San Diego-based startup LifeVoxel has raised $5 million in a seed round to bolster data intelligence of its AI diagnostic visualization platform for faster and more precise prognosis.
The platform, dubbed Prescient, is used for diagnostics, workflow management and triage, taking away the stress of managing software and hardware technology from physicians and hospitals — and allowing them to focus on patient care.
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform is used by healthcare facilities for remote diagnostics in various medical fields, including radiology, cardiology and orthopedics. The platform stores diagnostic imagery, enabling physicians to analyze them, on-demand, from any device, including mobile phones. It also includes features that make it possible to include diagnostic annotations and reports.
“We plan to spend the funds secured in this round to build out our deep learning AI models and machine learning algorithms to provide data intelligence to be able to identify similarities, abnormalities and predictive diagnoses to help improve the efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis,” LifeVoxel founder and chief architect Kovey Kovalan told TechCrunch.
“In short, with our continued growth, we can help medical professionals figure out what is wrong with patients faster so they can begin the work of healing them sooner,” said Kovalan.
The round drew an array of investors, including medical and radiology specialists and high-net-worth individuals with an interest in medical technology.
Kovalan, who was born and raised in Malaysia, studied computer science at Ohio State University, and, on completion, went on to specialize in artificial intelligence. Research and interest later led him to apply artificial intelligence using GPU to offer medical imaging classification, resulting in the development of the platform, which his company says “enables zero-latency interactivity of medical images over internet.”
The platform is designed to save about 50% of technology costs for hospitals using the software, and allows them to expand or scale down depending on the needs of the institutions. It also enables physicians to access patients and their data from anywhere in the world, making it possible to deliver speedier patient care.
He is hoping to use the platform to change the current landscape of medical imaging where images are hosted on-premises, making it hard for collaboration, and in harnessing it for artificial intelligence. The startup hopes to use the technologies for the improvement in diagnostic outcome using intelligent visualization.
“For rural populations currently lacking in specialists, the platform’s ability to turn any device into a radiology workstation offers access to the same network of specialist physicians for imaging study review as urban areas. Recently such techniques were deployed during the pandemic to provide first-of-a-kind interactive 3D VR Telepresence between remote proctors thousands of miles away and surgeons within operating rooms.”
The startup’s technology is timely as more healthcare institutions expand their remote and telemedicine capabilities — which has largely been fueled by the COVID pandemic. This is in addition to increased adoption of AI-enabled technologies for better patient outcomes as more hospitals move away from conventional cloud-based systems.
“Medical imaging and radiology need dynamic solutions to replace the inadequacies in conventional systems,” said co-founder, president and CEO of LifeVoxel Sekhar Puli.
“With this round of funding, we will be able to accelerate not only our vision to be the de facto platform for medical imaging applications across the globe but make significant strides in the Telehealth imaging and advanced tech-based AI solutions for the future of healthcare.”
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