Medicsight Plc (AIM: MDST), industry leader in the development of Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) and image analysis software which assists in the early detection and diagnosis of disease, announces that it has received approval from the Therapeutic Products Directorate (TPD) of Health Canada to market its MedicRead™ 3.0 Colon advanced 3D visualisation workstation, incorporating ColonCAD™ 4.0 software.

Previously, access to Medicsight’s ColonCAD has been available via a number of partner visualisation platforms. Now, as part of its ongoing commitment to radiologists and to improving the early detection of colorectal cancers, Medicsight has developed MedicRead 3.0 Colon, a competitively priced, stand-alone, CTC visualisation workstation that incorporates the latest version of Medicsight’s ColonCAD 4.0. To aid access to this latest software, Medicsight has made MedicRead 3.0 Colon available online, with a 30-day free trial version of the software available via the Medicsight website (1).

Allan Rowley, Chief Executive of Medicsight, commented: “Canada is one of the fastest growing multi-slice detector CT (MDCT) markets in the world. This approval will give Medicsight direct access to the radiology departments in many of the 450 hospitals and clinics across Canada and they can now benefit from the Company’s latest advances in CAD technology and CT image analysis software”.

This year an estimated 22,000 Canadians (12,100 men - 9,900 women) will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer (2). If diagnosed and treated in its early stages, colorectal cancer is highly treatable. Routine screening tests that detect polyps before they become cancerous can reduce the number of people who die of colorectal cancer by as much as 60% (3).

Medicsight recently also received medical device licenses from the Therapeutic Products Directorate of Health Canada for its MedicServer™ 1.1 application which includes Medicsight’s industry-leading ColonCAD™ 4.0 API and LungCAD™ 3.2 API software. MedicServer™ is a unique server-based Windows® application, which has been specifically designed to optimise workflow through centralised pre-processing of CT scan data.

Dr Tanya Chawla, Assistant Professor of Abdominal Imaging, Department of Imaging at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto commented: “The approval of MedicRead 3.0 Colon offers radiologists access to a cost effective CTC stand-alone workstation that incorporates the latest version of ColonCAD. This is exciting because it facilitates the performance of CT-colonography in radiology departments. It is also an invaluable teaching tool and may be used as a second reader in the appropriate setting.”

ColonCAD 4.0 marks a significant increase in performance from the previous version, displaying a 50% reduction in false positives without any significant loss in sensitivity (4). This significantly enhances the contribution CAD can make to workflow in busy radiology departments, compared with earlier versions.

Early detection of polyps can significantly improve chances of preventing disease progression and Medicsight’s CAD technology analyses CT scan data and automatically highlights potential lesions for the radiologist to review. These lesions could be the early precursors of potential life-threatening disease.

References

1. Subject to local regulatory approval.

2. Statistics Canada (www.statcan.gc.ca).

3. Smith RA, Mettlin CJ, Eyre H. 31. Cancer Screening and Early Detection. In:D.W.Kufe et al., eds. Cancer Medicine. 6 ed. Hamilton, London: BC Decker Inc, 2003

4. Data on file Medicsight PLC 2009.

For further information:

Medicsight PLC
www.medicsight.com
Allan Rowley
+44 (0)20 7605 7950

Daniel Stewart & Company PLC
Simon Leathers / Charlotte Stranner
+44 (0) 20 7776 6550

Media enquiries:

Abchurch Communications
+44 (0) 20 7398 7700
Heather Salmond / Stephanie Cuthbert / Simone Alves
+44 (0) 20 7398 7718
stephanie.cuthbert@abchurch-group.com
www.abchurch-group.com

Notes to editors
Medicsight PLC is a UK-headquartered, research driven, leading developer of computer-aided detection (CAD) and image analysis software for the medical imaging market. The CAD software automatically highlights suspicious areas on computerised tomography (CT) scans of the colon and lung, helping radiologists to identify, measure and analyse potential disease and early indicators of disease. Medicsight’s CAD software has been validated using one of the world’s largest and most population diverse databases of verified patient CT scan data. Medicsight’s ColonCAD™ and LungCAD™ software products are seamlessly integrated with the advanced 3D visualisation workstations of several industry-leading imaging equipment partners.

About Computer-Aided Detection
With increasingly sophisticated radiological imaging hardware such as Multi-Detector CT scanners, radiologists are facing a growing challenge in the amount of detailed patient image data that they must review for each patient examination. Some CT scan examinations generate as many as 1000 images per patient. Review of this data by the radiologist is not only time-consuming but also prone to error due to reader fatigue. CAD software can help the reviewing radiologist by analysing the image data and automatically highlighting suspicious regions of interest for closer inspection. Without CAD software some potential abnormalities or areas of disease may be overlooked. This is critical for diagnosis and the management of patient outcomes as early detection of disease greatly increases the probability of successful treatment and a positive therapeutic outcome.

About Medicsight's CAD software
Medicsight's ColonCAD™ and LungCAD™ software use an advanced CAD algorithm to analyse CT scans of the colon and lung and automatically highlight suspicious areas that may be indicators of disease. CAD may highlight areas easily overlooked by the reviewing radiologist, such as small lesions or regions that are hidden from view behind folds in the colon or normal structures and surrounding tissue in the lung.

Both CAD products seamlessly integrate with the advanced 3D visualisation platforms of industry-leading imaging equipment partners. The integrated systems provide sophisticated image viewing capabilities, including 3D reconstructed image data, with the added advantage of demonstrating automatic CAD findings to assist clinical end users in the detection and analysis of disease. This allows clinical end users to perform either a 'second read', where CAD findings are displayed to the user after completion of an initial review of the CT scan data, or a 'concurrent read' where CAD findings are displayed during the user's initial review of the original CT scan images.

Since inception, Medicsight has developed close and lasting relationships with some of the world's foremost clinicians in product related areas. This provides the Company with a wealth of clinical expertise and dedicated clinical research to support ongoing product development. Medicsight also collaborates with a number of leading academic institutions and clinical research programmes worldwide to develop the Company's comprehensive database of population diverse verified patient CT scan data, thus allowing Medicsight's products to be validated to the highest possible standards.