Superhuman powers for radiologists: Novel AI marketplace for more accurate and faster diagnostics
- Easy integration of artificial intelligence into the medical workflow
- Higher safety for patients
- GDPR-compliant and easy clinical decision support
- Public funding under the Hospital Future Act (KHZG)
The MedTech startup deepc (www.deepc.ai) is launching its novel AI marketplace 'deepcOS' today, initially for the European market. The CE-marked medical device has been tested in hospitals and diagnostic imaging centers. It supports and improves radiological diagnostics with a myriad of AI applications and can be easily integrated into existing clinical systems in a secure and privacy-compliant manner.
Following the successful seed funding round in the mid-seven-figure range, `deepcOS` is the first product of the Munich-based company, which was awarded the Founder's Prize and the Special Prize in healthcare by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).
The rise in the use of medical imaging such as MRI, CT, and X-ray has resulted in vast data volumes. It is making the already demanding work of radiologists much more complex, and time-consuming.
For example, when diagnosing brain changes in multiple sclerosis, several hundred images have to be read. In everyday clinical practice, doctors complain about the time constraints to identify cases requiring urgent attention. In such scenarios, sometimes even minutes can become crucial in ensuring the patient’s survival.
Together with his three co-founders, medical doctor and data scientist Dr. Franz Pfister envisions to precisely address this issue, stating: "Artificial intelligence can demonstrably make medical diagnostics more precise and faster, and increase patient safety. We equip radiologists with superhuman powers, so to speak. Complex visualization, quantification, comparison, and counting tasks can be performed considerably better by the 'machine', but only a human can evaluate additional medical information beyond the mere image, make the final diagnosis and have the conversation with a patient or family member."
deepc employs 25 leading experts with years of experience in the fields of AI, software, cybersecurity, healthcare, and medical technology. They are all united by one vision: To provide every patient in the world with immediate access to precise and secure diagnostics.
Now they have jointly brought their first medical device 'deepcOS' to market as one of the world's leading CE-marked platforms for end-to-end AI integration into the clinical workflow. The system has been tested in several real-world evidence studies with outstanding performance. Together with the applications of renowned AI partners such as Qure.ai from the US/India, Mediaire from Germany, and Gleamer from France, numerous clinical studies have shown substantial productivity gains.
Co-founder Julia Moosbauer, a mathematician and data scientist, explains: “'deepcOS` is a software system, hosted in Germany within the EU. Together with our vetted AI partners, we offer a medical-grade cloud-based AI marketplace that seamlessly synchronizes with existing RIS/PACS systems - employing one platform, one integration, one workflow, and one billing process."
The AI medical products from deepc's partners are integrated with the platform after having passed an elaborate curation process, including benchmarking against huge test databases. deepc orchestrates the type of AI processing and continuously checks compliance.
The hardware requirements to use AI in clinical routine are very cost-intensive due to the processing of large amounts of data, the required computing power, and the type of graphics processing units. Thus, they are usually not available within clinical institutions or practices. By hosting the algorithms via the deepcOS operating system, substantial challenges of medical facilities can thus be addressed.
The medical products of deepc and all of its worldwide partners are MDR- and GDPR-compliant and are regularly audited by data-protection authorities and so-called Notified Bodies for medical devices.
deepcOS is eligible for public funding under the Hospital Future Act (KHZG) for hospitals, in the areas of 'partially or fully automated clinical decision support systems' and the 'coordination of the range of services offered by several hospitals, e.g. through cloud computing'.
AI experts and physicians from deepc also advise hospitals on the selection of AI applications that are suitable for their respective needs.
