Partnership Aims to Detect Bladder Tumors Earlier with Help of AI

Updated:
January 21, 2026
Published:
April 20, 2023

What You Need To Know

  • HMH is partnering with Etta.io., a Denver-based healthcare technology startup that builds Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, to detect tumors difficult to see with the naked eye, even for specialists.
  • The partnership aims to develop an AI-based product/solution using endoscopic images of the bladder to detect early-stage carcinoma in situ (CIS).
  • The Office of Innovation and Commercialization and the Bear’s Den Innovation Program within the Hackensack Meridian Health Research Institute (HMHRI) are spearheading the investment.
  • HMH’s urology department is ranked #1 in New Jersey, and our surgeons were the first in the tri-state area to perform minimally invasive robotic bladder surgery and helped pioneer the single-incision approach.

Promising Use of Technology

"Carcinoma in situ (CIS) tumors of the bladder are one of the most challenging cancers for urologists to manage," said Nitin Yerram, M.D., Director of Urologic Oncology at HUMC, who will lead the clinical initiative. "CIS tumors have a high rate of recurrence and are traditionally less effective against our standard treatments for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). By using AI technology to help identify and diagnose this difficult cancer, we can expect to advance our field in immeasurable ways."