By Sam Marie Engle
Dr. Valeria Makeeva isn’t afraid of sharks. Not the judging kind, anyway. The fourth-year diagnostic radiology resident jumped into the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research’s Sixth Annual Imaging Shark Tank competition last February, and on November 29, climbed out the winner.
Co-collaborator and faculty mentor Dr. Peter Harri, associate professor, joined her onstage at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting, #RSNA2021 for the pitch to a five-member panel. Dr. Nabile Safdar, professor and vice chair for imaging informatics, could not join the team in Chicago, IL but actively participated in all the other steps that led up to the win.
What did they pitch? SHIELD, a fully automated, vendor-neutral follow-up tracking and reminder software that captures results that matter.
“It’s groundbreaking,” Dr. Makeeva says proudly.
“Every radiology report contains so much information but it’s a black box of data. This technology can give us information about how many findings get referred and how many turn out to be cancer or something else that needs follow-up care,” Dr. Makeeva explains. “It’s applicable to all body systems for both men and women.”
Research shows 10-30% of imaging studies have indications that should trigger follow-up, but, anywhere from 10-60% don’t get that follow-up. That has profound implications for both patients and healthcare systems.
“If we followed up incidental findings, we could detect cancer much sooner, when it’s more treatable and save more lives,” says Dr. Makeeva. The benefits are financial, too, she says bluntly. “The average cost per patient for late-stage cancer to an insurance provider is about $200,000, while an imaging study costs about $300.”
Dr. Valeria Makeeva isn’t afraid of sharks. Not the judging kind, anyway. The fourth-year diagnostic radiology resident jumped into the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research’s Sixth Annual Imaging Shark Tank competition last February, and on November 29, climbed out the winner.
Co-collaborator and faculty mentor Dr. Peter Harri, associate professor, joined her onstage at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting, #RSNA2021 for the pitch to a five-member panel. Dr. Nabile Safdar, professor and vice chair for imaging informatics, could not join the team in Chicago, IL but actively participated in all the other steps that led up to the win.
What did they pitch? SHIELD, a fully automated, vendor-neutral follow-up tracking and reminder software that captures results that matter.
“It’s groundbreaking,” Dr. Makeeva says proudly.
“Every radiology report contains so much information but it’s a black box of data. This technology can give us information about how many findings get referred and how many turn out to be cancer or something else that needs follow-up care,” Dr. Makeeva explains. “It’s applicable to all body systems for both men and women.”
Research shows 10-30% of imaging studies have indications that should trigger follow-up, but, anywhere from 10-60% don’t get that follow-up. That has profound implications for both patients and healthcare systems.
“If we followed up incidental findings, we could detect cancer much sooner, when it’s more treatable and save more lives,” says Dr. Makeeva. The benefits are financial, too, she says bluntly. “The average cost per patient for late-stage cancer to an insurance provider is about $200,000, while an imaging study costs about $300.”
Anatomy of a Competition
Drs. Makeeva and Harri pitch to a distinguished panel of judges for the ARBIR Shark Tank Competition held November 29, 2021 during the RSNA Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL
The 2021 Shark Tank competition started with the call for nominations in February. Each Academy member or member institution could nominate only one project or project team. Nominees then completed a daunting written application. From that pool, the judges invited a select group to pitch virtually in early summer.
Three finalists were invited to make their final pitches during the RSNA annual meeting.
About 19,000 people converged on McCormick Place in Chicago just after Thanksgiving for RSNA, fully masked, vaxxed, and boosted. The Shark Tank final was live and streamed online the afternoon of November 29. Pitchers remained masked even while speaking and the large hall gave the enthusiastic audience plenty of room to socially distance. (See the final pitch competition at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcMBIcBMqbw).
Well-qualified experts volunteered to judge the competition: one each from industry leaders GE Healthcare, Philips, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Blue Venture Fund; an intellectual property lawyer specializing in medical devices and computer software; and the president of the academy, Mitch Schnall, MD, PhD, who also is radiology chair at the University of Pennsylvania.
The competition itself is meant to be “educational, fun, and interactive,” according to the academy. Dr. Makeeva sees it as more. “The competition is exposure. Prior winners have established companies after their wins. It gives you exposure to corporate and venture funders. Of course, there’s no guarantee we’ll be funded, but it gives us legitimacy for our work and our groundbreaking technology.”
