What You Should Know:
– The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has granted next-generation
cardiac AI company Eko an award totaling $2.7 million to support continued
collaborative work with Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute
– The grant will focus on validating algorithms and help
more accurately screen for heart murmurs and valvular heart disease during
routine office visits with Northwestern Medicine.
– By incorporating data from tens of thousands of heart
patterns into Eko sensors and algorithms, clinicians will have
cardiologist-level precision in detecting subtle abnormalities from normal
sounds.
Eko, a digital health company
building AI-powered screening
and telehealth solutions to
fight cardiovascular disease, today announced it has been awarded a $2.7
million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant by the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant will fund the continued collaborative
work with Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute to validate
algorithms that help providers screen for pathologic heart murmurs and valvular
heart disease during routine office visits.
Eko and Northwestern first announced their collaboration in
March 2019 to provide a simpler, lower-cost way for clinicians to identify
patients with heart disease without the use of screening tools such as
echocardiograms which are typically only available at specialty clinics. By
incorporating data from tens of thousands of heart patterns into the
stethoscope and its algorithms, clinicians will have cardiologist-level
precision in detecting subtle abnormalities from normal sounds.
“Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and valvular heart disease often goes undetected because of the challenge of hearing murmurs with traditional stethoscopes, particularly in noisy or busy environments. A highly accurate clinical decision support algorithm that is able to detect and classify valvular heart disease will help improve accuracy of diagnosis and the detection of potential cardiac abnormalities at the earliest possible time, allowing for timely intervention,” said James D. Thomas, MD, director of the Center for Heart Valve Disease at Northwestern Medicine and the clinical study’s principal investigator. “Our work with Eko aspires to extend the auscultatory expertise of cardiologists to more general practitioners to better serve our patient community, playing a pivotal role in growing the future of cardiovascular medicine.”
Recent FDA Clearance and Telehealth Platform Launch
This recognition comes on the heels of several key company
milestones, including the clearance
of Eko’s cardiac AI algorithms by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the
launch
of Eko’s AI-powered telehealth
platform. Eko’s ECG-based deep learning algorithm, developed on a large
clinical dataset in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, can help efficiently
identify signs of possible heart failure in patients.
Eko’s AI-Powered telehealth platform for virtual pulmonary and cardiac exams, providing clinicians within-person level exam capabilities during video visits. The platform is already deployed by more than 200 health systems for telehealth, the platform goes beyond standard video conferencing to facilitate stethoscope audio, ECG live-streaming, and FDA-cleared identification of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and heart murmurs.
