A 50-year-old patient is sent for a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia. When her physician receives the report from the radiologist, it will include a number from 1 to 10, called the Rho^TM Score.[i] The doctor might then share with the patient the happy news that she does not have pneumonia but, separate from her symptoms, she does appear to be at risk for low bone mineral density and should follow up with an osteoporosis assessment when she feels better.

Soon enough this could be a reality. Such patients may benefit from Rho, an artificial-intelligence-driven tool being developed by 16 Bit Inc. to opportunistically screen common X-rays to help identify patients at risk for low bone mineral density (a.k.a. osteopenia or osteoporosis). The algorithm is designed to analyze chest, pelvis, thoracic, lumbar, knee, or hand X-rays, which together make up approximately 80%[ii] of all X-rays performed, and provide a score between 1 and 10 — the higher the number, the greater the risk that the patient has low bone mineral density.

“We’re trying to build technology that gives radiologists and other healthcare providers superpowers,” says Dr. Alexander Bilbily, co-founder (along with Dr. Mark Cicero) of 16 Bit Inc., the Toronto-based artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic imaging company that created Rho.

The company is one of six digital health startups in the first cohort of the Edison Accelerator in Canada, a GE Healthcare program conducted in collaboration with Nex Cubed, an early-stage innovation and startup accelerator for tech companies. The companies chosen for the program all use AI to assist in medical imaging, to help healthcare practitioners give more personalized patient care.

16 Bit Team.jpg

16 Bit cofounders Mark Cicero and Alexander Bilbily. Top image: The Iker Casillas and Idoven team.

“GE’s Edison Digital Health Platform is designed with a specific focus on hosting applications developed by innovative third parties,” says Paritosh Dhawale, SVP and GM of the Edison Digital Health Platform at GE Healthcare. “It comes with a rich set of development tools to build and integrate applications. We are starting to see the use of AI in clinical practice, and our goal is to accelerate this by supporting the most promising innovators and playing an active role in the Canadian health tech ecosystem.”

Rho just might be a breakthrough, if it allows doctors to identify patients with low bone density and take preventive measures to avoid bone breaks before they happen. Already licensed by Health Canada, Rho has also been designated a breakthrough device by the FDA as it prepares to undergo the premarket review process. “By collaborating with GE Healthcare, we have the opportunity to rapidly scale up our capabilities,” Dr. Cicero says, “to fast-track us to the market.”

This is precisely the goal of the Edison Accelerator program. The program initially launched in 2019 in India, with five AI-focused healthcare startups that are both innovative and scalable. In 2021, the successful program expanded its reach to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with seven startups, in partnership with Wayra UK, Telefonića’s Open Innovation Hub. One of those was Idoven, a health tech scale-up from Spain that turned to AI to improve cardiology.

“There are so many ECGs being performed, doctors and nurses are overwhelmed,” says Rika Christanto, COO of Idoven. “They don’t know which patients to prioritize.” Idoven was founded by cardiologist Dr. Manuel Marina Breysse, CEO, and José María Lillo Castellano, a machine learning engineer and CTO, who had been grappling with how to stop the world’s leading cause of death: cardiovascular disease.

To solve the problem with better data management, Idoven created Willem,[iii] an AI platform that analyzes ECG signals — instead of images — to help triage or list potential problems and alerts, including irregular heartbeats. With a single ECG, Willem automatically detects clinically relevant cardiac events in seconds. It is the world’s first cardiology-as-a-service platform powered by AI that augments a clinician’s ability to identify, triage, and diagnose patients at scale.

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Willem is the world’s first cardiology-as-a-service platform powered by AI that augments a clinician’s ability to identify, triage, and diagnose patients at scale.

Idoven’s AI platform is helping physicians and patients in a variety of ways. The company is partnering with pharmaceutical and medical device companies to support physicians in making faster and more accurate diagnoses. This not only helps cardiologists work more efficiently but also helps other specialists, such as oncologists and general practitioners, treat each patient more confidently and in a more personalized way.

Idoven is also working to support at-risk patient groups. In collaboration with Real Madrid Foundation and Iker Casillas Foundation, Idoven is monitoring 800 children with Down syndrome who are more likely to have congenital heart conditions.[iv] It’s also working with the International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPRO), monitoring professional athletes who are at higher risk for sudden cardiac death.[v] “Their hearts are beating so much when they’re sprinting around the field, we’re doing a double check to make sure everything’s okay,” Marina Breysse says.

Using wearable technology, patients can use Willem to take a daily ECG at home while drinking their coffee.

Using AI within healthcare can help improve patient outcomes. The applications that 16 Bit and Idoven are developing are just the beginning, as the healthcare industry leverages digital technology to enable the digital transformation that will support better care for patients.

REFERENCES

[i] Not a GE Healthcare product. Rho™ Score has not yet been CE marked. Rho Score has not been cleared, approved, or authorized by the U.S. FDA.

[ii] Interview with Dr. Alexander Bilbily.

[iii] Willem is a product of Idoven. Willem has not been cleared, approved, or authorized by the U.S. FDA.

[iv] Idoven, https://www.idoven.ai/use-case-preven-monitor.

^[v]“FIFPRO and Idoven Partner Up to Equip Professional Football Unions and Players with Heart Monitoring Resource,” Idoven, August 30, 2022, https://www.idoven.ai/blog/fifpro-and-idoven-partner-up-to-equip-professional-football-unions-and-players-with-heart-monitoring-resource.

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