Bay Labs has partnered with Edwards Lifesciences on several initiatives using artificial intelligence (AI) software to enhance the detection of heart disease.
Image: Bay Labs joins hands with Edwards Lifesciences. Photo: Courtesy of Markus Spiske/Unsplash
Bay Labs is a San Francisco-based privately held firm focused on increasing quality, value and access to medical imaging by integrating deep learning and ultrasound.
Edwards Lifesciences is a US-based medical equipment company specializing in artificial heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring.
The partnership involves several initiatives such as development of new AI-powered algorithms in Bay Labs’ EchoMD measurement and interpretation software suite, the integration of EchoMD algorithms into Edwards’ CardioCare quality care navigation platform. It will also provide support for ongoing clinical studies at leading institutions.
Several EchoMD algorithms have been integrated into the CardioCare platform for investigational use to analyze echocardiograms. The two companies stated that incorporating these and future algorithms into clinical practice can help in improving quality and to potentially increase accurate detection of heart diseases.
The CardioCare program integrates clinical consulting expertise with a cloud-based platform to help in identification, referral, and care pathway management of heart disease in patients.
The program helps hospitals to improve quality by reducing variability in echocardiography and to provide effective communication between care settings to ensure patients access to care.
The EchoMD software suite will support cardiologists in offering automated review of images captured during echocardiograms.
Bay Labs co-founder and CEO Charles Cadieu said: “Our vision is to improve patient care throughout the continuum from disease detection to appropriate intervention.
“Working with Edwards to deploy Bay Labs’ AI software with deep learning technology into clinical settings has the potential to derive quality improvements and to increase the accuracy of timely heart disease detection.”
In June this year, Bay Labs secured approval from the FDA for its first release of EchoMD, which included AutoEF.
AutoEF automates calculation of left ventricular ejection fraction (EF), the single most widely used measurement of cardiac function.
It depends on image quality score algorithm which can quantify image quality of echo clips and displays the quality level alongside relevant images.
Edwards strategy and corporate development corporate vice president Don Bobo said: “It is unfortunate that patients suffering from severe aortic stenosis frequently do not receive a proper diagnosis, for a variety of reasons.
“The value of Bay Labs’ technology is in providing help for these patients to be appropriately diagnosed and successfully find their way to proper treatments.”