News

Medmain Inc. a Japanese health tech startup has launched its service “PidPort, a platform service for pathological image diagnosis, which includes Deep Learning driven pathological analysis*. 

*The “pathological analysis” function is available for use in selected countries.

▶ Worldwide pathologist shortage

“Pathologists” are physicians who specialize in the study of body tissue to see if it is normal or abnormal. They identify diseases by examining cells and tissues under a microscope.Pathologists play important roles in the medical field since most of medical decisions rely on Pathology.

Although globally, there is a chronic shortage of pathologists and is getting more serious. In some countries, it even takes for a few months for patients to receive pathological diagnostic results.

This is why expectations on computational pathology techniques based on AI has been in more demand than ever before.

▶About our service “PidPort”

We developed the service”PidPort”. It is a platform service for pathological image diagnosis, which includes Deep Learning driven immediate pathological analysis. 

PidPort has been designed to be used with ease for healthcare professionals and pathologists. As long as there is Internet connection, our cloud service can be accessed any time, without any initial fee such as the introduction of equipments. 

Additionally, by concurrently utilizing our pathology specimen slide digitization service (Medmain Imaging Center), we provide a total digital pathology solution from specimen slide digitization to storage to diagnosis.

We have already developed AI screening models for histopathological evaluation to differentiate among malignant epithelial tumor,benign epithelial tumor, and non-neoplastic lesions in stomach, colon, and breast specimens, and to differentiate among malignant epithelial tumor and  non-neoplastic lesions in lungs as well as cytopathological evaluation to determine neoplastic cells in uterine cervix and urine cytology specimens. We will continue developing AI models on other organs and tissues.

We hope this will assist and alleviate medical practitioners’ harsh daily workflow. By leveraging the power of technology, we aim to create a society where everyone can attain immediate high standard pathological diagnosis. 

In other countries(out of Japan) : AI analysis, Telepathology, Cloud storage service(this may not be available for use in some countries)

In Japan: Telepathology, cloud storage, digitization of glass specimen. We are now under preparation for launching AI analysis function in Japan )

(* As of now, these functions below are available

【Awards】

【Our Paper published】

Nature Research “Scientific Reports”

Deep learning models for histopathological classification of gastric and colonic epithelial tumors

• Link：https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58467-9
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-58467-9
• PubMedLink：https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32001752
  

Medmain’s founder, Osamu Iizuka, has an experience of being hospitalized for a kidney problem when he was 18 years old. This experience motivated him to study medicine and choose to attend medical school. After entering medical school, he stepped into the world of programming at a laboratory he was involved with. He then became absorbed into coding with his friends in order to create useful software in the medical field.
Later, he came up with the realization and idea that technology has the possibility to change health care and medicine.

For most cancer cases, final diagnoses are usually dependent on pathology reports. On top of that, because of the shortage of pathologists, some hospitals have only one pathologist who is responsible for all diagnoses, which is huge burden to those pathologists.

In addition to the shortage of pathologists overseas, as there are still large differences in the level of diagnosis and technology among regions,  there is a need to elevate and equalize the level of medical care provided.

Thus, “PidPort” was developed to create a better medical environment for both healthcare professionals and patients, such as “reducing the workload of healthcare professionals” and “elevating and equalizing the level of global pathology diagnosis” in pathological diagnosis. The alpha version, which was released prior to the official version, has been used in test operations and trials in over 50 medical facilities, including universities and medical institutions in both Japan and overseas, and the product version of it, which we just launched has been highly anticipated by medical professionals worldwide.

• Medmain Official Website　https://en.medmain.com/
• PidPort website https://pidport.medmain.com/en/
• Imaging Center Website https://imaging.medmain.com/
• Official Facebook Page　https://www.facebook.com/medmain.net/

【Press Inquiries】

Naoko Kajio(Ms.) Corporate Growth, Medmain Inc.

pr-m@medmain.com