary research on this topic at RSNA 2017. Her current work will collect additional data on this topic and a final report is expected to be published in 2020.

Serena Tidwell, MD Medical DirectorPink Monarch Breast Center, Columbus, Georgia, USA

Dr. Tidwell is a native of Columbus. She received her undergraduate degree at Emory University and her medical degree at the Medical College of Georgia. She completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and returned to her hometown to practice. She is Board Certified in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Dr. Tidwell is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for her study which analyzes the impact of ABUS implementation of workflow in a small breast center. She is presenting a poster session on this project at RSNA 2019.

Eriko Tohno, MD ConsultantTsukuba International Breast Clinic, Japan

Dr. Tohno is a radiologist specialized in breast imaging especially breast ultrasound. She is leading breast ultrasound seminars organized by the Japan Central Organization on Quality Assurance of Breast Cancer Screening.

Dr. Tohno is leading a multi-center study testing the accuracy of ABUS versus HHUS in breast cancer detection. Imaging data for 542 subjects is collected at multiple sites and used to perform a multi-case multi-reader study. The study is expected to complete with final report and publication in 2020.


Athina Vourtsis, MD, PhD Director and FounderDiagnostic Mammography Center

Dr. Athina Vourtsis is a radiologist, owner of Diagnostic Mammography, a high standard, contemporary Breast Diagnostic Center, and is the Founding President of the Hellenic Breast Imaging Society in Greece. She has published more than 40 papers in medical journals, presented over 50 oral presentations and given more than 135 lectures at international conferences, and has participated in many research programs. Throughout her career Dr. Vourtsis has strongly supported breast cancer awareness in Greece.

Dr. Vourtsis is a long-time published ABUS Research partner and a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for her study which compares DBT and HHUS and ABUS as an adjunct to FFDM in patients with dense breasts. Her project will enroll 6,000 subjects and is expected to complete with final results to be published in 2022.

Jeremy Wolfe, PhD Senior PsychologistBrigham and Women’s HospitalProfessor of RadiologyHarvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Jeremy Wolfe graduated summa cum laude from Princeton in 1977 with a degree in Psychology and went on to obtain his PhD in 1981 from MIT. He remained at MIT until 1991. During that period, he published papers on binocular rivalry, visual aftereffects, and accommodation. In the late 1980s, the focus of the lab shifted to visual attention. Since that time, his research has focused on visual search and visual attention with a particular interest in socially important search tasks in areas such as medical image perception (e.g. cancer screening). He taught Psychology courses (mostly Introductory Psychology) at MIT & Harvard for 25 years.

Dr. Wolfe is a GE Healthcare Call for Proposal awardee for his perception study which observes eye movement patterns in radiologists while reading ABUS. His study is collecting data at RSNA 2019. Data collection is expected to complete with final results and publication in 2020.

Thank you to our alumni researchersAmericas:• Allison Aripoli, MD• Rachel Brem, MD• Karen Drukker, PhD• Maryellen Giger, PhD• Vincenzo Giuliano, MD• Ashley Huppe, MD• Marla Lander, MD• Janie Lee, MD• Frederic Padilla, PhD• Fernanda Philadelpho Pereria, MD, PhD• Stephen Zintsmaster, MD

Europe:• Isaac Daimiel Naranjo, MD• Michael Golatta, MD• Anna Maier, MD• Helmut Prosch, MD, PhD• Simone Schiaffino, MD• Per Skaane, MD• László Tabar, MD, FACR• E. Wenkel, MD• Brigitte Wilczek, MD, PhD

Asia:• Jung Min Chang, MD, PhD• Yulei Jianj, PhD• Woo Kyung Moon, MD, PhD• Kazutaka Nakashima, MD, PhD• Pornchai O-charoenrat, MD• Tao Ouyang, MD• Tao Tan, PhD


Notes

GE Healthcare research activities are completely separate from any commercial transactions and will in no way be influenced by past, present, or future commercial relationships or opportunities.

© 2019 General Electric Company – All rights reserved.

GE Healthcare reserves the right to make changes in specifications and features shown herein, or discontinue the product described at any time without notice or obligation. Contact your GE Healthcare representative for the most current information. GE, the GE Monogram and Invenia are trademarks of General Electric Company. BI-RADS is a trademark of the American College of Radiology. GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Company. GE Medical Systems, Inc., doing business as GE Healthcare.

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Meet the ABUS Researchers