Qure.ai has received a multimillion-dollar grant from the Gates Foundation to expand its global health work, including the development of AI-enabled point-of-care ultrasound algorithms to enable earlier detection of tuberculosis (TB) and pneumonia in under-resourced settings.
The grant will fund the creation of a large, open-source, multi-modal database designed to support World Health Organization-aligned lung health diagnostic pathways. Qure.ai said the dataset will include non-identifiable clinical history and multiple data types—such as chest X-rays, thoracic ultrasound, high-resolution CT images, cough and lung recordings, and lab or biological markers—intended to help researchers worldwide develop, validate, and improve new AI models.
A major focus of the initiative is developing AI tools for point-of-care ultrasound to help identify TB and pneumonia earlier, particularly in regions where access to specialist clinicians and advanced imaging is limited. Qure.ai cited the scale of the challenge, noting TB deaths of about 1.23 million annually and pneumonia deaths of about 2 million each year, including roughly 700,000 children under five.
The company said its work in TB screening and diagnosis has already been deployed to remote and hard-to-reach environments, and that its AI-enabled imaging approaches have reduced the time to diagnosis in some settings from approximately two weeks to as little as one to two days, even when a clinician is not on site.
Qure.ai describes itself as a global AI diagnostics company with deployments across more than 105 countries and over 4,800 sites, supporting detection and care management in areas including TB, lung cancer, and neurocritical conditions such as stroke. The company has regional offices in New York, London, Dubai, and Mumbai, and has been named a TIME100 Most Influential Company for 2025.
KEY QUOTES:
“In a bid to reach the unreachable we have innovated our way around the world over the last 10 years, taking AI-enabled X-ray to some of the remotest regions of sub-Saharan Africa, to the heights of Everest and depths of rural Southeast Asia, tackling the detection and diagnosis of TB. This is powerful progress that has reduced diagnosis rates from 14 days to 1-2 days, without even a clinician present. Now, with this grant from the Gates Foundation, we are excited to leverage this expertise further to scale and reach more people,”
Prashant Warier, Co-founder and CEO, Qure.ai
“With the very latest developments in digital health and artificial intelligence, Qure.ai can help reach healthcare’s blind spots, bringing high-quality diagnostics within reach of every clinic, health worker, and child, no matter where they live,”
Dr. Shibu Vijayan, Chief Medical Officer – Global Health, Qure.ai
“This grant will allow us to build on the years of continuous innovation we have spearheaded in public health and our commitment to pushing the boundaries of what AI can do for global health. It brings together pneumonia, tuberculosis, and broader lung health priorities, with a focus on children in low and middle-income countries. A child dies of pneumonia every 43 seconds which is an unacceptable and an avoidable loss. It underscores the urgent need for better diagnostics and equitable access to care,”
Dr. Justy Antony Chiramal, Project Lead and Clinical Director, Global Health Innovation, Qure.ai
