Radiology AI software provider Gleamer expands into MRI with two small acquisitions

Medical Imaging is a widespread term that includes several distinct technologies. After working on AI-powered equipment to enhance X-rays and mammography, French startup Glimmer Now the goal is to deal with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Instead of starting from scratch, glimmer has earned two startups that are already working on AI-powered MRI analysis: Pixel And Keras MedicalThe

Glimmer is a part of the second wave of startups trying to improve medical imaging using artificial intelligence. The founders of a number of technologies created startups around this topic in 2014 or 2015, they most of them had gone somewhere, some of them were united. For example, Zebra Medical Vision and Arteris were both acquired By the nanx And TempusRespectively

Established in 2017, Gleimer is creating an AI assistant for radiologists, a type of copilt for medical imaging. With glimmer, radiologists can improve diagnostic accuracy theoretically when explaining treatment images.

Startup has already persuaded 2,000 organizations across 45 countries to use its software solution. Overall, glimmer has processed 35 million tests. The company received the CE and FDA certificate for the product explained its bone trauma. In Europe, it also provides specifically focused products on chest X-rays, orthopedic and bone age measures with CE certificate.

“Unfortunately, radiology’s one-size-fit-up is not done,” Gleimer’s co-founder and CEO told Christian Aluche TechCrunch. “Having a larger model is very complex that cover all medical imaging and provides the level of performances expected by physicians.”

That’s why the company has created small internal teams focusing on mammography and CT scans. “Three weeks ago we published our mammography product, which we have been working for 18 months,” said ALUSE. It is based on a owned AI model that has been trained in 1.5 million mammography.

“We have partnership with the GPU cluster of the French government,” Aluch said. The company is also working on CT scans for cancer.

But what will happen to MRI? “MRI is a different technical place,” said ALUSE. “There is a lot of work in your MRI. This is not just identification, you’ve got the split, you’ve got identification, you have got features, classification, multi-sequence imaging ””

That’s why Gleimer is buying two small startups that have been working to move forward in this place for several years. Glimmer is not disclosing the terms of the deal.

“These two companies will turn into our two MRI platforms, with the obvious ambition to cover all use cases within the next two to three years,” said Aloche.

Preventive medical imaging

Glimmer models show the committed results, they are not yet perfect. For example, with the company’s new mammography model, startup claims that it can detect four of five cancers. In comparison, a human radiologist, except AI assistance, usually identifies cancer in three cases in five cases.

However, productivity profits from a tool like glimer can radically change medical imaging. A missed tumor may probably appear in the follow-up test a few months later.

“In the very distant future, I think we will all get the routine provided by our insurance companies to get the entire body MRI-because they are not radiating,” said ALUSE.

However, in some cities, there are already very few radiologists to meet the demand for responsive imaging. If the industry is transferred to preventive imaging, AI equipment will become essential.

Glimmer’s CEO thinks that AI can become an “orchestrating and trizing” equipment. Most medical imaging tests are conducted as a way to cancel some diagnosis. “So, with a very strong AI model, there is a real need to automate all of this that has a much higher level of sensitivity than humans,” said Aloche.