Barco, UPenn team on $2.5M grant for virtual clinical trials research

Barco has partnered with researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania to develop an integrated system to perform virtual clinical trials of breast cancer screening technology.

Funded with a four-year, $2.5 million grant by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Cancer Institute, this NIH Academic-Industrial Partnership is designed to support an academic-industry alliance which combines technology innovation with expertise in the process required to develop an invention as a practical, potentially marketable product.

Virtual clinical trials can be used to test innovations in technology earlier and thus accelerate product development, Duluth, Ga.-based Barco said.

Barco and the academic researchers plan to build upon computational breast anatomy models, medical device simulations and complex display observer models in their development of the virtual clinical trial system.

“As the pace of medical device development increases and as medical devices become more complex, one is faced with the quandary of increasing the pace of expensive clinical trials or finding effective and safe alternatives to some clinical trials,” said Andrew Maidment, PhD, associate professor of radiology and physics section chief at the Perelman School of Medicine, in a statement.

According to researchers, virtual clinical trials offer a precursor to human clinical trials, providing insight into clinical performance to enable optimum targeting of the most promising devices for human testing.

Around the web

The American College of Cardiology has shared its perspective on new CMS payment policies, highlighting revenue concerns while providing key details for cardiologists and other cardiology professionals. 

As debate simmers over how best to regulate AI, experts continue to offer guidance on where to start, how to proceed and what to emphasize. A new resource models its recommendations on what its authors call the “SETO Loop.”

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, said the clinical community needs to combat health misinformation at a grassroots level. He warned that patients are immersed in a "sea of misinformation without a compass."

Trimed Popup
Trimed Popup