- RETINA-AI Health, a company focused on building artificial intelligence to improve healthcare outcomes of prevalent diseases like diabetes, announced it has raised $5.2 million in funding
RETINA-AI Health is a company focused on building artificial intelligence to improve healthcare outcomes of prevalent diseases like diabetes. And more broadly, the company develops and deploys retina-based artificial intelligence for the detection of disease at scale. Recently, the company announced it has raised $5.2 million in funding.
This funding round was provided by private investors, 80% of whom are physicians. One of the investors also included Bill Smith, founder of Shipt (acquired by Target in 2018 for $550 million).
It is estimated that diabetes affects up to 35 million Americans. And each person with with diabetes needs at least one retinal exam per year. But due to several variables like cost, inconvenience, lack of transportation, and a shortage of eye specialists, over half of people with diabetes in the U.S. do not get their annual retinal exam. This often results in preventable blindness.
RETINA-AI Health has developed artificial intelligence technology to enable the diabetic retinal exam to be done in the primary care setting. And the company’s HUMMINGBIRD DR 100 product is a cloud-based AI detector of diabetic retinopathy — which interprets the retinal image and returns a PDF report within a few seconds.
The founder and CEO of RETINA-AI Health Dr. Stephen Odaibo is a retina specialist, computer scientist, and full-stack AI engineer. Dr. Odaibo said that the funding will be used to take the company’s retina-based AI detection technology through the FDA.
KEY QUOTES:
“The confluence of value-based healthcare delivery and artificial intelligence provides a tangible and timely opportunity for positive impact.”
— Dr. Stephen Odaibo
“Artificial intelligence has the potential to make a significant impact in diabetic retinopathy screening by improving the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and the accessibility of screening programs.”
— Dr. Richard Hwang, MD, Ph.D., a retina specialist in El Paso, Texas
