CurveBeam AI Cast

Curvebeam’s Vinti Singh chats with Dr. Jarrett Cain of PennState Health’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, about his research on various diseases’ and disorders’ effects on the foot.

Dr. Jarrett Cain knows he’s in a unique position.

Doing research with an academic institution, he has access to a number of tools helping with imaging, so he can truly see what is happening with a patient’s foot.

That has helped him perform studies like the one he completed looking into diabetic foot, the hallux valgus deformity and why examining the contralateral side of the foot is important when developing patient-specific instrumentation.

“I’ve been fortunate to be in a university hospital setting, which allows me other different modalities from a research standpoint, so I can evaluate and further examine how the biomechanics are affecting the development of an ulceration and even Charcot disease, which is common in diabetics, (and how it is) affecting their biomechanics, as well,” he said. “(I’ve been able to) come up with different modalities to help preserve the limb and prevent any ulceration from leading to an amputation.”

While pedobarographic graphic data contributes, Cain also uses weight-bearing CT, utilizing those techniques in tandem to get a complete picture of a patient’s foot and the changes that will happen over time.

This may be a relatively new method, but Cain expects to see weight-bearing CT imaging become much more common in the near future.

“I believe that in the next few years it will be the standard of care,” he said. “There are a lot of different technologies that come out. However, this modality has been shown to be effective, and the published reports are supporting that claim.”

Some of that research is being produced by Cain himself and his colleagues, but it’s clear that many of the advances in technology that are helping salvage limbs have been aided by the images produced utilizing weight-bearing CT.

Vinti Singh is joined by Dr. Matthew Solan, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in foot and ankle disorders, to chat about how a mobile CBCT scanner

Doctors all over the world have been pressed into duty taking care of patients with respiratory issues during the COVID-19 crisis. But a deadly pandemic doesn’t mean they also get to press pause on other types of care.

While fractures and similar injuries have gone down with far fewer people playing sports and less drivers on the road causing traffic incidents, there’s still work to be done. For Dr. Matthew Solan, an orthopedic surgeon in the UK, that has meant adapting on the fly to make sure foot and ankle patients don’t get lost in the shuffle.

Solan and other doctors have utilized a mobile cone beam CT scanner to keep patients out of the main hospital but still get imaging that can help them determine next steps for those who have undergone operations or determine if someone has suffered a fracture. While it’s something they’ve used during a crisis, Dr. Solan said he’d love to see CBCT become common in emergency rooms.

“It’s certainly something I’ll carry forward in my practice after the emergency, and I hope the same will be true of weight-bearing CT, because it makes a big difference to how efficiently we can manage our patients,” Solan said. “There are lots of things we can learn from this experience, so, yes, I’m hopeful we can continue to use the service after COVID.

“I think in an absolutely ideal world, hospital emergency rooms would have cone beam CT as their first investigation. I’m sure the hospital I work in isn’t alone in having a steady stream of missed fractures that pass through the emergency room and are picked up subsequently.”

While weight-bearing CT is perfect for foot and ankle specialists, doctors also are finding wider uses for CBCT scanners beyond the lower extremities.

“The indications for cone beam CT are multiplying. Some of the latest machines scan knees, hips, and the spine, and there are upper-limb scanners as well,” Solan said. said. “We’re going to see cone beam CT really revolutionize orthopedic care. I think all orthopedic surgeons need to think about this and move toward using it as a way of improving care for their patients.”

Caroline van Heijkamp talks about T-Soles’ revolutionary approach to customized personal therapeutic insoles.

The Dutch may be famous for their wooden shoes, but with an estimated four million people in the Netherlands suffering from foot problems, there is a growing need for therapeutic insoles.

Caroline van Heijkamp, the CEO of T-Soles Insole Systems, created a solution for this problem. The T-Soles system is a personalized corrective insole designed through a 3D scan-and-print process.

Heijkamp’s goal is to provide a better insole product that is also less expensive, so the adoption and use rate will be higher.

“You can compare it to the number of people who wear glasses or contact lenses,” Heijkamp said. “Years ago, when glasses were costly, only the people who really needed them were willing to spend the money on glasses, but nowadays you can find glasses for a few Euros, and you see many more people wearing them. And you will see the same thing happen with insoles.”

The 3D CT scan process of the T-Soles system allows for an accurate picture of the foot for precise calculations to ensure the resulting insole will do its job correctly. And, with current systems, Heijkamp pointed out they don’t fully take into account the shoe worn with the insoles. With the T-Soles system, the foot scan takes place with the client wearing the shoe.

The T-Soles system is currently available in several regions, including Europe, the U.S., Canada, the Middle East and Asia. The software allowing the creation of therapeutic insoles for podiatrists should be available later this year.

Dr. Francois Lintz, an orthopedic foot and ankle senior consultant at UCP Toulouse in France, joined Voice of B2B Daniel Litwin to dive into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the French medical community and the world of orthopedics.

