Our story – Spearpoint Analytics founded in 2019

• 2003 – The foundations are laid in Hamburg.

  Professor Guido Sauter at UKE (Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf) begins archiving operated prostate glands. The patients are followed up and data on recurrence and mortality is collected. This is the basis for PCAI's training data.

• 2008 – Computerised grading is initiated in Uppsala.

  Professor Christer Busch starts a project with researchers from the Centre for Image Analysis at Uppsala University to develop a computer-based system for grading prostate cancer.

• 2010 – UKE and Uppsala begin to collaborate.

  Guido Sauter (UKE) and Christer Busch (Akademiska sjukhuset, Uppsala) begin a collaboration to make IT-based analysis possible using Sauter's database.

• 2018 – AI and business development.

  Christer Busch and Professor Ewert Bengtsson identify the opportunity to train an AI to grade prostate cancer using deep learning on the biobank at Martini-Klinik. Peter Severgårdh, at the time CEO of Peak Networks, is brought in as a business partner and Anders Drotte as CMO. An agreement is signed with Martini-Klinik on the right to use the database.

• 2018 – The market is mapped.

  The business potential is investigated: who pays for a service of this kind and how the target groups are reached. Pathologists, urologists and hospital directors are interviewed to understand the market and to test the product idea.

• 2018 – The first go/no go is passed.

  A strategy document is produced and is then kept continuously updated. The project passes its first go/no go milestone and moves on to development.

• 2021–2022 – Development and first milestone.

  The team develops and tests PCAI. The most important milestone is passed when the prototype shows similar, and in some cases better, ability than experienced pathologists to predict patient outcome (Walhagen et al., J Pathol Inform 2022). Vinnova grants research funding of €50,000 for product development.

• 2022 – User interface and clinical testing.

  A user interface is built to make the analysis usable in everyday clinical practice, and the first clinical tests are carried out.

• 2023–2024 – Robustness and validation.

  PCAI is fine-tuned and validated for clinical robustness against variations in section thickness, staining and scanner models. A pilot study with six urologists at Akademiska sjukhuset in Uppsala is carried out.

• 2025 – Launch and publication.

  Spearpoint Analytics launches the second opinion service for patients. The research is published in Medical Image Analysis (November 2025). The IVDR process begins.

• 2026 and onwards.

  PCAI is planned to become available to laboratories worldwide. Research is under way to include further parameters such as PSA PSA levels, PI-RADS and the patient's age.

What began as a research project around a biobank in Hamburg became, through collaboration between pathology in Hamburg and image analysis in Uppsala, the basis for an AI model trained on real patient outcomes. PCAI is built on data from 17,700 patients followed for up to 20 years.

Spearpoint Analytics was founded in Stockholm in 2019 and in 2025 launched its second opinion service What is a second opinion?, where patients can obtain an AI-based analysis of their biopsy complemented by a urologist's assessment. The next step is to make PCAI available to laboratories and clinics as the IVDR approval falls into place.