Medical imaging innovation is helping save lives of stroke patients

Brainomix, based in Oxford, is a medical imaging company using artificial intelligence (AI), for the fast diagnosis and treatment of stroke victims.

It was set up in 2010, spun out of Oxford University by co-founder and now CEO, Dr Michalis Papadakis, and aims to transform critical medical decision-making with its AI-powered imaging platform.

Following commercialisation in 2015, Brainomix’s software is now operating in 16 countries, in the UK and Europe.

Dr Papadakis said: “Currently every 30 minutes, a stroke patient who could have been saved dies, or remains permanently disabled, not because of the stroke but because they’re admitted to a hospital that doesn’t have the expertise to diagnose and select the patient for life-saving treatment.”

The company’s technology significantly increases a physician’s ability to diagnose and detect stroke damage on scans, compared to doing it manually, he added.

Last year the company attracted £7 million from a number of investors.

Now 300 hospitals, including publically-owned health care systems and private hospitals, have used the software.

The company estimates that so far more than 200,000 scans have been processed using Brainomix’s technology.

The company’ technology is currently going through the USA’s rigorous Federal Drug Administration approval and expects to receive clearance early next year. Brainomix was the first to develop an AI software platform specifically for stroke diagnosis. Its software can help hospitals that don’t have MRI scanners and must rely on more basic imaging.

Brainomix’s longer-term strategy is a global expansion and replicating their success with stroke on other diseases that can be transformed with their AI imaging platform.