The AI tool helping detect oral cancer
A new test could change the way dentists screen for oral cancer.
Dentists and their teams are on the frontlines of oral cancer screening. OraLiva provides an AI-driven cytology platform that aims to make early detection easier. The company is working with Delta Dental to roll the test out in several states.
Spencer Price, CEO of OraLiva, sat down with Dental Bite to explain how OraLiva’s oral cancer test works and how dentists can integrate it into their workflow.
—Interview by Carrie Pallardy, edited by Bianca Prieto
OraLiva is an AI-powered oral cancer test. Can you share some insight into how the cytology platform works?
Our device takes images of stained cells under a microscope. We have trained our AI on the largest database of oral dysplastic lesions ever assembled, some 13 million pictures of cells with 1,000 patients collected prospectively in a multi-year study.
We have the hardware, which is proprietary to OraLiva. Today, that's in our lab in North Carolina. The samples get sent back to our lab for processing and analysis. We've got the device itself, the AI on top of that. We are focused today on ship-out tests. Ultimately, what we're moving towards is a point-of-care capable device. You can imagine this entire workflow residing chair-side in a dental office, and you can get the results back before the patient leaves the chair.
On the actual test and the workflow, it's a soft-bristle brush, softer than a toothbrush. A provider is looking for a suspicious lesion in the mouth. We provide a fixative vial into which the brush goes in and gets shipped back to our lab. When a test report is returned to the provider that includes a quantitative risk score. That risk score is like the thermometer for cancer: how risky it is.
The report includes not just that numerical index, but also a recommendation on what to do with the patient to either rule out cancer, to monitor them in 6 to 12 months or to refer to a specialist.
OraLiva recently announced a partnership with Delta Dental in several states. How do you see dentists integrating this test into their workflow?
Delta Dental has been in the wings with OraLiva for a number of years now, funding some of the science and technology. To release and support something like a new test like this, they want to know that there's real clinical validation behind it, real science behind it.
We've now reached this inflection point where we're ready to release the test commercially. That includes reimbursement through an existing CDT code for the sample collection. A dentist collects the sample, sends it back to our lab and they get reimbursed with an existing CDT code.
Education is critically important for any new technology. We've recorded a continuing dental education material module, which Delta Dental has released to their platform as well. You can take that for credit. It's focused on AI cytology, which is the science that underpins our test.
Delta Dental will be introducing us to providers in their network across the spectrum, including GP dentists, periodontists, oral surgeons, DSOs, universities and dental schools.
How can dentists talk to their patients about this test and the importance of screening for oral cancer?
We've done a lot of work with providers on messaging and understanding the concern they have with using the “C word” in the chair. This is an adjunctive test. As of today, it is not a diagnostic. It is not telling you have cancer or not. This is used to help triage patients.
That is the focus of the conversation with the patient. When you get a high quantitative score and there's a recommendation for referral, the messaging with the patient is, “Look, we've got something we want to refer you on to with a specialist.” This test gives us the confidence to know that when we send you off to that specialist, there's a good reason to do so. We're not going to send you unnecessarily. We know that this test is more accurate than visual examination in and of itself. It'll send more patients through who need to be and send fewer through who shouldn't be.
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Dental Bite is curated and written by Carrie Pallardy and edited by Bianca Prieto
