Bringing awareness to colorectal cancer
March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and the endoscopy team at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North in Lutz wore special T-shirts and decorated their area to show support and enthusiasm for life-saving colon and rectal cancer screenings. Blue is the color for Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Colorectal cancer is highly treatable if diagnosed early, and a colonoscopy is one of the tests for cancer diagnosis and screening. St. Joseph’s Hospital-North encourages talking to your doctor about colorectal cancer risk and the right time for a screening. The endoscopy team at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North is shown here in an endoscopy suite where colonoscopies are performed.
New heart technology
Dr. Deepti Bhandare, vice chair in the Department of Cardiology at AdventHealth Sebring, recently helped in the development of Keno AI, a first-in-market medical device used to automatically detect heart murmurs, according to a news release.
Dr. Bhandare, who is also the director of the hospital’s Heart Failure Program, partnered with Keno Health, a Florida-based startup, to run a study to help improve detection of valvular heart disease (when one or more of the valves in the heart do not work properly).
“Early detection of abnormal heart murmurs, especially prior to the onset of severe symptoms, is a vital component in screening for valvular heart disease,” Dr. Bhandare said in the release.
The doctor and Keno Health developed an innovative medical device called Keno AI.
“Keno AI allows physicians to automatically detect heart murmurs easily and quickly without impacting their clinical workflow,” Dr. Bhandare said. “Our innovative device is attached to a stethoscope, does not require any phone or app and could enable early intervention and treatment for patients with undiagnosed valvular heart disease.”
During this feasibility study, cardiologists used the device to validate the heart murmur accuracy of Keno AI. Cardiologists tested more than 175 people of all different ages, genders, races and variations in body mass index (BMI).
The device had a sensitivity of 93%, showing the device has the ability to detect abnormal heart murmurs. The study also revealed that Keno AI has a 96% specificity, which is the ability to confirm patient’s normal heart sounds.
The study and abstract were accepted into the American College of Cardiology (ACC) journal. The teams also presented results at the ACC conference.
Keno AI is intended to be used by physicians focused on early screening, heart auscultation, and specialized cardiology treatment, including primary care physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, cardiologists and internists.
Dr. Bhandare and Keno Health support AdventHealth’s mission to provide exceptional, innovative and viable care to patients.
Keno Health is launching Keno AI in 2024 and is ready to partner with early adopters at AdventHealth who are interested in utilizing the innovative technology.
