Driving Change through Healthcare Innovation

The world of healthcare is ripe for change, and innovation is the key to driving better patient outcomes. However, a concerted effort is required to ensure that this change actually happens in what is a surprisingly fragmented industry.

“You can make a substantial difference by innovating in this space,” said FLUIDDA CEO Jan De Backer in a recent interview. “It’s hard – there are a lot of people who don’t really want to change the way they do things. You have to keep fighting, but eventually it’s worth the fight and that’s why we’re so passionate about what we do.”

This passion for innovation is what drove FLUIDDA to become a founding member of the Open Source Imaging Consortium (OSIC). OSIC – a global, 501(c)(3), not-for-profit cooperative effort between academia, industry and patient advocacy groups – was created to enable rapid, open source advances in the fight against idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), fibrosing interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), and other respiratory diseases, including emphysematous conditions.

Last year, the organization launched the OSIC Data Repository, a first-of-its-kind database of anonymized HRCT scans and clinical data regarding ILDs that is both multi-ethnic and multi-center. Radiologists, clinicians, computational scientists, and industry competitors from around the world collaborated on its development, and continue to work together to advance digital imaging biomarkers for accurate imaging-based diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of response to therapy.

It is this type of commitment to innovation and collaboration that will help move the needle in healthcare. We are proud of the fact that we’ve been a part of OSIC from the start, and are honored to share our expertise and learnings to help shape its mission and drive its strategic direction.

OSIC was recently featured in this video on WIRED that highlights its efforts to make radical progress on behalf of those living with fibrosing lung diseases and their caregivers. We still have work to do, but by continuing to bring together innovative minds from so many different backgrounds, we know we are one step closer to improving the lives of ILD patients around the world.