The Slovak cloud radiology platform, which specializes in 3D medical images from CT and MRI examinations of patients, announced the end of an investment round led by the domestic fund Zero One Hundred in the total amount of 300 thousand euros. The Medannot platform changes the way radiologists and doctors use artificial intelligence and makes it available to every specialist or healthcare professional. Already today, it offers doctors more than 50 AI models that they can create and apply even without programming skills. Among them are models for the detection of lung cancer from CT images, a tool for the precise identification of vessels for transplants and reconstructive operations, or a tool for non-invasive colonoscopies through virtual reality. Pilot use of the platform is already underway in several world hospitals and universities. The investment will serve to accelerate the development and further expansion of the platform within Europe and the Middle East.
“There is a lot of repetitive work in radiology. However, only a small part of these tasks is automated, as AI companies currently do not have time to cover all clinical needs.” said MUDr. Ing. Pieter De Backer, PhD., co-founder of Medannot and adds: “We fundamentally changed the approach by enabling doctors to become developers of artificial intelligence models. With our platform, they can create, train and deploy AI models tailored to their specific needs without having to write a single line of code.”
Medanot enables doctors to create and deploy AI models for a wide range of radiology applications without the need for any programming skills. Thanks to this, the Slovak platform changes the way radiologists and doctors use artificial intelligence today and makes it available to everyone.
It offers an intuitive interface accessible directly through a web browser that seamlessly integrates with modern medical image archiving systems (PACS). These integrations allow doctors to annotate medical images directly in the browser and start training AI models after uploading just five images. The user-friendly design and rapid deployment ensure that any physician, regardless of technical expertise, can create AI models for a variety of applications, from diagnostics to 3D modeling.
“We decided to invest in Medannot because of its unique approach to the democratization of artificial intelligence in radiology. This investment is in line with our goal of supporting innovative solutions that move forwardin medical technology and ultimately lead to saving more lives,” said Dušan Duffek, Managing Partner of the Zero One Hundred fund.
“The investment from Zero One Hundred highlights their support for innovation in healthcare,” said Martin Herman, a member of the board of Medannot, who also worked with Zero One Hundred on another successful medical startup, Powerful Medical. He further emphasized the value of their support: “Zero One Hundred is a reliable partner, especially for projects that fundamentally push the boundaries of human knowledge.”
They help to treat and diagnose the most serious diseases
Medannot already offers more than 50 AI models covering a wide range of functions to improve radiology workflows. Highlights include models for detecting lung cancer on CT images, a tool for automated segmentation of maxillofacial bones and surrounding tissues that facilitates accurate vessel identification for transplants and reconstructive surgeries, and artificial intelligence that enables non-invasive colonoscopies through virtual reality. The platform was even recently used during 3D robotic surgery in clinical trials, where an automatically generated 3D model served as a reference for the surgeon through augmented reality directly in the robotic system.
Doctors who use Medannot can collaborate on the development and subsequent validation of these AI models, which guarantees their effectiveness in real clinical conditions. The platform provides the necessary regulatory infrastructure and will lead the certification process, using clinical evidence gathered by the medical community to get these AI models approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medical Device Regulation (MDR). Certified models can be included in the AI catalog, which allows the doctors who created them or helped to validate them to also benefit financially from their use.
“This collaborative approach accelerates the development and adoption of AI in radiology and creates a new revenue stream for physicians and hospitals, while allowing them to directly contribute to the advancement of medical technology,” adds Ing. Robert Klein, co-founder and CTO of Medannot.
As part of a pilot project, Medannot is used in several world hospitals and universities, for example in Bratislava’s National Institute of Heart and Vascular Diseases (NÚSCH), the OLV Aalst Cardiocenter, the University Hospital in Ghent, the Belgian research center Orsi Academy, the Gdańsk Medical University and the University in Modena and in hospitals in the Polish cities of Śląsk and Nuremberg.ň
Medannot is a platform that was created in 2022. It is powered by artificial intelligence and intended for collaboration in annotation in radiology and 3D surgical planning. From the annotation and segmentation of 3D medical scans to the creation of 3D models tailored to patients, Medannot covers the needs of clinicians across departments as well as AI teams building databases and training AI models.
Zero One Hundred is a Central European venture capital fund that was founded in Bratislava. It specializes in early-stage startups from developing European markets, from the Baltic countries, through Central Europe and the Balkans to Greece, as well as startups in the Middle East. In this region, which is called Emerging Europe, the three partners see unique technological and entrepreneurial talent. The trio has ambitions to offer opportunities, resources and support for further development in this area. Experience with VC investments began to be gained at Zero One Hundred in 2019, when they founded the Zero Gravity Capital fund. Today, he has many rising stars of the Slovak startup scene in his portfolio. The biggest project for Zero One Hundred at the moment is the launch of a larger fund that will focus on the European emerging market. The founders and partners of the fund bring to the startups their know-how related to building technology companies, which they acquired while working abroad, combined with knowledge of the business environment of the CEE region.
Source: www.nextech.sk
