The Nizam's Institute of Medicine, a government research hospital in Hyderabad, India, and Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, have collaborated with the Robertson Research Institute to perform three controlled studies over the next 6 months on the NxOpinion software solution.   The first study validates the diagnostic accuracy of NxOpinion for the GI system of diseases as used by physicians.  The second and third studies validate a rural healthcare product that can diagnose and treat 160+ most common general Indian diseases.  Successful results are defined as statistical proof that the non-GI physician performs better using NxOpinion than without it; and, that the non-physician rural healthcare worker achieves better results using NxOpinion than without it.  With this validation, we expect to work with the Government of India to pursue a distribution system with NxOpinion to supply product to various field markets following additional interface developments and full disease system build-outs. While this testing is completed, we will continue to build disease profiles and develop technology features in preparation for a national rollout by early 2008.

A carefully executed training program, successfully delivered, prepared the physicians in far less time than anticipated, to the credit of bright and well prepared physicians and user-friendly technology.  India is extremely excited about this product because they see what it does do, and value that significantly, even as they realize that further development is underway.  NIMS is actively supporting this testing project in hopes of improving the standard of care known to India.  A special presentation to Mr. K. Skesava Rao, President of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Party and a respected politician in Andhra Pradesh as well as in New Delhi, brought extreme interest and encouragement to pursue India as our first major market.

Internal testing in September, 2006 revealed that NxOpinion correctly identified the probable diagnosis for eleven out of twelve common Gastro-Intestinal diseases with common presentations using published case studies as the information source.  The cause of the one failed result was naming related; an issue already addressed for the next phase of testing the software.  By entering a collection of 5 to 10 medical findings, facts and symptoms, NxOpinion identified the correct diagnosis as having the highest probability in 82% of the diagnosed cases and the second highest probability in 18% of the diagnosed cases.  These preliminary results position NxOpinion to be at the top of medical decision support software systems currently available anywhere in the world. 

IN THE PHOTO:  Members of the Robertson Technologies Team (seated left to right): Dr. Joel Robertson, Nicole Robertson-Decker and Dr. Ram Gadam left for India October 7th ready to train physician testers at the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) prior to the onset of the independent performance test.  Also included in the photo (standing right of center) are Professor D. Prasada Rao, Director of NIMS; Dr. M.U.R. Naidu, Dean of NIMS; Dr. D. Rama Mohan, Research Study Manager.  Other key members of the NIMS Research Team include Dr. Shreenivas Shouri, Dr. B. Ranga Rao, Dr. M. Jaya Krishna, Dr. V. Ramababu Naik, Dr. Ajit Kumar, Dr. Vamshidhar Reddy, Dr. B.S. Rajiv, Mr. R.D. Verma and Mrs. Y.V. Radhika.