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INNOVATION
Disruptive breast cancer screening by means of a novel breast imaging modality.
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Market Maturity: Exploring
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Market Creation Potential
This innovation was assessed by the JRC’s Market Creation Potential indicator framework as having a High” level of Market Creation Potential. Only innovations that are showing multiple signals of market creation potential are assigned a value under this indicator system. Learn more
Women-led innovation
A woman had a leadership role in developing this innovation in at least one of the Key Innovator organisations listed below.
Go to Market needs
Needs that, if addressed, can increase the chances this innovation gets to (or closer to) the market incude:
  • Prepare for Market entry
  • Secure capital
  • Scale-up market opportunities
Location of Key Innovators developing this innovation
Key Innovators
UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDG)
This innovation contributes to the following SDG(s)
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 3
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

The UN explains: "Significant strides have been made in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers responsible for child and maternal mortality.

Major progress has also been made on increasing access to clean water and sanitation, reducing malaria, tuberculosis, polio and the spread of HIV/AIDS.

However, many more efforts are needed to control a wide range of diseases and address many different persistent and emerging health issues."

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 9
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

The UN explains: "Investments in infrastructure – transport, irrigation, energy and information and communication technology – are crucial to achieving sustainable development and empowering communities in many countries. It has long been recognized that growth in productivity and incomes, and improvements in health and education outcomes require investment in infrastructure."

The EU-funded Research Project
This innovation was developed under the Horizon Europe project QUSTom with an end date of 30/09/2024
  • Read more about this project on CORDIS
Description of Project QUSTom
Ultrasound imaging can be deeply enhanced by means of algorithms developed in the field of geophysical imaging. Such algorithms, based upon adjoint-state modelling and iterative optimization, provide quantitative images of human tissue with very high resolution. At present time, such images can only be attained by means of high-performance computing and using specific ultrasound data acquisition devices. When combined, hardware and software have a huge impact potential for soft-tissue imaging, such as in breast cancer imaging. Nevertheless, and as is customary in medical imaging, the obtained images only provide with the mean, or most likely, values of tissue at each pixel, being uncertainty quantification an extremely expensive process, typically deemed as unfeasible for practical purposes. A revolutionary development in adjoint-based ultrasound imaging allows us to potentially obtain images of uncertainties at the cost of a single, mean-value, image. Such development will be the basis of transformative implications in terms of confidence-estimates for diagnosis. We aim at disrupting the breast cancer screening paradigm by means of a safe (radiation-free), accurate (quantitative) and reliable (uncertainty-aware) novel breast imaging modality. Within QUSTom we will investigate the fundamental science behind adjoint-based uncertainty imaging and establish its potential suitability for breast cancer diagnosis. The feasibility of the technology as a diagnosis tool relies on 1) adapting the data acquisition hardware for optimal resolution, 2) implementing the algorithms in high-performance computers in order to obtain a short time-to-solution and 3) feasibility analysis by expert radiologists in comparison with the state-of-the-art in breast imaging. This proposal covers the three aspects and opens the possibility of applying similar principles in other imaging fields, both in medicine and elsewhere.

Innnovation Radar's analysis of this innovation is based on data collected on 20/11/2024.
The unique id of this innovation in the European Commission's IT systems is: 113023