The San Francesco Convent, residence of the IMT School for Advanced Studies IMT Lucca, has been magnificently restored to offer state-of-the-art university campus buildings within Lucca’s historic Renaissance walls. Once a place of Franciscan theological and philosophical studies, the Convent has stood the test of time and continues to inspire the advancement of the Renaissance values of learning and wisdom for the benefit of future generations.
Held on 12 and 13 December 2024, the 5th in-person Consortium Meeting was attended by representatives of all the MammoScreen partners and by the External experts advisory board members together with the project´s Patient Advisory Group Coordinator.
The IMT team, hosting the meeting, took the opportunity to highlight their recent literature review examining the clinical effectiveness of AI-based systems in the detection of breast cancer. Their work compares the clinical effectiveness of AI-based systems, pinpointing the lack of cost-effectiveness analysis particularly in microwave imaging and highlighting important research gaps and challenges for the integration of these systems into clinical workflows.
The IMT team also presented the progress made in the HTA (Health technology Assessment) model that is being developed in parallel to the clinical trial, to support introduction of MammoWave in clinical uptake. The HTA mathematical model is ready for the interim analysis planned after recruitment of the first 3000 volunteers. The Sponsor UBT with the support of the CRO, JSB solution, have been carefully monitoring the recruiting centers and were happy to confirm that this important milestone will be achieved at the start of 2025, as planned.
During the meeting, our clinical partner SESCAM presented a comparison of the performance of MammoWave between all the recruiting clinical centers, revealing important improvements in the key performance indicators of the AI-based analysis of MammoWave signals achieved by our LSBU partners. The LSBU team has been working hard to improve the data analysis method and has recently published their most recent optimization of the AI-based classification.
On the medical device front, UBT engineers are promptly addressing feedback from the clinical centers to improve the hardware aspects of the microwave signal acquisition. This is aimed at rendering MammoWave more robust and user-friendly from the technical point of view, improving the analytical workflow.
EVITA, together with TLS, reported on the achievements of the communication and dissemination strategy and listened to feedback from the various participants regarding the plan for upcoming social media campaigns and other activities. Consensus was reached around the need for improved focus on technology and how it is perceived by those that will potentially benefit from it.
Overall, Italy is a very welcoming country, and it was without much effort that the Consortium agreed to have the next in-person meeting hosted by UBT, during June 2025 (date to be confirmed), in Assisi, Perugia. Arrivederci, Italia!
Together, we aim to improve breast cancer screening provide a safer, more accessible, and comfortable alternative.
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