(Baton Rouge, La.) Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center announced today it has partnered with Eon, a Denver-based healthtech company to enhance the management of lung cancer screenings and incidental pulmonary nodule identification for advanced early detection efforts.  

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The Cancer Center’s Lung Multidisciplinary Care Team, will utilize its expertise to harness Eon’s powerful artificial intelligence technology to review all of the completed computerized tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. This will provide the multidisciplinary care team the opportunity to identify potentially cancerous pulmonary nodules. Eon will be used at Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center, LSU Health North Baton Rouge Clinic, Our Lady of the Lake Ascension, Our Lady of the Lake Livingston and Lake Imaging Center.  

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“Through this sophisticated technology, Eon will amplify the power we have for detecting lung cancer. We will be able to detect lung nodules in patients who may not know they are at risk for the disease, and would never think they require a CT scan,” said Emily Cassidy, M.D., thoracic surgeon. “Eon, in conjunction with our cancer care team, will save many lives. Lung cancer is often diagnosed in later stages when the chances for a cure are greatly reduce so early detection is key.”

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Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., and makes up almost 25 percent of all cancer deaths. The challenge with lung cancer is that it is often diagnosed at a late stage. Lung cancer screening is one way to diagnose lung cancer early and has proven to reduce mortality by up to 20 percent.

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However, the biggest opportunity to diagnose the disease before it advances is to identify and track patients with incidental pulmonary nodules so intervention can happen at the earliest sign of cancer.

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“In addition to Eon’s clinical power, the technology also enables patient tracking, providing automatic reminders for patients who need to schedule follow-up visits, among other services,” said Cassidy. “This will ensure important communication with patients allow physicians and other team members to focus on providing patient care.”

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Eon uses computational linguistics, a discipline of artificial intelligence to extract abnormal findings and clinically relevant information from radiology reports. Using machine learning and advanced business logic, Eon automates tasks for low-risk patients, while triaging high-risk patients for provider review. The result is more patients are captured within the Cancer Center system and longitudinally tracked per evidence based guidelines. Eon is the only market available solution to identify incidental findings on MRI, in addition to CT reports.

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Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center has provided a robust lung cancer screening program since 2013 and established a lung cancer multidisciplinary care team in 2012. Through its partnership with Eon, the organization will make even greater strides to fight lung cancer and identify the disease when treatment is most effective.

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The Eon team is also excited about working with the Cancer Center. Aki Alzubaidi, M.D., founder and co-CEO of Eon, said, “We are extremely honored to team up with Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center to help manage its screening and incidental pulmonary nodule identification program. Eon’s industry-leading platform thrives in complex patient management scenarios and offers the accuracy needed to truly make an impact on patient outcomes. This is a win-win for all of us and we look forward to doing everything we can to stop lung cancer in its tracks.”

About Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center
As a regional destination for cancer care, Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center offers the most advance technology and services provided by a dedicated team of nationally-recognized oncology experts. The Cancer Center provides best-practice, comprehensive care at every stage of the cancer journey, including disease site-specific multidisciplinary care teams, a robust clinical research program, extensive supportive care services and is the only facility in the Gulf South with the revolutionary Leksell Gamma Knife®Icon™. The American College of Surgeons has named the Cancer Center a recipient of its prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award for three consecutive survey cycles. As a nonprofit organization, donor generosity is essential to sustaining the mission of improving survivorship and lessening the burden of cancer for so many throughout Southeast Louisiana and beyond. For more information on the Cancer Center, and how you can become involved, please visit marybirdlake.org.

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