GE HealthCare has secured a grant of greater than $44 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to design AI-enabled purposes and instruments to assist much less skilled well being professionals in low- and middle-income international locations carry out ultrasound scans that handle fetal and maternal well being and respiratory illnesses.
Caption Well being, based in 2013 and acquired by GE HealthCare earlier this year, makes AI-enabled ultrasound steerage software program and can lead the event of the know-how.
The funds will help Caption Well being in creating AI-powered ultrasound algorithms that may run on a number of ultrasound gadgets and probes. The instruments will present scientific choice help to assist suppliers learn obstetric and lung screening scans for pediatric lung well being and maternal and fetal care extra effectively.
“A key limitation is the steerage of lesser-skilled customers to successfully apply reasonably priced point-of-care ultrasound of their care setting. This grant will assist deliver Caption Well being’s main AI know-how personalized to extra customers, and due to this fact contribute to elevated entry to higher-quality medical care,” Roland Rott, president and CEO of ultrasound at GE HealthCare, mentioned in a press release.
THE LARGER TREND
Caption Well being raised $53 million in Series B funding in 2020.
Earlier that 12 months, it received FDA De Novo clearance for its cardiac ultrasound software, which guides medical professionals by means of a diagnostic take a look at that usually requires an ultrasound professional.
The corporate additionally acquired a $4.95 million grant from the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis in 2020 to create AI know-how for lung ultrasound know-how to allow the analysis of pneumonia in low-resource settings.
GE HealthCare’s buy of Caption Well being earlier this 12 months was its second acquisition since debuting as an independent company.
Shortly after its spinoff from GE, the corporate introduced it agreed to purchase French company IMACTIS, which develops computed tomography (CT) interventional steerage know-how.
One other firm providing ultrasound know-how is Butterfly Network, maker of a handheld, smartphone-connected ultrasound system that acquired FDA 510(k) clearance in April. Its Auto B-line Counter leverages AI to assist suppliers decide if a affected person has irregular lung perform by measuring B-lines.
Final 12 months, Butterfly acquired a $5 million grant from the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis to develop entry to its imaging know-how in Sub-Saharan Africa.
