The AutoPiX-Konsortium in Vienna, December 2024
09.12.2024 - We are coordinating a new European IHI project to advance imaging in arthritis: AutoPiX!
Our division is coordinating AutoPiX, a new project involving European research partners, pharmaceutical companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and patient organisations, under the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) public-private partnership to improve the diagnosis, treatment decisions, and monitoring of major rheumatic diseases. This newly launched IHI AutoPiX project will leverage AI to make clinical imaging more interpretable to scientists, clinicians, and patients.
To enhance imaging biomarkers for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and axial spondyloarthritis, the IHI-funded AutoPiX project brings together world-class pharmaceutical and medical technology partners with leading academic institutions.
These immune-mediated inflammatory diseases affect millions of people across Europe—approximately 4 million for rheumatoid arthritis, 1.3 million for psoriatic arthritis, and 3 to 5 million for axial spondyloarthritis. They share challenges, including the need for timely diagnosis at non-specialist institutions, early and targeted intervention, and effective monitoring.
The AutoPiX consortium will address critical unmet medical needs in imaging in rheumatology. These include limited access to specific techniques, such as ultrasound outside reference centres and hospitals, and precision gaps in selecting the most suitable treatments for arthritis. AI-supported imaging biomarkers could enhance precision medicine and early diagnosis and enable accessible narratives for clinicians and patients. In the words of AutoPiX Coordinator Prof. Daniel Aletaha from the Medical University of Vienna, “We will bring imaging closer to the practicing clinician and the patient, ensuring that it becomes more accessible, interpretable, and clinically relevant for disease management that requires high levels of expertise”.
A significant commitment of the project is to enhance the sustainability and efficiency of imaging. “We have an opportunity to minimize the burden associated with imaging and make the interpretation more efficient and objective,” says the consortiums Project Lead, Rob Janiczek, PhD, Director Clinical Science Imaging, Janssen Research & Development, LLC, a Johnson & Johnson company.
In the long term, the tools developed in AutoPiX have the potential to benefit patients by providing a more precise diagnosis, personalised treatment paths, and reliable assessments of their response to treatments.
The project will span five years and has a total budget of over €20 million. It is funded by the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), a Public-Private Partnership between the European Union and Europe’s life science industries. This budget is equally divided, with 50% contributed by the EU and 50% from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry (EFPIA) and other industry partners.
The AutoPiX project officially started on November 1st, 2024, and the Kick-Off Meeting took place in Vienna from December 10th to 11th, 2024.
Read more from the press release on this link: https://www.autopix-project.eu/