As a concept, using artificial intelligence to monitor the health of ambulatory patients got a boost on Tuesday as physIQ, an AI-centered healthcare outfit, closed $8 million in Series B financing, led by 4490 Ventures. Joining 4490 is the Global Health Sciences Fund through Quark Venture Inc. and GF Securities, along with existing investor LionBird and others.
Dan Malven, managing partner at 4490 Ventures, and Dr. Zafrira Avnur, chief scientific officer at Quark Venture, have also both joined the physIQ board of directors.
The financing will be used to support the commercial launch of the physIQ VitaLink offering. VitaLink continuously gleans physiological data from wearables and implantable sensors, then applies AI technology to the data to craft insights that are personalized for the patient.
The technology is already seeing some use. Providers, payers, pharmaceutical and medical device companies are using the FDA-cleared analytics to proactively manage at-risk ambulatory patients. Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers are also integrating VitaLink into their clinical trials in order to capitalize on new real world datasets to validate the safety and efficacy of their products.
“Market reception to our transformational VitaLink solution confirms we have entered a new era of healthcare … one where continuous real world data and personalized analytics are generating unprecedented patient insight,” Gary Conkright, physIQ CEO, director, and founder, said in a statement. He added that the company’s new financial partners will help scale the technology for an increasing market demand.
The VitaLink solution includes the physIQ software platform and AI analytics suite, third-party wearable biosensors, a mobile Android device for secure patient data transmission, and a clinician user interface. As a data- and device-agnostic platform, it can accommodate any Bluetooth-enabled biosensor and has been engineered to be scalable, capable of continuously monitoring tens of thousands of patients at a time.
The solution is currently being studied and evaluated across multiple clinical use cases -- post-acute skilled nursing, home health and clinical trials -- and patient populations including heart failure, COPD, oncology, and chronic pain.
