Mammography screening: start-up "Vara.ai" relies on the Open Telekom Cloud

The start-up Vara.ai is cooperating with Deutsche Telekom to use its cloud for its AI-based mammography screening. According to Telekom, Vara's AI is used in 40 percent of German breast cancer screening centers in Germany. One million women are screened with Vara every year, with four images being taken each time. In the future, Vara will store all four million high-resolution images in the Open Telekom Cloud.

According to Telekom, since 2021, the OTC can be used by professional secrecy holders within the meaning of Section 203 of the German Criminal Code (StGB) for the storage and processing of information requiring special protection. This includes, for example, radiology professionals who use Vara's AI analysis.

At the beginning of the year, the company published an extensive study in the journal “Nature Medicine” together with the University of Lübeck, the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) and various radiology centers. According to the study, the use of Varas AI improves breast cancer detection. For the “PRAIM study” – a non-interventional, controlled observational study –, the data of over 460,000 women who took part in the mammography screening program at a total of twelve locations in Germany between 2021 and 2023 were evaluated. The breast cancer detection rate increased by 18 percent as a result of AI. However, the false positive rate was also reduced by around 15 percent with Vara.

The AI identifies both examinations that can be considered normal and those that are potentially suspicious. If radiologists consider an examination to be normal, but the AI detects a high risk of cancer, an alarm is triggered, and the suspicious region is highlighted. This gives radiologists the opportunity to reconsider their decision and either accept or reject the alert. In many countries, a second opinion is required when assessing mammograms. However, AI is currently being tested as a second opinion in breast cancer screening in many countries.

“The examination results will be more accurate and the workload for specialists will be reduced by over 70 percent. This also offers enormous potential for cost savings in the healthcare system while simultaneously improving quality,” says Vara CTO Stefan Bunk. At the end of the year, the company, whose software is used in India and Egypt, received funding of around 8 million US dollars.

(mack)