Daniel from Improve Press
GE HealthCare has secured a grant of greater than $44 million from the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis 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 yr, makes AI-enabled ultrasound steering software program and can lead the event of the expertise.
The funds will help Caption Well being in creating AI-powered ultrasound algorithms that may run on a number of ultrasound units 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 steering of lesser-skilled customers to successfully apply reasonably priced point-of-care ultrasound of their care atmosphere. This grant will assist convey Caption Well being’s main AI expertise custom-made to extra customers, and subsequently 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 Sequence B funding in 2020.
Earlier that yr, it acquired FDA De Novo clearance for its cardiac ultrasound software, which guides medical professionals by way of a diagnostic take a look at that usually requires an ultrasound skilled.
The corporate additionally acquired a $4.95 million grant from the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis in 2020 to create AI expertise for lung ultrasound expertise to allow the analysis of pneumonia in low-resource settings.
GE HealthCare’s buy of Caption Well being earlier this yr was its second acquisition since debuting as an impartial firm.
Shortly after its spinoff from GE, the corporate introduced it agreed to buy French firm IMACTIS, which develops computed tomography (CT) interventional steering expertise.
One other firm providing ultrasound expertise is Butterfly Community, maker of a handheld, smartphone-connected ultrasound system that acquired FDA 510(ok) clearance in April. Its Auto B-line Counter leverages AI to assist suppliers decide if a affected person has irregular lung operate by measuring B-lines.
Final yr, Butterfly acquired a $5 million grant from the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis to broaden entry to its imaging expertise in Sub-Saharan Africa.
