In the fast-changing world of healthcare, artificial intelligence is reshaping radiology. However, AI developers in this field face many challenges in teaching their algorithms due to the complexity and volume of medical images. To overcome these obstacles, high-quality, meticulously annotated data is essential. With over a decade of experience as a leading data annotation provider in medical AI, iMerit knows what is needed to create a high-quality data pipeline.
One of the biggest challenges in building radiology AI applications is the need for specialized tooling and insights from domain experts to deliver the training data that meets the required accuracy and precision.
To solve this, iMerit recently launched its Radiology Annotation Product Suite, which offers a purpose-built application designed to manage, protect, and structure data for radiology AI use cases.
This blog will delve into the iMerit Radiology Annotation Product Suite, a full array of solutions, including data sourcing, workflow design, state-of-the-art data annotation tooling, and human-in-the-loop expertise.
What is the iMerit Radiology Annotation Product Suite?
The iMerit Radiology Annotation Product Suite is built on top of the iMerit Ango Hub platform, an end-to-end enterprise-grade technology platform designed to deliver data annotation tools for AI teams. The combination of iMerit’s technology and radiology expertise provides seamless execution from training data to regulatory benchmarking.
The Radiology Annotation Product Suite delivers automation, annotation tools, and analytics into a single platform that enables accurate data pipelines for rapidly scaling radiology AI solutions into production. It combines:
- Advanced Tooling: Designed to solve scaling challenges in digital radiology through automation
- Platform: A single tool for sourcing, staffing, annotating, and validating machine learning models
- Expertise: Combines medical experts with secure data management, workflow customization, and annotation automation
“The central vision of our suite is to overcome the scaling challenges in digital radiology by bringing together the human expertise required for accuracy with a platform for secure data management and automation into a single solution.” Radha Basu, Founder and CEO, iMerit
Faster and Efficient Annotation with AI-assistance
The user interface and workflows of the platform are designed for medical imaging and its unique data annotation needs. Let us look at a few of the key features below:
3D Multiplanar Functionality with Crosshair:
Users can navigate studies in their most true radiologic representation with segmentations natively reflected in all planes. The crosshair allows you to gather your bearings in 3D space and to understand where your cursor is positioned relative to all views. It also allows you to synchronize all views to see the same pixel selected with the crosshair. It is also known as multiplanar translation.
By enabling a 3D toggle, you can see a 3D reconstruction of the annotations completed so far, which allows for the precision modeling of structures. You can rotate the view by simply dragging the mouse cursor and zooming in and out with the scroll wheel.
Smart Automation:
The platform incorporates intelligent automation tools, such as magnetic lasso and level tracing, which help accelerate the annotation process, making it more efficient. With Magnetic Lasso, users can achieve fast, pixel-perfect masks for an object or a region with context-aware and automation-assisted labeling.
Level Tracing allows autoselecting a group of voxels based on the Hounsfield units of the selected voxel with adjustable tolerance.
Model Integration:
One can use own or off-the-shelf models to generate automated annotations in the tool or as a part of the workflow. The platform allows easy integration of open or proprietary ML models and a library of plugins.
Custom Workflows:
Configurable workflows and robust task management tools organize your data pipeline for scale, ensure quality, and allow collaboration with ease. A Consensus stage helps present tasks to multiple annotators and have the task output in either Agreement or Disagreement, conditional on how much the annotators agree to it.
You can set up projects as complex as having multiple labeling and review tasks involving logical stages, filtering, random selection, plugins, webhooks, and more.
Real-time Collaboration:
Collaboration is facilitated through features like issue tracking and edge case flagging, making it easier for teams to work together efficiently. Users can have real-time conversations on issue threads, flag edge cases, mention people to be notified, and delete/resolve issues.
Data Formats:
The platform is compatible with various data formats commonly used in medical imaging, including Nifti, NRRD, DICOM, TIFF, and MP4, ensuring versatility in data handling.
Data Analytics:
Users can access dashboards to analyze their data pipelines, extract insights, and identify opportunities for streamlining processes, leading to improved efficiency and quality in medical image annotation.
End-to-end Radiology Annotation Support
Data Sourcing from iMerit’s Healthcare Provider Network
Our healthcare provider network grants you access to diverse medical imaging data, spanning ultrasound, CT, MRI, X-ray, mammography, and PET scans.
Regulatory Compliance
Our dedicated client teams meticulously source data, ensuring strict adherence to regulatory standards, thus guaranteeing the quality and integrity of the information provided.
Validation protocols at iMerit are designed to meet FDA requirements for testing and benchmarking models. Our commitment to regulatory compliance combines facilitating 510(k) FDA clearance through CFR 21 part 11 programmatic record-keeping and HIPAA-compliant processes, ensuring the integrity of your medical data and a successful path to regulatory approval.
Integration
Seamlessly incorporate new data into your workflows with our automatic annotator tasking, simplifying the process of expanding and enhancing your dataset. Whether you require high-volume data for robust model training or carefully curated data for validation protocols, iMerit offers both to support your healthcare analytics and AI initiatives.
Access iMerit’s Global Expert Workforce
The solution integrates U.S. and offshore experts, including board-certified radiologists, within a highly secure end-to-end platform for cost-effective scaling of annotation efforts, where experts and specialized medical annotators collaborate effectively.
It provides active project management, quality assurance, custom training for unique use cases, expert consultation to match task complexity to workflow, and access to iMerit’s global network, all overseen by dedicated U.S.-based medical experts.
Conclusion
With its robust toolset, seamless integration capabilities, and commitment to regulatory compliance, the iMerit Radiology Annotation Product Suite not only streamlines the path from data to deployment but also represents a powerful ally for those seeking to harness the full potential of AI in radiology. In this dynamic field, where precision and quality are paramount, iMerit ensures that every step forward is a step closer to transforming patient care and advancing medical diagnostics.
