Baystate Health and Life Image Announce Strategic Partnership to Develop AI Innovations to Improve Treatment Decisions and Match Cancer Patients to Clinical Trials

BOSTON & SPRINGFIELD, MA, UNITED STATES - Nov 12, 2019 -  

Baystate Health, the premier integrated health system serving more than 800,000 patients in western New England, announced a strategic partnership with Life Image, the largest medical evidence network providing access to points of care and curated clinical and imaging data, to develop novel artificial intelligence tools that would help advance technical innovations in radiology, neurology and oncology.

Specifically, TechSpring, the innovation arm for Baystate, will work closely with Life Image to evaluate a number of AI solutions including those that promise to improve speed and accuracy in diagnosing blood clots in stroke patients; improve clinical pathways for physicians treating or diagnosing a patient by finding and comparing clinical criteria against a group of de-identified patients with similar clinical characteristics; and identify potential patient matches to oncology clinical trials in order to advance cancer research as well as give western New England residents better access to potentially life-saving treatments.

Baystate and Life Image began working together 10 years ago when the health system became one of the company’s first customers. Life Image created the image exchange category when it developed solutions more than a decade ago to help solve the many technical and structural barriers that prevented the seamless exchange of medical images.

With its beginnings in image exchange, Life Image is now a global medical evidence network that offers ‘living’ datasets of novel imaging data that’s linkable to other clinical information and provides network access to points-of-care to enable improved care delivery, novel research and innovation.

Baystate has been a healthcare innovator since 1873 when it first established the modern American hospital in Springfield, which was one of only 178 acute care hospitals in the country. Baystate has played an important role in the evolution of the healthcare industry by advancing leading-edge methods such as fast-track cardiac, chronic care, homeopathic medicine and educational innovation for physicians and nurses.

“Baystate Health and TechSpring are excited to partner with Life Image on the next generation of healthcare technology with AI initiatives that have targeted use cases with high clinical utility and value,” said Richard Hicks, MD, Department Chair of Radiology at Baystate. “For example, by understanding how similar patients may have been diagnosed or treated can help improve accuracy and, ultimately, patient outcomes.”

Baystate launched TechSpring five years ago to accelerate innovation in healthcare informatics and technology in order to solve the challenges of healthcare. TechSpring provides technology companies access to a real, live health system using a proven process and platform to test and validate digital health solutions.

“TechSpring has tackled a variety of challenges for Baystate, from transitions in care to operational efficiencies. This is a big, bold next step into the world of AI,” said Joel Vengco, Vice President, Chief Information Officer and TechSpring Founder. “Baystate is a living lab to pursue those big ideas, learn quickly and eventually share with the wider market.”

“Life Image enables creative collaborations outside of healthcare’s traditional silos through use of its leading technical capabilities and unmatched evidence-based network,” said Matthew A. Michela, President and CEO of Life Image. “This partnership with Baystate and TechSpring will facilitate new breakthrough technologies that work in the real healthcare world, specifically in the practice setting where patients and clinicians interact.” 

Accenture analyzed key clinical health AI applications and found that they can potentially create $150 billion in annual savings in the United States by 2026. A McKinsey report found that a potential for healthcare AI to deliver between $350 billion and $410 billion in annual value by 2025.

About Baystate Health

Baystate Health is a not-for-profit healthcare organization serving over 800,000 people throughout western New England. Services include an academic medical center, community hospitals, medical practices, homecare and hospice, regional reference lab, and the insurer Health New England. As part of a state-wide $1 billion healthcare innovation initiative in Massachusetts, Baystate Health launched an innovation and adoption accelerator, TechSpring, to match private enterprise with partners to take on some of healthcare’s most difficult challenges. Visit baystatehealth.org.

About TechSpring, the Baystate Health Technology Innovation Center

TechSpring is a technology innovation organization that, with direct connection to Baystate Health, a large integrated health system, provides leading technology companies with access to real healthcare resources and a representative community to test, prove, and accelerate their innovative solutions. The TechSpring Insights program connects innovators directly to users and other sources critical to drive and validate product development and adoption and to go to market with a competitive advantage. Visit: techspringhealth.org.

About Life Image

Life Image is the largest global evidence network specializing in ‘living’ data sets of novel imaging that’s linkable to a variety of clinical information, which provides insights and answers for physicians, patients, researchers, and healthcare innovators. Founded in 2008, the company supports clinical workflows for a large majority of academic medical centers, connecting 10,000 facilities with more than 150,000 U.S. providers and 58,000 global clinics. Life Image provides medical data and network access for an interoperable ecosystem of hospitals, physicians, patients, pharmaceuticals, medical device, and telehealth organizations in a technical ecosystem of interconnected EHRs, PACS, AI solutions, cloud environments, and visualization analytics platforms. Visit: www.lifeimage.com.

Media Contact

Ashley Owen
Aria Marketing for Life Image
(617) 332-9999 x216
aowen@ariamarketing.com