SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., June 26 -- R2 Technology Inc., a developer of computer-aided detection (CAD) technology, and Stanford University's Department of Radiology said they are collaborating to accelerate efforts to develop CAD-enhanced products to detect lung cancer and to help radiologists make clinical decisions more efficiently. They made the announcement at the 5th Annual International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT, being held this week in San Francisco. "Stanford has focused for many years on research regarding the acquisition, post-processing and analysis of multidimensional imaging data, including CAD for lung and colon cancer detection," said Sandy Napel, PhD, associate professor of radiology at Stanford. "This research collaboration with R2 is a natural extension of this effort, and will facilitate the incorporation of our research results into CAD products that will be used to improve patient care." R2 also recently announced that the US Food & Drug Administration has accepted the premarket application for its ImageChecker CT CAD system designed for the detection of lung nodules in multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) images of the chest. Introduced commercially in Europe in March 2003, the integrated ImageChecker CT CAD system with OmniCAD technology is a comprehensive lung nodule detection and analysis system. The CAD algorithms automatically detect potential areas of interest to increase physician accuracy by decreasing observational oversights and provide tools including automatic measurement and characterization information of the detected lung nodules. The integrated system is designed to improve radiologist efficiency and help them make clinical decisions. R2 received 510(k) approval for the workflow-enhancing tools from the FDA in November. "Ten years ago, R2 was founded to create CAD applications for mammography, largely based on an agreement with the University of Chicago, a recognized pioneer in CAD development," said Michael Klein, president and CEO of R2 Technology. "We see the collaboration with Stanford as a crucial next step in the development of CAD products for MDCT and other 3-D imaging applications." For more information, visit: www.r2tech.com