Altoida raises $6.3 million in series A funding round to further AI-enabled healthcare goals

Georgia-based healthcare firm Altoida Inc has raised $6.3 million (£5m) in a series A funding round conducted by German pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA-owned capital venture firm M Ventures, with participation from Grey Sky Venture Partners, VI Partners AG, Alpana Ventures, and FYRFLY Venture Partners.

Altoida, which is led by a team of esteemed neuroscientists, physicians and computer scientists, utilises digital biomarkers to drive better clinical outcomes for brain disease....

24 June 2019 | Funding

Hospitals embracing AI will receive extra cash to incentivise adoption

The chief executive of the NHS in the UK has said hospitals will receive extra cash for replacing clinicians and embracing new technologies such as AI.

Simon Stevens says the plans are part of an initiative to improve patient outcomes and deliver savings. Stevens admits some jobs are at risk, as roles such as radiographers are replaced to achieve productivity targets set in return for the NHS' £20 billion funding boost it was given last year.

“We are seeing an...

6 June 2019 | Healthcare

Biofourmis raises $35m in series B funding round to further biotech and AI ethos

Singapore-based biotech provider Biofourmis has raised $35 million (£28m) in a recent series B funding round led by Sequoia India and MassMutual Ventures, along with EDBI, Jianke, and existing investors Openspace Ventures, Aviva Ventures and SGInnovate.

The raised amount will be used by Biofourmis to commercialise in the US and Asia and expand its team focused on data science, clinical and regulators and sales operations.

Kuldeep Singh Rajput, founder and CEO of...

28 May 2019 | Healthcare

Babylon Health’s GP at Hand causes £21.6m funding gap

Babylon Health's AI-powered healthcare service GP at Hand has caused a funding gap in excess of £21 million just as further cuts are being made.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has championed GP at Hand since 2017. The digital service has come into question for providing unsafe recommendations, and for taking money away from surgeries already struggling with cuts.

The service has operated through the Hammersmith and Fulham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) across London....

24 May 2019 | Healthcare

ML algorithm predicts heart attacks with 90% accuracy

A machine learning algorithm claims to predict heart attacks and death from heart disease with a degree of accuracy beating human practitioners.

The algorithm claims to have a 90 percent accuracy. LogitBoost was trained on data from 950 chest pain patients –  from the data, 85 variables are calculated.

Each of the patients have known outcomes after six years. Combined, this algorithm was able to identify patterns which indicates a higher chance of a heart attack...

14 May 2019 | Healthcare

Nvidia explains how ‘true adoption’ of AI is making an impact

Nvidia Senior Director of Enterprise David Hogan spoke at this year’s AI Expo about how the company is seeing artificial intelligence adoption making an impact.

In the keynote session, titled ‘What is the true adoption of AI’, Hogan provided real-world examples of how the technology is being used and enabled by Nvidia’s GPUs. But first, he highlighted the momentum we’re seeing in AI.

“Many governments have announced investments in AI and how they're going...

26 April 2019 | Applications

Babylon Health erases AI test event for its chatbot doctor

Babylon Health has removed all traces of an AI test event it held last year to promote its chatbot doctor.

The company's GP at Hand app, which features the chatbot and can provide a video link with a doctor, was promoted by former UK digital secretary Matt Hancock and is backed by the NHS.

Furthermore, Samsung partnered with Babylon Health last year to integrate the service with compatible Galaxy devices

Babylon Health's AI-powered chatbot aims to provide...

12 April 2019 | Healthcare

DeepMind’s first commercial product diagnoses eye diseases

DeepMind is preparing to launch its first commercial product and it aims to aid the diagnosis of complex eye diseases.

The renowned Cambridge-based artificial intelligence experts hope their product will become parent company Alphabet’s first medical device.

In a live demonstration, a patient had a retinal scan performed on her eye. DeepMind’s system was able to provide a diagnosis and ‘urgency score’ in just 30 seconds.

The ability to perform such a...

1 April 2019 | DeepMind

IBM hopes machine learning is the key to solving Alzheimer’s

IBM has developed a machine learning algorithm which shows promise for detecting and slowing the progress of Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s is a brutal disease not just for sufferers, but their loved ones too. The disease currently has no cure and causes an increasing loss of memory, confusion, and difficulty completing once familiar tasks.

IBM Australia published a paper today providing details of how machine learning and AI can be used to predict the severity of...

11 March 2019 | Healthcare

Transhumanism: AI could figure out how to make humans live forever

During a panel discussion on transhumanism at this year’s MWC, one expert predicted AI could figure out how to make a human live forever.

‘If You're Under 50, You'll Live Forever: Hello Transhumanism’ was the name of the session and featured Alex Rodriguez Vitello of the World Economic Forum and Stephen Dunne of Telefonica-owned innovation facility Alpha.

Transhumanism is the idea that humans can evolve beyond their current physical and mental limitations using...

28 February 2019 | Healthcare