point-of-care-diagnostics
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Orange Biomed Bet Its A1C Test on One Weird Fact: Sugar Makes Blood Cells Stiff
A Duke-born startup turned the stiffness of red blood cells into a pocket-size diabetes test. The science is clever; the harder experiment is getting a regulated device from a five-minute demo into millions of homes.
The St. Louis Startup Giving Away Its Pandemic-Detecting Breakthrough
Two brothers, a sensor the size of a credit-card chip, and a $20 million bet from Vitalik Buterin - Varro wants to catch the next pandemic in 60 seconds, then hand the recipe to the world.
Semler Scientific
One company, two ledgers: a five-minute artery test that scans for hidden vascular disease, and a corporate treasury that traded idle cash for Bitcoin.
Digital Diagnostics
Digital Diagnostics is a Coralville, Iowa healthcare AI company that builds autonomous - not assistive - diagnostic systems that make a clinical decision without a physician reviewing the result. Its flagship product, LumineticsCore (formerly IDx-DR), was the first medical device of any kind to receive FDA authorization to make an autonomous diagnosis: it screens for diabetic retinopathy from retinal images at the point of care in primary care offices, no eye specialist required. Founded in 2010 by retina specialist and computer engineer Dr. Michael Abramoff, the company has raised more than $130 million to expand autonomous AI into new disease areas.
DermaSensor, Inc.
DermaSensor is a Miami-based medical device company that makes the first FDA-cleared, AI-powered handheld device for detecting all three common skin cancers - melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma - at the point of care. Using elastic scattering spectroscopy and a machine learning algorithm trained on thousands of biopsy-confirmed lesions, the device gives primary care physicians a real-time, non-invasive read on whether a suspicious skin lesion warrants further evaluation, helping close the gap created by a shortage of dermatologists.