Remote Diagnostic Imaging (Medo)

Health Cities’ collaboration with WestView PCN, Alberta Innovates, and Edmonton-based MEDO.ai addressed a challenge in providing access to remote imaging for early screening while creating opportunities for other Alberta companies to trial and validate solutions in our health system.  Data collected from our system enabled these companies to secure regulatory approval as well as the cost and effectiveness vital to penetrating markets in the rest of Canada and globally.

The project specifically focused on screening children with hip dysplasia (medical term for a hip socket that does not fully cover the ball portion of the upper thighbone) using ultrasound.  The innovative technology is provided by MEDO.ai and their artificial intelligence which can apply to basic ultrasound known as Automated Real-time Intelligent Assistant (ARIA).  This technology, when paired with a hand-held ultrasound device, enables use in the field by untrained individuals (with only an hour’s worth of training) and eliminates the need to travel to a diagnostic imaging center.

By creating a clinical pathway for any imaging method (e.g. x-ray, CT scan, ultrasound) and for any disease, this opens the opportunity to explore a variety of diagnostics solutions for multiple applications – tapping into different companies throughout the region to validate and scale many solutions for global export.

This project has already seen success including securing regulatory clearance and additional funds to broaden the trial. MEDO.ai secured U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance for its solution. Though MEDO.ai is now actively exploring export to the United States, the company plans to develop their next three products here in Edmonton – believing that validating and testing locally is their best option. The current project partnership with Health Cities, WestView PCN and MEDO.ai has also resulted in successfully securing funding from Alberta Innovates’ Accelerating Innovation into Care (AICE) program.

Health Cities is currently exploring expanding this work to impact additional communities.