Benchmark results more than double national average for early detection
The Sarasota Memorial Health Care System (SMH) this week reported that “75% of lung cancers diagnosed through an innovative early detection program at SMH’s Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute in 2025 were found at the earliest, most treatable stages (Stage I or II).”
The health care system points out in a news release, “The benchmark results — more than double the national average for early detection and nearly triple Florida’s average — demonstrate the success of a scalable model that can be used to improve early detection and outcomes for the world’s deadliest cancer.”
“Diagnosing lung cancer early is the single, most important thing we can do to save lives,” said Dr. Joseph Seaman, associate chief medical officer at Sarasota Memorial and a pulmonologist who helped develop SMH’s early detection program, in the release. “When detected early, in Stage I or II,” he continued, “70% of lung cancer patients will survive five years or more. When it’s found very late (Stage IV), the five-year survival rate drops to just 10%.”
The release explains, “Sarasota Memorial’s program harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to help identify at-risk patients, regardless of where or why they enter the health system. Because elective lung cancer screenings capture only a small percentage of the population at risk, the team implemented Eon’s technology-enabled platform to identify and flag ‘incidental’ pulmonary nodules in scans completed at the health system for other reasons,” the release points out.
“Incidental nodules are suspicious spots discovered on scans that patients undergo for reasons other than a lung cancer screening, such as a chest X-ray in the ER following an auto accident, or a thyroid scan that includes parts of the lungs,” the release notes.
Eon’s platform uses the power of AI to help SMH staff members identify incidental findings documented in more than 430,000 radiology reports each year across its Southwest Florida inpatient and outpatient facilities, the release says. “As radiologists submit their reports,” the release adds, “the platform flags abnormalities and identifies at-risk patients, delivering those findings in real time to the lung team for further review.” The technology reduces referral delays and enables the team to go ahead and “initiate the same level of accelerated, coordinated follow-up” as it does for patients undergoing early-detection screenings, the release notes.
“SMH launched its lung cancer screening program for current and former smokers in 2016, steadily expanding the number of at-risk individuals enrolled through community education and outreach,” the release also points out.
“We knew there was more we could do for our community. Our imaging volumes are enormous,” said Amie Miller, who holds a Master of Science degree in nursing and serves as the program lead for the early detection program at SMH’s Jellison Cancer Institute. “We just needed a reliable way to flag incidental findings in real time so we could proactively reach all of the people who could benefit from earlier evaluation,” she explained in the release.
“After integrating Eon’s platform, the volume of incidental findings sent to the screening team increased from an average 1-2 per week to more than 170 per week,” the release points out.
This approach “translates directly into earlier diagnosis, the release says. “Between 2022 and 2025, SMH’s early detection team evaluated more than 9,000 patients across screening and incidental pathways and diagnosed 144 lung cancers, with 67% diagnosed at Stage I or II. In 2025 alone,” the release continues, “the team diagnosed 53 cancers, with 75% in Stage I or II. That is more than double the national average (28%) for early detection and nearly triple Florida’s average (25.8%),” it adds.
Dr. Aki Alzubaidi, CEO and founder of Eon, said in the release that SMH’s approach demonstrates the opportunity to improve outcomes and address incidental findings earlier by pairing multidisciplinary clinical expertise with technology that supports early detection and longitudinal care management.
“By ensuring every at-risk patient is identified and receives follow-up,” Alzubaidi noted, “Sarasota Memorial’s program is improving outcomes at both the individual and community level. It offers a scalable model for improving early detection through real-time identification of incidental pulmonary nodules, standardized guideline-based follow-up pathways, and longitudinal monitoring to ensure patients complete recommended care.”
The release says the results of SMH’s program “are summarized in a case study, Enhancing Community Health by Expanding Lung Cancer Detection, available for download here: www.smh.com/expanding-early-lung-cancer-detection