Infervision, the medtech company which uses Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning to improve medical image analysis and significantly speed radiologists’ reading of scans and X-rays, today is launching a artificial intelligence (AI) platform to help radiologists diagnose strokes quickly using CT brain scans. This will help patients get faster treatment, possibly saving lives and reducing the impact of the stroke.
The new AI-CT Stroke Screening System is the first of the Infervision AI-CT (head) family. The new technology assists doctors to determine which type of stroke a patient may have suffered, either a hemorrhagic (bleeding) stroke or an ischemic (blood clot) stroke, so that patients can receive effective and faster treatment. With a stroke, a patient suffers loss of brain tissue as the tissue dies without proper blood flow, leading to various types of impairment or even death, so a speedier diagnosis is essential to shorten the time before the proper treatment could begin.
To develop this diagnostic capability, the Infervision platform applied deep learning technology and trained many thousands of datasets of annotated medical images. Today, radiologists at Beijing Tian Tan Hospital are testing the Infervision platform to diagnose the type, location and severity of a patient’s stroke. For hemorrhagic stroke patients, the AI-CT Stroke Screening System technology assists doctors in accurately and quickly determining whether a bleeding-type stroke has occurred, how much blood volume is involved (which is quite difficult and often inaccurately estimated through other methods), and the bleed location – crucial factors in deciding treatment options.
In ischemic strokes, today doctors typically use MRI scans for diagnosis, especially in the early stages of the stroke, however this can often be a problem as MRIs are less available 24/7 and the MRI requires additional time for preparation and scanning. When treating strokes, the faster the treatment begins, the better the patient outcome may be. With the Infervision platform, doctors may take scans with the much more readily available CT machine, and use the AI technology to help guide them in making a faster diagnosis and perhaps save more brain tissue with faster and more appropriate treatment.
“Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the leading cause of permanent disability and loss of independent life-years in Western countries. At Infervision we are committed to helping doctors speed their diagnosis of stroke so patients can get the best and most appropriate treatment as fast as possible. We have built a deep learning algorithm team of almost 100 people fully committed to developing the most cutting edge AI solutions to make this a reality,” said Kuan Chen (CK), founder and CEO of Infervision in a statement. “This can be life changing for many patients.”
Currently Infervision is collaborating with over 50 top hospitals. By the end of September 2017, Infervision’s A.I. products have assisted radiologists with over 200,000 studies. Infervision recently closed $18 million Series B funding from Qiming Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital China and Genesis Capital. This funding follows a Series A round of $7.2 million led by Sequoia Capital in January 2017.