In France, the impact of the disease has been felt most in the Paris region, with measures including additional participation of doctors outside infectious disease specialties, the transfer of patients to other areas of the country, and more taking place.

Like many areas of healthcare, orthopedic treatment and surgery have taken a backseat to frontline efforts to fight back against the spread of the novel coronavirus.

However, this hasn’t coincided with a shortage of care – in fact, Lintz said, there’s less need for orthopedic procedures during this time.

“As for orthopedic surgeons like myself, most of us were prepared to go to war with the virus if it came to that,” he said. “But, in fact, because of confinement, people actually injure themselves less. They drive less, they do less sports – so we have fewer injuries, and hospitals have been able to cope with the level of trauma and injuries.”

Moving forward, the country, like the rest of the world, is looking for ways to get back to a new normal that will include a return to regular office visits, elective procedures and more.

Vinti Singh, CurveBeam’s director of marketing, hears from Stuti Singh, the company’s Director of R&D Strategy, about advancements being made in AI and how they could change the way some medical procedures are done forever.

Mention AI in a clinic, and many people’s minds go to the idea of robotic surgeons whirring along and making perfect cuts and calculations.

While that isn’t the reality of medical AI technology today, there are enormous advances being made in the field, with many of the world’s power players like Google and Amazon among those getting involved.

Yet, even with more and more products earning FDA approval, few of them are focusing on orthopedics, especially when looking at extremities.

CurveBeam stands out.

Stuti Singh, CurveBeam’s Director of R&D Strategy, said the company is utilizing machine learning and deep learning to revolutionize procedures performed on the foot and ankle.

“We're going from the surgeon having to read a series of slices where with pixels that represent a foot to having the computer know what it’s looking at before you even look at it,” she said. “That’s where I see AI transforming what we do here in orthopedics.”

With so many variations in the foot, it’s difficult to design automatic methods that will work in a diverse range of patients.

“Since there’s no simple formula that’s going to work well on all feet, we decided to use machine learning,” she said. “It’s really the perfect solution to this type of application because machine learning - and deep learning, specifically - functions like the human brain.”

Like a brain, the input signal goes through several layers, with processing occurring at each layer. Later, the output results as a function of all the information received from the input. Without understanding the foot thanks to a level of prior knowledge, the segmentation process being carried out wouldn’t function.

Singh and her team reviewed research and created a proprietary algorithm that could have wide-ranging applications.

“The possibilities are really endless,” she said. “Some of the immediate ones we’re interested in are applications we’ve already been working on before this project. For example, the TALAS measurement that measures the overall alignment of the foot in 3D. This is really revolutionary, because, before our weight-bearing CT scanners, this wasn’t possible to do in 3D. Having that done automatically, (you can) scan a patient and can immediately see, ‘This is your foot alignment.’”

With other measurements and a SyndesMetrics component, it’s clear the platform will have a wide variety of potential uses.

It’s not robots doing perfect surgery, but, with progressions like CurveBeam is making, orthopedics are certainly moving into the next era.

Garry Carneal discusses the benefits of accreditation in diagnostic imaging.

Garry Carneal, JD MA, is the President and CEO of RadSite, a CMS accrediting body for diagnostic imaging accreditation, medical management, and a healthcare policy expert.

Carneal helped develop more than 20 different accreditation programs for various healthcare specialties.

“There are different shapes and forms for accreditation. Part of my mission statement and value is to make sure Rad Site is efficiently and effectively doing an intervention to help an organization we’re accrediting get to the next level,” Carneal said.

Part of what Carneal calls "accreditation reimagined" consists of real-time measurement of imagining quality performance, leveraging AI and evaluating purchasing coalitions.

“The ultimate goal is to create a shared educational experience that is as effective as possible, but make sure imaging providers have the opportunity to get reimbursed for the services they provide and allow them to get back to their focus on population health," he said.

Carneal said he works in conjunction with a community of experts in the field to develop, maintain and update Cone Beam CT imaging standards. Once the standards for Cone Beam CT imaging roll out, Carneal said some refinements may occur.

AmpRecover CEO Dave Nichols and AmpRecover user Dr. Trevor Turner discuss how new digital health software can provide the best, most effective possible care.

Technology is changing the face of healthcare, especially in the sector of orthopedic rehabilitation. Amp Recover, a new software designed to connect patients, providers and healthcare organizations, has flipped the recovery process on its head.

Rehabilitation from orthopedic surgeries and injuries is normally a largely hands-off process where patients do most of the work independently from a practitioner. But Amp Recover aims to bridge that divide. Joining Curve Beam Connect is Dave Nichols, CEO of Amp Recover and Amp Recover user Dr. Trevor Turner, an orthopedic doctor with Georgia Bone & Joint. The two healthcare professionals discussed how the software may provide the patient with the best care possible.

