Optellum is a lung-health medtech startup that is pioneering the use of AI to improve diagnostic accuracy and clinical decision-making. Following a rigorous evaluation conducted by Johnson & Johnson that pitted Optellum against other vendors, Optellum is partnering with the healthcare giant.

The focus is a strategic collaboration with the Lung Cancer Initiative at Johnson & Johnson in which Optellum will provide its AI-powered clinical decision support platform with the goal of increasing lung cancer survival rates through early intervention and prevention.

This announcement accelerates Optellum’s market entry, building on its FDA clearance earlier this year and deployments underway at hospitals in the USA and ongoing clinical trials in the United Kingdom.

Optellum’s pioneering AI decision support is a crucial piece of the lung cancer early-interception puzzle. It enables integration of all data from key technologies—imaging, clinical and molecular—with the goal of helping clinicians drive the right patients into the earliest treatment of the tiniest tumors and pre-cancerous lesions. 

• At the core of the collaboration is Optellum’s commercial software platform, Virtual Nodule Clinic, which includes an AI-powered digital biomarker that leverages neural networks and imaging analytics. 

• The Optellum platform identifies and tracks at-risk patients and assigns a Lung Cancer Prediction score to lung nodules (the small lesions, frequently detected in chest CT scans, that may or may not be cancerous). 

• Optellum’s goal is to enable clinicians to speed up minimally invasive treatment of even the smallest lung tumors while chances of cure are the highest, while reducing unnecessary surgeries and invasive procedures on patients who do not have lung cancer. 

This announcement dovetails with J&J’s other moves aimed at fighting lung cancer. Optellum’s platform is key to the Johnson & Johnson Lung Cancer Initiative, which encompasses other strategic partnerships with complementary technology leaders. These include:

• The $3.4BN acquisition of Auris Health, along with its Monarch Platform, a minimally invasive robotic bronchoscope;

• The acquisition of NeuWave Medical and its market-leading microwave tumor ablation technology;

• A strategic partnership with Veracyte, a leader in molecular diagnostic testing.

PR STRATEGY

As a UK-based company, Optellum needed PR execution in both the UK and USA. For the UK, ZingPR worked in close collaboration with Optellum’s lead agency, CubanEight. Each agency formulated a media strategy aimed at securing media coverage in a mix of business and healthcare media. ZingPR used a phased approach with sequential media outreach to around 170 journalists. For the US market, we also used PR Newswire to boost the signal of the news in biotech and healthcare media.

US MEDIA COVERAGE RESULTS

Both agencies significantly exceeded the coverage targets that we set, with more than 25 total clips. Some of the highlights for the US market included Fortune, STAT, and crucial specialist publications.