Normative Reference Images - Pediatric Radiology

Project Overview

Brief Description: Provides reference scans showing normal brain images of pediatric patients to help body radiologists evaluate white matter disease in a short time comparable to a pediatric radiologist.

Key Details

Timeline: 2019 - 2020
Company/Organization: GE Healthcare
Your Role: Lead Product Manager
Team Size: 2 engineering scrum teams, 1 user researcher, 1 UX designer, 1 architect, field collaborators

The Challenge

There are fewer pediatric radiologists than body radiologists. Hospitals use body radiologists to read pediatric exams to meet the demand. The time a body radiologist takes to read pediatric exams is much longer than that of a pediatric radiologist.
Hypothesis: Providing a reference image of a normal pediatric brain will reduce the time taken by a general radiologist to read the pediatric exam by at least 30%.

Key Problems Addressed:

Address demand for pediatric radiologists in children’s hospitals by employing regular radiologists.
Reduce the time taken by general radiologists to read pediatric scans.
Bring care to pediatric patients faster by addressing the backlog and time to read.

Your Role & Contribution

Lead Product Manager

Collaborated with pediatric radiologist Dr.P at B Children's Hospital to define the problem statement, hypothesis definition, and initial prototype evaluation

Defined requirements and go-to-market plan for the project

Led a team comprising an architect, a user researcher, a UX designer, two Product Owners and two scrum teams to deliver the project

Collaborated with regulatory, field, and marketing leadership to successfully deliver the project

Solution & Approach

Introduced a UX option on the PACS image viewer. A radiologist can click on this option to view reference images pertaining to the current scan. They can scroll through a set of normative images.

Technologies & Methods Used:

Technology Stack: Python, C#, DICOM Imaging
Methodologies: Agile/Scrum, Human-centered design, Clinical validation protocols
Tools: Rally, Confluence, Figma, MS Power Point

Key Outcomes & Impact

Time taken to read a pediatric scan by a non-pediatric radiologist reduced by 50%

Challenges & Learnings

First phase consisted of normative data from only B Children's Hospital. A plan was created to customize this to each hospital, such that they can upload and use their own normative images

Regulatory & Compliance Considerations

The normative images were clearly labeled “For reference only”
The user was allowed to scroll through a set of normative images that matched the current patient study.
The criteria for selecting the reference images were clearly shown – scanner manufacturer, modality, patient age range, etc.
The normative images were shown only at user request, to remove any initial bias.
No 510k submission needed, just letter to file.