The AutoPiX project reached a significant milestone, concluding its 2nd Progress Meeting (first annual) held on 15 to 16th December 2025 at UCB Headquarters in Brussels and online. The consortium reviewed substantial advancements across AI model development, clinical trials, and regulatory frameworks as it moves into its next phase of innovation.
Here is a summary of the key updates for our community:
Key project milestones
- Established governance. Both the Scientific Advisory Board and the Patient Advisory Panel have been formally established to guide the project’s strategic and ethical direction.
- Technical progress. The automated scoring algorithms developed show strong concordance with human readers, particularly in detecting joint damage progression.
- Clinical momentum. Clinical studies are advancing, with recruitment ongoing for several trials. Notably, one study has already completed its last patient recruitment, with final results expected in 2026.
AI and model innovation
The project is pushing the boundaries of medical AI by moving beyond traditional scoring systems:
- Transformer-based architectures. Experts recommend transitioning from classical CNNs to transformer-based models to improve image analysis performance.
- Multi-Scale Data. Future work will focus on integrating data from the joint level up to the patient level to provide a more holistic clinical view.
Regulatory and ethical excellence
AutoPiX is proactively addressing the evolving legal landscape in Europe.
- Regulatory roadmap. A comprehensive roadmap addressing the MDR, IVDR, and the EU AI Act is scheduled for delivery in April 2026.
- Ethical framework. The Ethical Guidance Committee (EGC) is developing a "massive ethical framework" to oversee AI application and data registry management.
- Patient engagement. Patient Research Partners (PRPs) remain central to the project, contributing to the development of lay-language materials and an AI mini-glossary to improve transparency. In addition, patients are now actively testing the PiX-Monitor app, building on their experience from the PiX-Risk trial, and providing feedback to help refine it for RA and PsA patients.
Looking Ahead to 2026
The consortium is preparing for a productive year, with a focus on:
- Commencing large-scale data annotation activities.
- Finalising contracts for imaging quality control.
- Preparing first results for publication.
- Hosting a multi-consortium workshop on stakeholder engagement.