US health giant bankrolls Aussie AI breakthrough

A Melbourne start-up has won funding from a specialist investor to harness AI in eye treatments to better predict blindness, heart attacks and strokes.

A clinician using AI technology developed by Melbourne eye disease company Eyetelligence.

A venture capital fund partly owned by New York’s largest healthcare provider will invest $US12m ($17.75m) into a Melbourne-based medical technology start-up that is harnessing artificial intelligence for the detection of debilitating eye diseases such as glaucoma and could one day provide early warning of heart attacks and strokes.

Eyetelligence, a Melbourne-based health technology company that uses advanced AI technology and retinal imaging to screen for eye and systemic diseases, has won the first ever funding deal from the new specialist American VC fund.

It places Eyetelligence at the centre of the looming AI revolution and among the ranks of tech giants such as Google and Apple which are searching for ways to use AI in a range of disciplines including health to create new diagnostics, medicines and treatments.

Springing out of research from the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Eye Research Australia, Eyetelligence’s cutting edge AI technology is targeting screening for three common eye diseases – diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma – which can be detected far earlier using algorithmic retinal image analysis.

Its backers, a group of Australian scientists, doctors and entrepreneurs, believe this could be just the tip of the iceberg. AI could one day discern diseases that affect the microvascular system, providing an early warning for cardiovascular diseases.

These are the hopes of big US investors led by Northwell Holdings – a fully owned for-profit subsidiary of Northwell Health, which is one of the largest healthcare providers in the US as well as being the biggest in New York – and its VC partner New York-based Aegis Ventures.

Together Northwell Health and Aegis have created a new VC fund called Ascertain, which will help fund the research and creation of new health and medical applications backed by AI.

The $US12m investment in Eyetelligence marks the funds’ maiden investment and its first seed investment outside the US, with Ascertain committed to accelerating the development of healthcare AI companies globally with a keen eye on Australia.

A Melbourne-based medical tech company has won $18m in funding from a US VC group to develop early warning diagnostics for a range of eye diseases and potentially heart attacks and strokes. Picture: iStock

The healthcare sector is waking up to the potential of AI to improve outcomes for patients and clinicians. Recently bionic ear implant leader Cochlear joined a partnership with Google and Australian audiology researchers to harness AI technology in hearing aid implant development. That collaboration is part of Google’s Digital Future Initiative – a $1bn program.

Eyetelligence’s technology is based on the inventions of Dr Mingguang He, professor of ophthalmic epidemiology at the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Eye Research. He is rated as a world-renowned expert in the development and application of AI systems in ophthalmology. Eyetelligence has developed a suite of clinically validated and regulatory approved AI-enabled products already being commercialised in the Australian, New Zealand, European and Japanese markets.

Its products are used by the Bupa Optical and George & Matilda optometry chains in Australia. “This technology allows clinicians to act faster and prevent significant impacts on quality of life,” said Dr He.

“I welcome the support of Ascertain who sees the potential of Eyetelligence’s technology for the US and is committed to identifying and accelerating the use of emerging AI technologies to drive significant health benefits globally.”

Under the investment deal Eyetelligence will be rebranded and launched in the US as Optain, and will work towards non-invasive point-of-care technologies to diagnose a range of diseases more rapidly and cost-effectively.

“The healthcare industry has made a concerted effort in recent years to shift treatment from reactive sick-care to proactive preventive care, but many of the legacy screening and diagnostic technologies used by clinicians today are expensive and inaccessible,” said Jeff Dunkel, CEO of Optain.

“The most immediate opportunity for impact is within ophthalmology,” Mr Dunkel said. “Optain’s first goal is to expand access to screenings and diagnosis for preventable eye disease, closing critical health equity gaps, particularly in undeserved communities where diagnostic and screening tools aren’t available.”

Zachary Tan, an executive at US-based Aegis Partners and himself an Australian physician and researcher, said there were terrific investment opportunities in Australia and companies that didn’t have the access to scale and capital to make an impact. “I think we have amazing universities with amazing science and technology here, which unfortunately just doesn’t have access to the right forms of expertise and distribution to make a global ­impact.”

Dr Tan, who has done research in the area of AI and ophthalmology, said he was on the lookout for further investments in Australia that combined these two disciplines. He said AI could provide benefits to health issues from blindness to heart attacks.

“AI can give us, as physicians, insights into the human body which otherwise are just not possible. So 50 per cent of blindness is preventable but the biggest challenge is getting access and getting to an eye-care professional.

“What AI can do is automate that and really expand access to so many more patients so they don’t have to unnecessarily go blind. And the eye is the only part of the body where we can directly see blood vessels.

“By applying AI to pick pictures of the back of the eye we can tell you, for example, your risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next five years.”