Cloud AI tool for ECG analysis raises $3.2m in seed funding
Cardiomatics, a cloud AI tool that allows trained medical staff to carry out electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by KAYA, the Central and Eastern European VC which has backed companies including Rohlik, Booksy, and DocPlanner.
Nina Capital, Nova Capital and Innovation Nest also participated in the round, which includes a $1 million non-equity grant from the Polish National Centre of Research and Development. Cardiomatics will use the funding to invest in product development, business activities in existing markets, and prepare the product to launch into new markets.
Cardiomatics was founded in 2017 by two digital signal processing engineers, Rafał Samborski and Mariusz Masior to allow healthcare professionals to carry out ECG analysis using AI. ECGs are a simple test that measures a heart’s electrical activity to provide information about heart rate and rhythm, as well as look for causes of chest pain and identify irregular heartbeats. However, it is one of the most difficult areas of diagnostics to teach because of its complex and time-consuming subject matter and often needs a specialist to read and understand the results.
Cardiomatics aims to democratise access to cardiac diagnoses, allowing any healthcare professional to read and understand an ECG test. Doctors can use the tool to detect and analyse many heart abnormalities, detect different heart disorders, and clearly visualise beats and rhythms in the recording. It takes minutes between a test to get the full report.
Already, over 3 million hours of ECG signals have been analysed commercially by the AI tool. It is used on a daily basis by more than 700 customers in 10+ countries, including Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and Poland. The tool received European medical device certification in 2018.
From heart to cloud
Cardiovascular disease is rising around the world and was the cause of one-third of all deaths globally in 2019. Cardiologists can optimise their workflow using Cardiomatics so they can see and treat more patients. GPs and smaller practices are able to offer ECG analysis to patients without having to refer them to specialist hospitals. Cardiomatics is hardware agnostic - its tool can be integrated with more than 25 ECG monitoring devices, offering a seamless connection to the devices that doctors are used to using in their practices.
All data is protected under GDPR and is end-to-end encrypted between the doctor’s PC that stores the recording and the cloud. Caridiomatics stores data in local secure data centres so it is close to its end users for regulatory purposes, and the service is global Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant.
Taking diagnosis out of the clinic
Cardiomatics has focussed to date on partnering with hospitals and clinics to broaden access to ECG analysis. The company has three ongoing clinical studies, including one with the Medical University of Warsaw which is focussing on extending the Cardiomatics database to provide accurate ECG readings for children and another with the University of Basel looking at cardiac arrhythmias in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.
With more and more devices on the market that can carry out ECG readings, Cardiomatics wants to work with different device makers to incorporate its algorithm.
Rafał Samborski, founder and CEO at Cardiomatics, said: “In the 1950s, ECG machines were the size of backpacks and now a device as small as a matchbox can measure a person’s heart. It’s likely we’ll have more devices surrounding us in the future that can record electrophysiological parameters, which is why we need tools to help us understand the reams of ECG data that are being produced every day. Cardiomatics is a superpower for doctors and nurses, allowing them to carry out fast ECG analysis and cardiac diagnoses without having to rely on a specialist, helping to prevent thousands of deaths every year from cardiovascular diseases. With a strong team behind us and a great set of investors, we are on a mission to become the leading ECG diagnostics tool in the world.”
Pavel Mucha, partner at KAYA, added: “Digital healthcare tools have exploded in the past couple of years and COVID-19 has only driven home the need for services that can assist healthcare workers and help make them more efficient. Cardiomatics is doing this for a specific but complicated area of the market and the results they’ve had so far are brilliant. I’m looking forward to working with Rafał and the rest of the team as they scale to new markets and become a global leader in ECG diagnostics.”