Ross Upton, Founder & CEO Ultromics | Image credit: Ultromics
Oxford, UK-based Ultromics is a healthtech company that provides autonomous echocardiography analysis through Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions. Echocardiography is a test that uses sound waves to produce live images of your heart – the image is called an echocardiogram. This test allows doctors to monitor how the heart and its valves are functioning.
Ultromics raises Series B round
In a recent development, with an aim to set new standards for “world-class” cardiovascular diagnostic tools, the healthtech startup announced that it has raised $33M (approx €28M) in its Series B round of funding.
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According to Ultromics, it helps physicians to make fast, accurate decisions when diagnosing cardiovascular disease.
Investors
The round was led by the Blue Venture Fund – which is a collaboration among Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) companies, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, and Sandbox – to which 35 BCBS companies have committed over $890M across four funds.
The round also saw participation from Optum Ventures, GV, and existing investor Oxford Sciences Innovation.
Dr. Vijay Barathan, Optum Ventures, says, “Ultromics’ software significantly improves the ability of clinicians to leverage low-cost ultrasound imaging to address cardiovascular disease, one of the greatest healthcare burdens of our generation.”
Echocardiography analysis through AI
Founded in 2017 by Ross Upton, Ultromics is a fully automated software as a service platform powered by AI that allows clinicians to make fast, accurate decisions when using ultrasound images to diagnose cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Ross Upton explains, “Echocardiography is the most accessible, lowest cost, least-invasive, safest and most convenient means of imaging the heart. With Ultromics’ AI, we have proven that it can now be as accurate and effective as more expensive modalities that are not available to all patients.”
The company claims to deliver analysis to any vendor within minutes, with zero variability, without any disruption to workflow, and can even predict a patient’s risk of developing coronary artery disease (CAD).
According to the company, Ultromics’ EchoGo Core and EchoGo Pro platforms deliver “highly accurate” assessments of heart function that support the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, heart failure and amyloidosis. Both platforms were spun out of the University of Oxford and built-in partnership with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
EchoGo Core and EchoGo Pro are already being used and validated by several organisations, including Mayo Clinic and the Oregon Health and Science University.
Capital utilisation
According to Ultromics, cardiovascular disease causes an estimated 17 million deaths each year. Hence, the startup will use the raised funds to accelerate the use of AI-enabled echocardiograms to help improve patient care, and bring improved diagnostic quality and resource savings to hospitals.
Dr. Ross Upton, CEO & co-founder of Ultromics, explains, “Echocardiograms uploaded to the cloud and analysed by artificial intelligence are set to revolutionise cardiac disease treatment pathways by helping more people understand their risk of heart disease earlier and with greater accuracy. This funding with the leading US-affiliated venture capital funds will allow Ultromics to dramatically accelerate the use of AI-enhanced Echo into studies that currently use more expensive and less accurate imaging techniques.”
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