Science

Professor Sir John Michael Brady, veteran entrepreneur and computer vision expert, moved from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to the University of Oxford in 1986 to build a robotics laboratory. Following the death of his mother-in-law from breast cancer, Professor Brady decided to transition his energy from robotics to medical imaging. One of Professor Brady’s first medical imaging PhD students was Dr. Ralph Highnam. Together, they laid out the basis for the automatic quantification of breast composition from breast x-rays — film mammograms — in Dr. Highnam’s 1992 PhD thesis.

As mammography turned digital in the early 2000s, the medical imaging field became more ready for the quantitative analysis of breast images. Professor Brady and Dr. Highnam combined talents with their friends and fellow scientists, Professor Nico Karssemeijer at the University of Nijmegen and Professor Martin Yaffe at the University of Toronto, to implement the ideas originally formulated in 1992: the quantification of breast composition via volumetric parameters (“Volpara”).

Since its inception in 2009, Volpara has become a world leader in automated breast density assessment and is the density measurement tool of choice for breast cancer research.

The company now boasts world-class, vendor-neutral software expertise in:

• Breast cancer risk assessment
• Volumetric breast density
• Mammography quality
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning

Volpara Breast Health Software is now the most scientifically validated software in the breast health industry.