Three finalists were invited to make their final pitches during the RSNA annual meeting.
About 19,000 people converged on McCormick Place in Chicago just after Thanksgiving for RSNA, fully masked, vaxxed, and boosted. The Shark Tank final was live and streamed online the afternoon of November 29. Pitchers remained masked even while speaking and the large hall gave the enthusiastic audience plenty of room to socially distance. (See the final pitch competition at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcMBIcBMqbw).
Well-qualified experts volunteered to judge the competition: one each from industry leaders GE Healthcare, Philips, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Blue Venture Fund; an intellectual property lawyer specializing in medical devices and computer software; and the president of the academy, Mitch Schnall, MD, PhD, who also is radiology chair at the University of Pennsylvania.
The competition itself is meant to be “educational, fun, and interactive,” according to the academy. Dr. Makeeva sees it as more. “The competition is exposure. Prior winners have established companies after their wins. It gives you exposure to corporate and venture funders. Of course, there’s no guarantee we’ll be funded, but it gives us legitimacy for our work and our groundbreaking technology.”
Behind Every Winner Is a Team
Both SHIELD and the Shark Tank win are the products of teamwork. In addition to Dr. Makeeva, research lead, the SHIELD team includes Dr. Safdar, associate chief medical information officer, Dr. Harri, clinical informatics lead, Matthew Robuck, IT director of clinical applications, Kyle Jackson and Tom Kesling, applications specialists, Kevin Beasley, software developer, Michelle Mott, business analyst, and Marjan Stephens, project manager. The team holds a provisional patent on the technology and has filed for a full patent with the help of Emory's Office of Technology Transfer.
Dr. Makeeva credits Emory Radiology’s Informatics Track for both funding and mentorship. The track launched in 2018 through work by then-resident and now Emory Radiology assistant professor Dr. Patricia Balthazar as part of her Adopt-A-Resident grant-funded project.
“When I started residency, I didn’t know about the Informatics Track. Paty pitched the track during my first year and I remember hearing her and getting really interested. I was part of the second group of residents to go into the track. My background was in health care management: I worked as a consultant for industry with Movi Medical, and I enjoyed helping grow that company, so this was a good fit." Dr. Makeeva leveraged her own Adopt-A-Resident grant as well as an RSNA Resident Fellow grant to support her work on SHIELD.
Dr. Makeeva credits Emory Radiology’s Informatics Track for both funding and mentorship. The track launched in 2018 through work by then-resident and now Emory Radiology assistant professor Dr. Patricia Balthazar as part of her Adopt-A-Resident grant-funded project.
“When I started residency, I didn’t know about the Informatics Track. Paty pitched the track during my first year and I remember hearing her and getting really interested. I was part of the second group of residents to go into the track. My background was in health care management: I worked as a consultant for industry with Movi Medical, and I enjoyed helping grow that company, so this was a good fit." Dr. Makeeva leveraged her own Adopt-A-Resident grant as well as an RSNA Resident Fellow grant to support her work on SHIELD.
What's Next
While they await the results, the team is adding additional functionality to SHIELD so it can be employed in Emory University Hospital first with expansion to other Emory Healthcare imaging locations in the future.
SHIELD’s deployment comes at a perfect time: the American College of Radiology (ACR) has issued its Closing the Recommendations Follow-Up Loop on Actionable Incidental Findings guidelines to improve adherence to evidence-based recommended follow-up imaging for incidentally detected abnormal findings (see https://www.acr.org/Practice-Management-Quality-Informatics/Performance-Measures/Excellence-Initiative). These include the call for an automated trackable system for follow up. SHIELD aims to be just that.
SHIELD’s deployment comes at a perfect time: the American College of Radiology (ACR) has issued its Closing the Recommendations Follow-Up Loop on Actionable Incidental Findings guidelines to improve adherence to evidence-based recommended follow-up imaging for incidentally detected abnormal findings (see https://www.acr.org/Practice-Management-Quality-Informatics/Performance-Measures/Excellence-Initiative). These include the call for an automated trackable system for follow up. SHIELD aims to be just that.