Cancer Research Horizons and the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust have announced a promising new collaboration with Health Triage, an innovative Italian startup specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) for medical diagnostics. This partnership aims to harness the power of AI and the extensive OPTIMAM medical image database to transform breast cancer screening.
Leveraging AI to Enhance Breast Cancer Detection
Health Triage will use OPTIMAM’s rich dataset to train deep learning models designed to automatically identify mammograms that show no signs of cancer. Given that approximately 99.1% of breast screening results in the UK are negative, this approach has the potential to significantly reduce the workload of radiologists by triaging clearly negative cases first. This allows radiologists to concentrate on suspicious and high-risk mammograms, optimizing workflow efficiency without compromising detection rates.
Founded in 2020 by Raffaele Petrone and Davide Dettori in Turin, Health Triage has successfully completed incubation at the Politecnico di Torino’s business incubator I3P. In May 2025, the startup secured a €5 million investment from the ENEA Foundation for Science, Technology and Biomedicine, reflecting strong confidence in their AI-driven medical diagnostics solutions.
The Power of the OPTIMAM Database
OPTIMAM is a continuously expanding centralized database managed by the Royal University of Surrey, containing approximately 7 million anonymized mammograms from over 465,000 patients collected across multiple NHS breast screening sites in the UK. Funded by Cancer Research Horizons UK, this vast imaging resource is available for academic and commercial research under strict data sharing agreements, supporting innovation in breast cancer screening worldwide.
The collaboration will also explore the potential of AI models trained specifically as rule-out systems to achieve higher specificity compared to models trained primarily for cancer detection. Such advancements could further enhance screening accuracy and efficiency.
Ensuring Scientific Rigor and Patient Safety
To guarantee clinical validation, the Italian Mammography Screening Group (GISMa) will act as an independent scientific overseer, ensuring the highest standards of research integrity and patient safety throughout the project.
Voices from the Collaboration
Tony Hickson, Chief Commercial Officer at Cancer Research Horizons, emphasized the importance of this initiative:
“Breast cancer screening programmes are vital for early detection of cancer. Health Triage’s use of OPTIMAM data has the potential to improve these outcomes while reducing the burden on healthcare systems. The AI revolution in healthcare relies on high-quality data, and this collaboration would not be possible without the Royal University of Surrey’s management of OPTIMAM, one of the largest and best-managed imaging databases available.”
Davide Dettori, CEO of Health Triage, expressed optimism about the future impact:
“AI is changing the future of medical diagnostics. Our goal is to make breast cancer screening more accurate, accessible, and convenient. Thanks to our partnership with the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust and Cancer Research Horizons, and with the scientific support of GISMa, we can provide tangible support to radiologists and screening programmes, ultimately helping to save more lives.”
Louise Stead, representing the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, highlighted the transformative potential of this collaboration:
“We are honored to support this important collaboration that has the potential to truly transform the way breast cancer is detected and diagnosed. The OPTIMAM database is one of the most comprehensive collections of mammographic images in the world, and we are excited to see it enable innovation and advance the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. This technology is designed to help patients get the answers and care they need faster, and ultimately save lives.”
Commitment to Ethical Data Use
This partnership aligns with Cancer Research Horizons’ Guiding Principles for Commercial Data Collaboration, emphasizing secure, transparent, and ethical use of patient data to achieve positive outcomes for patients.
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