University of Wisconsin-Madison and Qaelum NV finalize a collaborative partnership agreement

University of Wisconsin-Madison and Qaelum NV finalize a collaborative partnership agreement to distribute a novel algorithm to track the repeated scans in CT studies and help medical imaging departments increase both patient safety and efficiency

Madison, Wisconsin USA / Leuven, Belgium – March 1, 2022

Qaelum NV announces today that they have entered into a licensing agreement with the intellectual property agency Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), a nonprofit foundation associated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to distribute and further develop their novel repeat metric for CT studies.

Superfluous repeated scans in CT examinations are an often-overlooked cause for increased radiation dose, hence increasing the risks for patients. Also, it has an adverse effect on the efficiency of the department, and it increases the waste in iodine contrast. With this state-of-the-art algorithm, CT studies are automatically analyzed for these unjustified scans. Actionable insights are presented and end-users can start improvement trajectories from within the solution. This new product will help to increase patient safety, better manage efficiency and reduce overall costs.

Automatically analyze CT studies for unjustified repeated scans, directly integrated in the existing PACS environment

With this collaborative partnership, Qaelum NV will bring the research that has been conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison to the global market. This vendor-neutral solution needs only a limited time investment of the local IT department and can run both in an on-premise or cloud-based version.

“This new repeat rate metric is what you need in a radiology quality metric. It provides actionable advice, that we can directly link to money lost due to wasted contrast agent and scanner time. It identifies the operators, the scanner, and the protocols where problems exist, making targeted intervention easy for managers.” says Professor Tim Szczykutowicz, inventor of the repeat metric and Associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison. “I think for Qaelum NV, it will be a great tool to allow them as a company to further solidify their offerings of productivity analysis tools; they are not just another dose monitoring company.”

“It is a pleasure to start this collaboration with Professor Tim Szczykutowicz and his team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.” says Jurgen Jacobs, CEO and co-founder of Qaelum NV. “Implementing this novel, vendor-neutral repeat metric helps organizations find the unjustified repeated parts of CT studies. Such a matric, is an integral part of our long-term strategy to increase patient safety and efficiency in medical imaging environments.”

“WARF is pleased to partner with Qaelum NV on this bringing this cutting-edge technology to the market,” says Jeanine Burmania, WARF’s Senior Director of Intellectual Property and Licensing.  “The partnership is sure to enhance patient safety and efficiencies.”

What is CT repeat by Qaelum?

The vendor-neutral CT repeat analysis software monitors how CT scans are performed in practice. Based on an algorithm originally developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it identifies unnecessarily repeated scans and highlights the protocols that require intervention. Its advanced analytics provide direct insights into the costs and the overall impact on the efficiency of the department with the goal of continuous quality improvement.

Why CT repeat by Qaelum?

The CT repeat analysis module is based on technology originally developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It identifies protocols that contain scans that are often repeated, while differentiating between clinically relevant repeated scans and superfluous ones. Recent publications show that this is a hidden and often overlooked problem in hospitals that should be addressed. Numerical results indicate that medical imaging departments have resources loss due to this, while the patients get additional radiation dose and potentially contrast dose, which add uncontrolled risks and compromise the exam safety. The CT repeat software is the ideal solution to assess how CT rooms operate, assess the financial and other liabilities due to unnecessarily repeated scans and achieve productivity gains and optimal performance.

About Qaelum NV

Qaelum NV is a Leuven, Belgium-based medical software solutions provider advocating patient safety and quality improvement in medical imaging environments. Begun as an academic project at the University Hospitals of Leuven, it is now the preferred choice for leading European institutions. Qaelum’s mission is to help various social healthcare stakeholders, from patients and healthcare professionals to regulators, in creating patient safe and optimized medical imaging environments. Qaelum does this by developing and implementing user-friendly and state of the art software solutions extensively validated by key opinion leaders in the field. www.qaelum.com

About the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Since its founding in 1848, the University of Wisconsin campus has been a catalyst for the extraordinary. As a public land-grant university and prolific research institution, its students, staff, and faculty members partake in a world-class education and solve real-world problems. Innovations specific to the radiology and medical physics space include digital subtraction angiography, TomoTherapy, multiple commercialized solutions in MRA, and  Neuwave Medical.  https://www.wisc.edu/

About WARF

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) helps steward the cycle of research, discovery, commercialization and investment for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Founded in 1925 as an independent, nonprofit foundation, WARF manages more than 2,000 patents and an investment portfolio as it funds university research, obtains patents for campus discoveries and licenses inventions to industry. WARF is home to WARF Accelerator advancing promising university technologies, WARF Therapeutics combining world-renowned research and an industry-focused approach to improve value propositions of drug candidates and WARF Ventures which actively invests in startups with UW-Madison technology over two decades.  For more information, visit warf.org and view WARF’s Cycle of Innovation