Perimeter Medical Imaging AI (TSXV: PINK; OTCQX: PYNKF) has announced that Intermountain Health, in the Mountain West region, has become the first health system in the U.S. to commercially deploy Perimeter’s Claire OCT System, the only FDA-approved imaging device that uses AI during breast cancer surgery to help surgeons see microscopic tissue structures—where cancer can be difficult to detect—in real time, for margin assessment.
The company highlights that the stakes are significant: about one in five patients needs follow-up breast cancer surgeries because cancer wasn’t detected in the operating room the first time.
In a statement, Adrian Mendes, CEO of Perimeter, commented, “The first deployment of Claire is a defining moment for Perimeter and for the use of AI in cancer surgery as a whole. For the first time, a U.S. health system is commercially deploying FDA-approved, AI-enabled imaging inside the operating room to help surgeons assess breast tissue while the patient is still in surgery. Intermountain is helping move this technology from clinical evidence into everyday care, creating a new opportunity to address one of the most persistent challenges in breast-conserving surgery and give more patients the best possible chance of avoiding additional procedures.”
Surgeons performing breast-conserving surgery have long faced a difficult challenge: remove too little tissue and risk leaving undetected cancer behind, or remove too much and potentially affect cosmetic results. Claire addresses that challenge through real-time visualization of tissue suspicious for disease, with AI identifying areas of concern in the operating room to help surgeons make more informed decisions while the patient is still in surgery.
Claire builds on Perimeter’s legacy S-Series OCT platform, which was cleared by the FDA for general tissue imaging and uses optical coherence tomography, a light-based imaging technology used in ophthalmology and cardiology. The OCT provides real-time, cellular-level visualization of tissue, while the AI available in Claire sifts through the images generated during surgery to flag areas of concern.
Dr. Teresa Reading, a breast surgeon at Intermountain Health LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, remarked, “Every breast surgeon wants to give their patient the best possible chance of completing treatment in a single surgery, but microscopic cancer can be difficult to identify in the operating room. Claire was incredibly simple to incorporate into my workflow. The AI quickly directed my attention to specific areas of concern, giving me an additional set of trained eyes and more information to guide my decisions during these procedures.”
Phillip Wood, Executive Program Director, Intermountain Ventures, Intermountain Health, added, “Reducing unnecessary repeat surgeries is a priority for Intermountain Health because every additional procedure places a burden on patients, families, surgeons, and the healthcare system overall. Claire gives our surgical teams new information at the point of care, when it has the greatest potential to influence the course of treatment. As the first health system to commercially deploy this technology, we look forward to building on our partnership with Perimeter and to demonstrate how AI can be responsibly integrated into surgical care.”
For Perimeter, the Intermountain milestone marks the movement of Claire from clinical trial to clinical practice. Claire is currently deployed at LDS Hospital and American Fork Hospital as part of Intermountain Health’s systemwide agreement with Perimeter.
