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April 30, 2024
In recent years, the demand for imaging diagnostics has surged like never before owing to the aging population and increased enrollment in Medicare. Unfortunately, this increased demand has been met with a shortage of radiologists. Because of this, radiologists are forced to work longer hours, ultimately resulting in heavy burnouts.
Jennifer Bibles, group president of outpatient imaging services for US Radiology Specialists, notes, “We are absolutely facing shortages right now, specifically in our larger markets.”
Amidst these challenges, marching to rescue are AI-driven healthcare imaging solutions. These solutions automate processes and improve accuracy, thereby helping healthcare companies cut costs and improve patient outcomes.
However, the problem with most—if not all—AI-driven imaging solutions providers is that their clinical research and AI models are built only on data that represents 20% of the world. This means that the datasets are skewed predominantly towards Caucasian data. For instance, brain volumes and shrinkage are well-established biomarkers for neurodegenerative conditions. However, when these volumes are compared against a reference range (acceptable or normal levels) that was built using predominantly Caucasian data, the results are not necessarily useful or relevant to other ethnicities. Because of the size differences in brain based on ethnicity, existing products tend to overestimate false positives in Asian markets by almost 30%. Despite a number of breakthroughs in the field of healthcare and health technology and genuine intentions to develop broad solutions, there still exists persistent gaps in equity and access to state-of-the-art healthcare solutions.
Founded in 2021, InMed is an health tech company with expertise in creating, deploying, and managing AI tools to automate the processing of clinical imaging and other complex data to apply to different use cases, market segments, and modalities. The company is committed to addressing the gaps in healthcare imaging by leveraging AI and precision medicine principles.
Recognizing the industry’s neglect of diverse patient populations in AI development, InMed set out to develop solutions that consider ethnicity and demographic factors in training data and have a sample that is broad-based. And thus was born the company’s flagship product, Neuroshield™.
At the core of the company’s innovation is Neuroshield™, which provides reference ranges adjusted to age, gender, and ethnicity, bringing precision medicine to brain health. As the world’s first and only US FDA 510 K-approved AI-powered MR volumetric solution that includes ethnicity in its reference range, Neuroshield™ harnesses state-of-the-art AI/ML techniques, 3D CNN, and other cutting-edge tools. Neuroshield™-MRI is a comprehensive brain volumetry tool designed specifically for MRI scans. It provides brain volumetry reporting along with condition-specific analysis for epilepsy and dementia. Additionally, Neuroshield™-MRI detects lesions, and artifacts for quality checks, and performs tilt correction on images. It includes 32 different structures in its full report and offers specific structures in condition-specific reports. Furthermore, Neuroshield-MRI incorporates ethnicity-based reference ranges for improved accuracy, including South Asian and general US population reference ranges. “Neuroshield™’s analysis is designed to include ethnicity, making it more accurate in the Indian, Asian, and African contexts,” states Latha. But that’s not to say that Neuroshield™ is only useful to populations in Asia or Africa; it is also useful for people from ethnicities other than Caucasians in developed nations and/or heterogenous societies such as the US and EU. And then there is Neuroshield™ TBI. It serves as a triage tool for efficient diagnosis and is used for acute conditions such as neurotrauma. It offers brain CT fracture, midline shift, and hemorrhage detection and quantification. The company is confident of securing the US FDA 510K clearance for this tool before the end of the year.
Besides Neuroshield™, InMed has also applied its capacity to work in the MR space to develop a whole-body MRI solution called Vivoshield. This solution helps in monitoring body composition and fat distribution to address the burgeoning issues of metabolic diseases that determine and shape the wellness or illness trajectory of individuals who are concerned with preventive health. This product has also been piloted in athletic and wellness use cases for enhancing athletic performance and preventing injuries and received very well. For instance, a coach of a prominent cricket club in Mumbai says, “Vivoshield is a tool which will help in mitigating risk of injuries by providing biomechanical insights to enable sportsmen and women to preform to the best of their abilities. As a coach, I have witnessed benefits in understanding body elasticity and would recommend others to definitely try Vivoshield.”
In such a short period, Nueroshield has received widespread reception in the industry. At the time of this writing, over 280 sites use Neuroshield™ regularly and the company has served 10s of thousands of patients during 2022 and 2023. Many leading hospitals, Diagnostic Imaging Centers, and practicing Neurologists in the space love and prefer Neuroshield™ for its faster, more efficient automated image processing. It helps radiologists unload the burden off their shoulders and facilitates reduced turnaround time on scan reports, which then translates into higher levels of patient retention.
Moreover, Neuroshield™ reduces healthcare resource utilization through early detection and intervention, therefore increasing downstream revenue (additional scans) and augmented revenues for service providers. When it comes to pricing, the development center in India makes state-of-the-art affordable, allowing the company to sell Neuroshield™ at a price point that reflects its vision to reduce barriers to access.
The number of awards and recognitions the company has received over the past three years is a testament to the success of its products. Recently, In-Med CEO was selected as one of the top 20 Indian women redefining leadership by Outlook, a leading magazine. She was featured in this list along with illustrious leaders such as the Finance Minister of India. Yet another major highlight is the invitations from General Electric and Nvidia to participate in their respective Accelerator programs. Other notable awards include the Economic Times Business Award, Business Today Award, NASSCOM Emerge 50 Tech Startup Award, NAASCOM AI Innovator Award, and IFAH Dubai Top 50 Health Tech Companies Award.
That said, all these awards and accolades wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the company’s small but powerful team. Backed by highly-experienced, scientific and technology experts, InMed’s team is distributed across the US, EU, and Asia. Their expertise spans from translational clinical research, development, deployment, and management of modality and organ-agnostic fully automated image processing algorithms and pipelines using AI/ML. Their capabilities include building and deploying tools for remote site monitoring, providing both central and site-based access to medical imaging and other clinical data, dynamic dashboards, and imaging data visualization.
The future looks bright for InMed as it continues to build revolutionary products. Moving forward, the company is in the process of expanding its suite of products that cut across different organs and conditions like ortho, cardio, and oncology and across different modalities such as MRI, CT, and Digital X-ray. In addition to getting US FDA 510 k clearance for its first product, Neuroshield™ MR volumetry, InMed is in the process of submitting other applications as well. Currently, the company is working on applications to be submitted for different regulatory approvals such as CE Marking, and PMDA. “Our goal is to continuously move towards our mission of bringing affordable, accessible, reliable, and state-of-the-art AI-based healthcare tools across the world,” says Latha.
On a closing note, Latha notes, “We are excited about the future of the industry and In-Med’s growth trajectory. We are one of, if not the most capital-efficient firms in this space and have iterated and validated our product development strategy in the highly challenging, complex, and price and value-sensitive Indian market. This learning will help us to create value in a financially responsible manner in other similar markets while increasing investor value.”
Company Description: InMed is a technology company with expertise in creating, training, and managing AI tools to automate the processing of clinical imaging and other complex data to apply to different use cases, market segments, and modalities. The company is committed to addressing the gaps in healthcare imaging by leveraging AI and precision medicine principles..
Pull Quote: “Our goal is to continuously move towards our mission of bringing affordable, accessible, reliable, and state-of-the-art AI-based healthcare tools across the world.”
Company Name: In-Med Prognostics
Founding Year: 2021
Office Locations: San Diego, CA; Sydney, AU; Pune, India
Official Website of the Company: inmed.ai
Name of the Featured Leader: Latha Poonamallee
Designation of the Leader: Founder & CEO
