Copenhagen, February 25, 2010
Intellix and the Icelandic corporation IceMedix started their partnership in May 2008. The Osteoporosis Auto-clinical decision making platform is the first product to come out of this partnership. According to IceMedix CEO, Dr. Björn Rúnar Lúðvíksson, it is believed that interactive artificial intelligence complex support systems will become important guiding tools for health care providers towards improved and cost-effective decision-making. “Without Intellix significant contribution and its outstanding artificial intelligence software this achievement would have been near impossible” Dr. Lúðvíksson stated.
The system consists of two parts. A risk assessment system for osteoporosis related fracture, to be used by everyone interested in their personal risk profile regarding fragility fracture. Furthermore, the system also includes diagnostic tool which evaluates risk factors and bone density to ensure diagnosis and recommends preventive measurements and/or bone protective treatment in selected cases. The latter system is meant for use by physicians serving patients with osteoporosis and/or medical technicians running bone density measurements units such as DEXA-units.
Dr Björn Gudbjörnsson, Chairman of the Icelandic Osteoporosis Society - Beinvernd is the driving force and osteoporosis expert behind the system. He says: ”This system may save the general physicians two out of three consultations involved in osteoporosis, and thereby reduce the waiting time for Bone Mineral Density (BMD) scanning in Europe, where the waiting time in many countries are several weeks and up to months. The benefits for the patients are important as they receive a diagnosis and can start treatment according to evidence based praxis, if applicable, instantaneously".
Osteoporosis is a major concern for society and is looked upon as a high priority disease where it only in the US is a major health threat to 44 million people and causes more than 1.5 million fractures annually. Based on figures from hospitals and nursing homes, the estimated direct expenditures for osteoporosis and related fractures total $14 billion each year in the US. The National Osteoporosis Foundation in the USA reported that by the year of 2010, about 12 million people over the age of 50 are expected to have osteoporosis and another 40 million to have low bone mass. By 2020, it is expected to increase to 14 million cases of osteoporosis and over 47 million cases of low bone mass. This increase in cases could cause the number of hip fractures to double or triple by 2040. Thus, with the aide of the osteoporosis advisor correct and timely interventions could reduce the number of fragility fractures by 30 – 50% within three years for the cohort.
Intellix CEO, Per Schmidt comments: “We are extremely pleased to work with Dr. Gudbjörnsson in developing this Clinical Decision Tool for the diagnosis and treatment recommendation for Osteoporosis. Intellix have automated decisions in the financial sector and in the process industry for years and have known for long that health care is a obvious area for knowledge automation, but it is not until our cooperation started with Icelandic Professors Ludviksson and Gudbjörnsson that we have increased focus on the health care sector and this is expected to be a major area for Intellix in the future. This is the first Tool in a series of Tools that Intellix is going to develop together with IceMedix with its reward winning software Intellix Designer to cover major disease areas like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and other major diseases. Together with IceMedix unique data gathering approach and Intellix Designer Software makes it easy to capture the best available international knowledge and behaviour from the leading experts in the field, thus enabling that best clinical decisions are made consistently and instantly, ultimately leading to decreased costs for society and increased quality of life for patients”.
For further information please contact:
Christian Liisberg, Chief Knowledge Director, Intellix
cli@intellix.com
Björn Gudbjörnsson, MD, PhD
Associate professor of Rheumatology Research
Centre for Rheumatology Research
University Hospital - Landspitali - Iceland, IceMedix
bjorngu@landspitali.is
Björn Rúnar Ludviksson, Prof., M.D., Ph.D.
University Hospital - Landspitali - Iceland, IceMedix
bjornlud@landspitali.is