Latest news: cloud computing in medical devices

Care.ai has teamed up with Google Cloud to offer its artificial intelligence (AI) powered care solution on Google Cloud Marketplace. The partnership with Google Cloud is expected to increase accessibility of Care.ai’s lead product – Smart Care Facility Platform – to hospitals and nursing homes across the US. 

The technology from the Orlando, US-based company reduces pressures of healthcare provision by combining ambient intelligent monitoring and virtual care workflows. 

Amidst a nursing shortage,healthcare facilities are increasingly seeking automated and AI powered means of caring for patients. According to Care.ai, its micro-edge devices enhance clinician-patient support whilst also automating labour-intensive processes, saving nurse time, and minimising the need for multiple systems by integrating virtual care workflows. 

The system is already implemented in over 1,500 healthcare facilities and the availability of the platform on Google Cloud Marketplace is expected to increase hospital and nursing home engagement. 

Cloud services in healthcare have rapidly proliferated since the Covid-19 pandemic. The global cloud services and infrastructure market in healthcare is predicted to reach $40bn by 2026, according to GlobalData. In addition, spending by healthcare providers on cloud services is expected to reach $11bn by 2026. 

“Collaborating with Google Cloud allows us to introduce our platform to a broader array of hospitals and nursing homes worldwide, streamlining clinical care operations and elevating care quality by enabling clinicians to focus on delivering more empathetic and timely care. We anticipate further collaboration opportunities with Google Cloud,” said Chakri Toleti, Care.ai CEO and founder. 

“Ambient intelligence holds the potential to resolve numerous issues plaguing healthcare facilities today, from workforce shortages to disjointed patient care,” said Riju Khetarpal, director of Healthcare and Life Sciences ISV Partnerships at Google Cloud. 

“Care.ai’s ambient monitoring solution, now available on the Google Cloud Marketplace, gives healthcare organisations the ability to easily integrate care.ai’s technology with their existing systems,” Khetarpal added. 

Cloud-based software company, Cydar Medical, has completed a Series A funding worth $11.5m. The financing includes a $3.7m cornerstone investment from Pembroke VCT, and participation from Downing Healthcare Ventures EIS. 

Founded in 2012, Cambridge, UK-based Cydar Medical is the developer of augmented reality (AR) software that aids clinicians in performing minimally invasive endovascular (EV) surgery. 

The company’s flagship product, Cydar EV Maps, creates a three-dimensional map of soft tissue that is specific to the patient. Cydar aims to use artificial intelligence (AI) to form an integration solution of pre-operative planning, intra-operative navigation, and post-operative review for surgical procedures. Clinician confidence, reduced radiation on the patient and clinical team, and decreased procedure times are all benefits provided by the digital technology – which has received CE mark and FDA 510(k) clearance. 

Cydar said the funds will be used to develop a new EV Intelligent Maps product which will pool patient case information together. 

“When a patient comes in, the AI can find equivalent patients. Clinicians are not having to just rely on their own experience, which can be very different. The AI lets them draw on global experiences,” Paul Mussenden, CEO of Cydar, told Medical Device Network. “The fundraising is helping us to complete development of Intelligent Maps which will release later this year”. 

The company also plans to develop a mapping software that can be applied beyond endovascular use to a range of minimally invasive procedures. “This general map could be used in other tissues. We want to use the same principle from endovascular uses and deploy it in other indications to our 40 global customers,” explained Mussenden. 

“We want to partner with companies and clinicians doing specialist procedures and then refine that for the required use. We provide the tools out and then collaborate with the experts in different areas for what’s needed.” 

Cydar has enrolled the first patients into clinical studies to assess EV Maps, and the product has been installed in over 50 new centers across the UK, US, and EU according to the company. The company is also looking to expand its partnership opportunities. 

“A critical milestone for us last year was establishing partnerships with Brainlab and Medtronic, and we certainly want to put more resources behind those partnerships,” added Mussenden. 

According to a 2022 report by GlobalData, investors in the healthcare industries are wary about AR as it is not considered as revolutionary compared to other digital applications. However, the global AR market is expected to reach $152bn by 2030 – growing at a CAGR of 36%.  One of the areas the report tips to be most successful is image-guided surgery products. 

Augmented reality and virtual reality (VR) technologies are notably already being applied in medical institutions where the metaverse is being used for simulation-based training – in particular, for surgery. 

“We’re never substituting a clinician’s judgment,” said Mussenden. “But we can certainly provide them with better information at the right time to help them make more informed decisions.