Computing company NVIDIA has announced a partnership with Canon Medical Systems to help the Japanese device and software company develop deep learning techniques using medical data and to push the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare.

In January, Canon launched the Abierto VNA, a medical data management system. The company will now use NVIDIA’s DGX supercomputer systems to process the large amounts of data generated by the system and to create and deploy advanced deep learning algorithms.

This will make it easier for Canon’s customers to use scientific reports and patient data for AI-related research, and eventually for disease detection and diagnoses and to determine the best course of treatment, Kimberly Powell, vice president of health care at NVIDIA, told HCB News.
“They have a really interesting and forward-looking position on bringing the power of the medical imaging data to use for research,” Powell said. “It was just a really nice opportunity to connect the two solutions together and make it super seamless.”

NVIDIA’s DGX systems feature the company’s Tesla data center GPUs powered by Volta. Products include the NVIDIA DGX Station, a desktop AI workstation with the computing capacity of four server racks.

Canon recently demonstrated how medical facilities can implement deep learning using the Abierto VNA and NVIDIA DGX systems at the International Technical Exhibition of Medical Imaging at the Japan Radiology Congress.

"Canon Medical aims to improve the quality and efficiency of medical services," said Kiyoshi Imai, vice president and general manager of the Healthcare IT division at Canon Medical Systems, in a statement announcing the partnership. "Our collaboration with NVIDIA will accelerate AI research and provide high-quality medical services using AI, such as image recognition, in the future."

Business Affairs Homepage