Artificial intelligence startup Aidoc Medical Ltd. looks like it’s making some real progress after closing on a $27 million round of funding today that brings its total capital raised to $40 million.

The Series B round, led by Square Peg Capital, will be used by the company to develop its product further and expand sales, officials said. AI has big promise in the medical field and Aidoc is lending its particular expertise in medical imaging to help radiologists better diagnose diseases and other problems.

The company has developed AI models that analyze computerized tomography or CT scans in real-time to help radiologists make diagnoses faster and more accurately. Its “Always-on” technology runs behind the scenes, and focuses on identifying the most urgent cases where immediate medical intervention can make a difference between life and death. the company said.

Aidoc built its AI models by working closely with radiologists in an effort to mimic the way they analyze medical images, Idan Bassuk, the company’s head of AI, told SiliconANGLE.

“We obtain large quantities of quality data early on in the development stage, over a million images, which ensure that the models are of high quality,” Bassuk said. “We review the model’s performance with the actual users, radiologists, and are able to tweak the algorithm’s performance based on these insights, which results in the highest levels of accuracy.”

Helping medical professionals better understand patient problems seems to be one of the most promising use cases for AI technology. For example, Nvidia Corp. recently announced its own initiative to create an open AI architecture and reference implementation for radiologists to create AI models themselves. But Bassuk said he believes that many professionals will prefer to use Aidoc’s prebuilt models instead.

“It’s like any software: The tools to write your own spreadsheet program exist, but it’s much easier and cheaper to use Microsoft Excel or Google Docs than to design a whole new solution,” Bassuk said. “Aidoc’s solution is already mature, has regulatory approval and is integrated into radiologists’ workflows.”

Aidoc’s technology is already being used in more than 100 hospitals worldwide and has so far analyzed more than 1 million images, which illustrates just how big the potential is for AI in healthcare, said analyst David Chou of Constellation Research Inc.

“We are starting to see the progress of AI specifically in the imaging space, but a key area of focus for the radiologist is to embrace and accept AI as part of their workflow of the future,” Chou said. “There are still many radiologists that oppose AI due to the fear of job replacement. AI will not replace the human effort in healthcare, but it can augment patient care.”

Photo: Aidoc