A Tel Aviv-based startup is developing AI that can detect heart failure from a single video clip produced by a hand-held ultrasound – saving months-long waits for hospital scans.
The benefits are huge. Patients receive an instant diagnosis from a three-minute scan carried out by a doctor, nurse, or even a medical assistant. That means earlier detection, quicker treatment and better outcomes for potentially life-threatening conditions.
The alternative is to make a hospital appointment for an echocardiogram, with average NHS waiting times currently at 18 weeks.
The full hospital scan itself, done by a specialist cardiac sonographer, can take an hour, sometimes under sedation, and then needs to be interpreted by a cardiologist.
The tech that medical startup aisap.ai – ‘AI’ plus ‘ASAP’ – brings to the table transforms the diagnosis of heart issues.
It does not need the high-resolution 3D images produced by a state-of-the-art machine to identify valve leaks, poor pumping or ventricle problems.
Instead, its deep-learning model is able to accurately scan raw video clips from an inexpensive probe hooked up to a smartphone at a GP clinic.
It’s been trained on millions of clips to detect clues far too subtle for a human eye.
AISAP is already providing “point-of-care assisted diagnosis” at Sheba Medical Center, near Tel Aviv, and at hospitals in the US, where non-cardiologists perform quick bedside checks on patients, taking several clips for the AI to interpret.
The company is now taking the tech a step further, so that it can work off a single video clip from a non-hospital environment.
Michael Fiman, who leads the AI development at AISAP, says it could play a key role in preventative medicine.
“We could take over-60s, put them behind a screen in a supermarket and scan them for valvular pathologies. It would take three minutes each.
“We’d find those with a high-risk score and send them for a full echocardiogram. We’d make their lives better, or even save their lives.”
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