CHICAGO, Ill. -- By Lee Han-soo/Korea Biomedical correspondent – At Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2024 in Chicago's McCormick Place, currently ongoing from Sunday to Thursday, Coreline Soft is demonstrating how its AI-powered medical imaging solutions are transforming diagnosis workflows across U.S. hospitals, with successful implementations at Temple Lung Center and UMass Memorial Medical Center showcasing the company's ability to detect multiple conditions from a single CT scan.

The Korean medical AI company's expansion in North America reflects a growing shift toward comprehensive imaging analysis solutions that integrate seamlessly into clinical practice.

Korea Biomedical Review met with Lee Jae-hun, Chief Operating Officer of Coreline North America, where Lee shared a clear vision for the company's AI-powered medical imaging solutions in the North American market, which is to revolutionize how hospitals detect and manage multiple conditions from a single CT scan. Coreline North America is the U.S. subsidiary of Coreline Soft.

"Our strength lies in not just having a single solution for nodule detection, but having multiple FDA-cleared products that can analyze everything visible in a chest CT scan," Lee explained during an interview. "When a patient gets one chest CT scan, our three software solutions – AVIEW LCS (for detecting lung nodules), AVIEW CAC (for coronary calcium scoring), and AVIEW COPD (for quantifying emphysema) - all at once."

This comprehensive approach is gaining significant traction in U.S. healthcare institutions. Temple Lung Center recently became the first pulmonologist-led facility to adopt three of Coreline's solutions simultaneously - a milestone Lee considers especially significant for the company's expansion in North America.

"Most of our customers have traditionally been radiologists, but Temple represents our first sale to pulmonologists,” Lee noted. “They're using our solutions not just for reading scans, but for actually treating patients.”

The hospital is combining their traditional respiratory assessment methods with AI-analyzed CT imaging to provide better patient care, Lee added.

Temple's implementation is part of their innovative Temple Healthy Chest Initiative (THCI), a program designed to expand beyond traditional lung cancer screening.

"The program aims to identify and follow up on concurrent conditions detected during lung cancer screening," Lee said. "When our AI detects findings like coronary calcium or emphysema, nurse practitioners and navigators ensure proper follow-up, whether that's referring patients to a pulmonologist or cardiologist."

Lee also mentioned its collaboration with UMass Memorial Medical Center, which also implemented Coreline's triple-solution package -- AVIEW LCS, AVIEW CAC, and AVIEW COPD -- approaching it from a radiologist-centered perspective.

"UMass particularly values our viewer functionality," Lee said. "They appreciate how easily radiologists can modify AI findings when needed, which significantly streamlines their workflow."

The company's technology stands out for its advanced 3D visualization capabilities, developed before the AI boom.

"Our viewer allows doctors to not only see AI detection results but also easily modify them if needed," Lee said. "As AI currently is not yet 100 percent accurate, the ability to quickly and efficiently edit results in our viewer saves physicians time and ultimately improves patient care quality."

During the interview, Lee put an emphasis on Coreline's focus on "actionable incidental findings" - detecting additional conditions beyond the original reason for the CT scan.

At Temple, this approach has already shown promising results. In just one month of analyzing historical CT scans, Temple Lung Center identified dozens of patients with previously undiagnosed coronary artery calcium during the analysis of historical CT scans.

This creates opportunities for early intervention and potentially better patient outcomes, he added.

Lee stressed that the company’s ability to detect actionable incidental findings has led the company to actively seek cooperation with pharmaceutical and biotech companies to expand the clinical utility of their findings.

"Finding something is meaningful only if you can take action on it," Lee explained. "We're looking to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to help identify patients who might benefit from new treatments, especially for conditions like COPD.”

The company’s AI tools could also assist in clinical trials by helping with patient selection and monitoring treatment effectiveness, he added.

Looking ahead, Lee aims to shift Coreline's revenue base from predominantly domestic Korean sales to international markets.

"Our ultimate goal is to establish North America as our primary overseas market, targeting over 50 percent of international revenue within the next few years," Lee said. "We're also expanding our product pipeline with innovations like AI technology that can detect incidental pulmonary nodules in cardiac CT scans, demonstrating our commitment to comprehensive diagnostic solutions."

Research collaboration and future growth

The momentum of Coreline Soft's AI solutions in the U.S. market extends beyond clinical applications into the research domain.

"We're seeing increasing interest from leading U.S. researchers who want to use our technology for clinical studies," Lee said. "Our solutions can quantify numerous features from CT images that would be extremely time-consuming to measure manually.”

The company wants to position itself as an essential tool for advancing medical research, Lee added.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of medical imaging technology, Lee sees Coreline Soft's comprehensive approach as a key advantage for U.S. healthcare institutions.

"Hospitals don't want to deal with multiple vendors, each requiring separate security assessments and legal reviews,” Lee said. ”By offering multiple solutions through a single platform, we can provide more value while simplifying the adoption process for healthcare providers."

The success at institutions like Temple Lung Center and UMass Memorial Medical Center represents what Lee hopes to establish a broader trend in U.S. healthcare -- the adoption of comprehensive AI imaging solutions that can detect multiple conditions from a single scan, potentially transforming both routine screenings and clinical research in the process.

"These early implementations show how our technology can enhance both clinical care and research capabilities," Lee concluded. "As we continue to expand in the U.S. market, we're focused on developing partnerships that can help translate these technological capabilities into better patient outcomes."