The University of Michigan Health Weiser Center for Prostate Cancer in Ann Arbor has adopted the Unfold AI platform by Avenda Health, marking the first adoption of the technology in the Midwest.
The move brings world class AI-driven 3-D prostate cancer mapping into one of the nation’s top urologic oncology programs to support more informed and individualized treatment decisions for patients. Avenda Health is an AI health care company in California.
One in eight men are projected to face a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, with growing rates of advanced disease rising in Michigan in the last decade.
At the same time, clinicians continue to rely on imaging methods that existing imaging and biopsy can miss or underestimate clinically significant disease, creating ongoing challenges in determining the right course of treatment, according to Avenda Health.
Unfold AI is an FDA-cleared, multimodal AI platform that combines patient-specific data to create a personalized 3-D cancer map, revealing the true size and extent of disease and uncovering hidden cancer.
By delivering a more complete and accurate view of the tumor and disease spread, Unfold AI empowers physicians to make more informed, patient-specific treatment decisions. It also reduces the risk of over- or under-treatment.
“Up to 20 percent of clinically significant prostate cancer is invisible on standard prostate MRI, and Prostate MRI can significantly underestimate the size of the cancer” says Dr. Andrew M. Wood, the urological surgeon at U-M Health leading the use of Unfold AI at the institution.
“Having access to AI mapping for prostate cancer adds a valuable tool to our evaluation and treatment of this disease, allowing for additional precision in tumor ablation procedures and a more personalized treatment paradigm tailored to each patient.”
In peer-reviewed studies, Unfold AI has demonstrated improvements in physician identification of tumor extent, increasing sensitivity from 37 percent to 97 percent, and helps physicians predict the cancer’s spread into nearby anatomy with 92 percent accuracy, compared to 52 percent using MRI alone.
“Partnering with University of Michigan Health represents an important step in bringing Unfold AI to leading cancer centers across the country,” says Shyam Natarajan, co-founder and CEO of Avenda Health. “Expanding our footprint into the Midwest is a critical step in our mission to democratize access to precision prostate cancer care, empowering physicians to personalize treatment decisions and improve outcomes for patients.”
Unfold AI is the first AI urology tool to receive a new Category III CPT code from the American Medical Association and a national Medicare payment rate for its use in outpatient hospital settings.
Unfold AI also is the first urology AI product included in Medicare’s Physician Fee Schedules across the West Coast and Mountain West regions.
For more information on Avenda Health or to find a provider who offers Unfold AI, visit avendahealth.com.
Michigan Medicine operates 12 hospitals and hundreds of clinics statewide, as well as educate the next generation of physicians, health professionals, and scientists at the U-M Medical School.
The health care group includes U-M Medical School and University of Michigan Health, which includes the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, University Hospital, the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion, Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan Health-West, University of Michigan Health-Sparrow, and the Rogel Cancer Center. The U-M Medical School is one of the nation’s biomedical research powerhouses, with total research awards of more than $800 million.
For more information, visit michiganmedicine.org.
