Dive Brief:
- Private equity firm Aspire Universal and Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health are partnering on a venture to speed development and commercialization of personalized devices and medical practices.
- The newly launched Aspire Ventures Precision Medicine Fund finances devices and therapies that leverage artificial intelligence and the internet-of-things to create affordable solutions on a “massive scale,” Aspire said in announcing the deal.
- The goal is to advance population health with AI- and IoT-enabled precision medicine technologies that could have national or global impact.
Dive Insight:
LG Health clinicians and Aspire will work together to synthesize data and fast-track products through clinical trials and FDA approval. Through the Smart Health Innovation Lab, a joint venture with Capital Blue Cross, eight AVP-backed startups will go through a program aimed at accelerating insurance coverage and pilot projects.
The fund’s focus on streamlining regulatory and coverage approval of personalized devices could save time and money in the development process and get novel treatments and services to patients sooner. Precision medicine, AI and population health are all very hot right now.
The healthcare industry has been cautious about adopting AI, but more providers are seeing the opportunity to improve efficiencies in routine tasks and increase engagement and treatment options using precision medicine.
In December, Google launched Deep Variant, an open-source tool that uses AI to create an image of a person’s genetic blueprint using sequencing data. The company also worked with Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K. to determine if machine learning technology to analyze eye scans could hasten detection and treatment of degenerative eye diseases.
In the population health area, Mayo Clinic and Jvion teamed up on an AI-enabled solution that helps providers identify vulnerable patients and intervene to reduce preventable deaths.