Imaging Extension Software Bring Advantages of Multi-core to Breast Imaging and Analysis

Imaging extension technology has been developed to help healthcare companies deploy applications including image reconstruction from computed tomography (CT) scans and ultrasound, as well as image analysis of ultrasound data.

RapidMind (Waterloo, Canada), provider of the RapidMind Multi-core Development Platform, announced the launch of the RapidMind Imaging Extensions, add-ons to the RapidMind platform that accelerate the development of applications such as those for medical imaging. This solution is the first in a line of RapidMind Extensions that include customizable software components targeting specific verticals that in conjunction with the RapidMind platform can be used to quickly build applications for multi-core processors and accelerators.

One such company, Medipattern Corp. (Toronto, Canada), is using RapidMind in their B-CAD (computer-aided detection) system to utilize the performance of multi-core central processing units (CPUs) while simultaneously exploiting acceleration available from a graphics processing unit (GPU)--achieving an eight-fold performance increase. B-CAD V1 is the first U.S. food and Drug Administration (FDA-certified CAD system for breast ultrasound imaging. B-CAD automatically analyzes the physical characteristics of ultrasound images, helping physicians characterize each lesion. B-CAD helps improve accuracy, increases confidence, and reduces transcription costs for the physicians caring for the millions of women who undergo breast ultrasound procedures every year.

"Timely results are crucial to our customers, Medipattern needed to achieve an order of magnitude increased performance. While the latest multi-core processors offer the potential to improve processing times, they are extremely difficult to program and often increase development costs and time to market,” said Jeff Collins, CEO of Medipattern Corporation. "RapidMind's platform, expertise, and professional services, let us meet this objective.”

By improving the speed and quality of medical imaging, there is the potential to reduce a patient's exposure to radiation, reduce treatment costs, and offer the opportunity to provide new kinds of healthcare. With RapidMind, medical imaging and analysis vendors can quickly build manageable applications that fully utilize the performance potential of multi-core processors from AMD and Intel, while taking advantage of application acceleration available from GPUs and the cell broadband engine (CBE). The RapidMind Imaging Extensions provide additional programming primitives and software components, making it even easier to build these applications and to achieve excellent performance.

"Medipattern recognized that by adopting multi-core processors they could dramatically improve the processing time for their system,” said Ray DePaul, president and CEO of RapidMind. "With RapidMind's platform and professional services, they were able to leverage not only multi-core processors, but also GPU acceleration. The resulting acceleration provides Medipattern with a significant advantage in providing better healthcare.”

Medipattern is a pioneer in the development of medical software systems that help improve imaging workflow and productivity Medipattern's award-winning flagship B-CAD system helps characterize, evaluate, and document breast ultrasound images in a thorough, organized way that integrates easily into daily practice. B-CAD is part of a comprehensive system that provides radiologists, surgeons, sonographers, and other medical specialists with the timesaving tools they need to work effectively while maintaining consistent communication across the enterprise.

The RapidMind Multi-core Development Platform simplifies the development of parallel applications, minimizing the impact on conventional lifecycle costs and timelines. Developers of high-performance computing (HPC) and enterprise software are now using RapidMind to create manageable, single-threaded applications that utilize the full potential of multi-core processors to take advantage of the application acceleration available from GPUs and the cell broadband engine.

Related Links:
RapidMind
Medipattern