PharmiWeb.com - Global Pharma News & Resources
23-Nov-2021

AI gut-imaging software takes on the US with FDA clearance and national hospital partnership



  • Motilent’s clinically-validated AI software has received 510k clearance from the US FDA
  • Currently, 62 million people in the US are diagnosed with a digestive disorder annually, causing an ever-growing burden on healthcare services globally
  • Almost $136BN is spent on GI therapies annually but some drugs, e.g. those used in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, have a 60% failure rate within 1 year. It can take months or years to confirm if a therapy is no longer working for a patient.
  • New collaboration with AI-powered solutions provider Nuance Communications will allow US healthcare clinics using innovative GIQuant software to accurately measure intestinal motility and treatment response using AI medical image analysis

 

LONDON, UK. 23/11/21:  Today, Motilent, the first company to specialize in the assessment of digestive diseases using AI medical image analysis, announces FDA 510K clearance in the USA. The rollout of this technology will be in partnership with Nuance AI solutions.

 

Launched in 2013 by King’s College London and University College London (UCL) alumnus Dr. Alex Menys, Motilent was created to support the 62 million people1 affected by digestive diseases in the US, and ultimately help get patients on the right treatment more quickly.

 

The post-processing software, GIQuant, already used in UK institutions including Great Ormond Street Hospital, works alongside standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to measure and track movement of the intestine. This measure of intestinal movement, known as ‘motility’, is often affected by gastrointestinal (GI) disease activity, and thus provides insights into disease progression. 

 

Spotting treatment failure in Crohn's Disease: With an initial focus on Crohn’s disease, GIQuant aids physicians in advanced image assessment: providing data led insights to monitor therapeutic response and allow for more informed clinical treatment decisions. This extra layer of objective data - collected non-invasively - can help physicians take patients off ineffective therapies faster, and speeds up patient treatment journeys. 

 

The new FDA 510k clearance [search K211356] gives Motilent the greenlight to deploy GIQuant across healthcare providers in the US. Supporting the move into the US healthcare market, the company has also announced a new partnership with AI patient-care software provider Nuance. 

 

Used by 90% of hospitals, 10,000 healthcare organizations worldwide,  and 80% of US radiologists, Nuance’s AI‑powered solutions capture 300 million patient journeys each year and apply real-time intelligence to support clinical decision-making. Collaborating with Nuance, GIQuant will equip clinicians, radiologists and care teams with new motility data and a suite of actionable insights to help monitor, understand, and ultimately improve clinical quality and patient safety. 

 

Motilent CEO Alex Menys comments: “For me, the digestive tract has always been an enigmatic but crucial system that influences how we feel, what we think and often how we act. Across a range of diseases, symptoms like abdominal pain, constipation and nausea cause a huge amount of distress and impact on quality of life. To date, our options for analysing the gut have been limited – hindering basic research, drug development and ultimately effective patient treatment. With FDA clearance, our first product GIQuant can be used in combination with routine MRI to easily evaluate gastrointestinal function. I'm hugely proud of the Motilent team and excited by the potential this technology has to improve the management of digestive disease.”

 

Peter Ellis, Chairman of Motilent says: "FDA clearance is an important step for Motilent as we move to the US market. Through our partnership with Nuance, and via our own direct sales capabilities, we will have extensive market access, ensuring more US patients have access to Motilent’s technology. This is an incredibly exciting milestone for us on our mission to get every patient with digestive disease on the right treatment, at the right time."

 

To mark their launch in the US, Motilent will be exhibiting for the first time at RSNA 2021, the Radiological Society of North America’s annual conference, taking place 28th November-1st December 2021. The team will showcase their technologies (booth 5158) and discuss GIQuant in real world settings, including initial experiences and findings from a year's use at Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

 

To find out more about Motilent, please visit: https://www.motilent.co.uk/ 

 

- ENDS -

Notes to editors:

 

Motilent will be exhibiting at RSNA 2021 (28th November-1st December), at booth 5158.

Please arrange a meeting, or one-to-one demo, with the team using this link: https://calendly.com/motilent/1-to-1-demo-at-rsna-2021?month=2021-11

 

For further information, please contact:

Belle Taylor | belle@somx.co.uk | +447494406914

 

  • Alex Menys, Motilent CEO, is available for comment. Please email Belle Taylor (above) to arrange.

About Motilent

Motilent is a technology startup on a mission to change the way we see the gut. Specializing in the assessment of digestive diseases using medical image analysis, their main focus areas include Crohn’s Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Gastroparesis. Motilent’s first product GIQuant aims to help clinicians to identify earlier when patients stop responding to immunotherapy.

AI gut-imaging software takes on the US with FDA clearance and national hospital partnership

Editor Details

Related Links

Last Updated: 10-Dec-2021