Gone are the days of sending patients home with three-ring binders, Nichols said. Amp Recover fills the gap when patients leave the clinic to heal by engaging the patient with a gamified experience that invites the user on a journey to continued recovery.

Amp Recover adds additional value in the data it collects from the user, practitioners and healthcare institutions, be they part of a shared network or not. By culling recovery data, institutions can streamline their process, becoming more efficient over time and monitoring the efficacy of orthobiologic data.

The short-term value of Amp Recover is better patient-provider communication. The long-term value will be the data, a tool ultimately leading to providing the best possible care.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting millions worldwide. However, getting a comprehensive picture of the disease still escapes modern medicine.

Osteoarthritis’s causes, effects and severity are often missed with just an X-Ray or MRI. Today, CurveBeam Connect dives into the breaking research on Osteoarthritis imaging with guests Dr. Niel Segal and Dr. Tom Turmezei, founding members of the CT in Osteoarthritis Research group (OCTA).

Standard Osteoarthritis (OA) imaging in Europe and the USA involves radiography and sometimes an MRI. But Dr. Segal said X-rays are almost useless, with up to 80% of OA missed on radiograph images—”...by the time you see it," he said, "it’s too late to do anything about it.”

However, weight-bearing CT scans (WBCT) are useful in catching Osteoarthritis early. As Dr. Segal puts it, X-rays are the flip-phones of imaging, while CT scans are the smartphones offering a comprehensive and multi-faceted look at not just the bone, but the whole joint.

The goal of the OCTA is to explore the full capabilities of CT scans in context with OA and provide a network of doctors and data that can further OA research.

Dr. Segal explained how weight-bearing CT scans can detect things like cysts, meniscal extrusions, bone shape and space between the joint, features that radiography would have otherwise missed.

The implications of this knowledge are far-reaching, allowing for speedier research trials and the forecast of hip or knee replacements with accuracy.

To learn more about OCTA research and how to get involved, email [email protected].

Dr. Glenn Gaston explains how data, research, & analysis are changing the way hand, wrist & elbow injury methods are treated in pro sports.

How do professional athletes recover from sports injuries and what are the advancements in sports medicine that are making these recoveries faster, and better? On this episode of the Curvebeam Connect podcast, host Vinti Singh, Director of Marketing at Curvebeam, spoke with Dr. Glenn Gaston, hand surgeon with OrthoCarolina, and hand consultant for the Carolina Panthers and the Charlotte Hornets, about these issues, with a focus on hand and wrist injuries.

As a member of the NFL physician’s society, Dr. Gaston was able to share with Singh, how the NFL’s muscular skeletal committee operates, what it does, how it reviews player injury data, and how it works to find solutions for better player care, and faster injury recovery times.

The focus of the subcommittee’s work is broken into two parts; they look at common metacarpal fractures, hand injuries they see frequently in players, and then they look at injuries such as Scaphoid bone fractures, which are harder to detect, and if left untreated can cause permanent, long-term damage.

“Every single practice, every single game, every single injury to every single player is recorded,” Dr. Gaston said.

The committee looks at whether the injury took place on a Thursday or Sunday game, what type of turf the injury happened on, and weather conditions. A lot of considerations go into recognizing patterns and developing the right solutions and methods.

With this research, and the methods used to treat these professional sports athletes, often what gets developed for player injury recovery later becomes the standard used to treat regular injuries.

CurveBeam's Ryan Conlon is looking for critical thinkers & self-motivated candidates for their Regulatory Affairs Associate position near Philadelphia.

On this Jobcast episode CurveBeam Connect, we sat down with Pennsylvania-based Ryan Conlon who is looking for a self-motivated, detail-oriented candidate for the position of Regulatory Affairs Associate.

"The most important trait is someone with a little bit of creativity," Conlon said. "This role is going to require the associate to read and interpret the regulations or standards, and then use your critical thinking to determine how we're going to be in compliance with these regulations in a fashion that is minimally impactful to our product performance, company goals, and our timelines without ever compromising product or patient safety."

CurveBeam was founded in 2009 by a group of individuals with a proven track record in the advanced and compact 3D imaging device domain. They’re an energetic company that is innovating and leading the way in orthopedic 3D imaging on a worldwide scale.

Conlon shared insight into the company's culture, and answered our signature question -- If CurveBeam was a band, what band would it be -- with a timely reference to one of many hip-hop kings, Travis Scott.

Job basics:

Location: Hatfield, PennsylvaniaDays of the week: Monday - FridayTravel involved: Minimal, if anyEducational requirement: Bachelor's of Science in Engineering, Science, Regulatory, or a related discipline

If you’re looking for a place where you can work hard and better yourself in an energetic environment, check out Curvebeam job openings, podcasts, and education at CurveBeam.com.