Huntsville Heart Center to Test AI-Based Cardiac Technology

As artificial intelligence (AI) use in healthcare grows, a new partnership between Artrya and Alabama-based Huntsville Heart Center aims to access the efficacy of Artrya Salix, an AI-based cardiac software solution.

Artrya is an applied AI healthcare company based in Perth, Western Australia. The company's goals center on improving the diagnosis of heart disease through AI-focused innovation.

Huntsville Heart Center is a healthcare organization that treats over 80,000 cardiac patients yearly.

In the new collaboration, Artrya and Huntsville Heart Center will conduct a multi-scanner retrospective study to analyze cardiac computed tomography (CT) scans. They will use Artrya's proprietary AI software to interpret previously collected scans. The interpretation will then be compared with that of several expert readers.

"I am delighted and honored to lead a team of Heart Center physicians who will compare the heart scans of patients to see if we can validate the accuracy of Artrya Salix AI software in identifying coronary artery disease and specifically high-risk plaque as compared to human readers,” said Michael L. Ridner, MD, cardiologist and principal investigator of the study in the press release.

The organizations intend to complete the clinical trial by October. The clinical trial could help advance the commercial use of the technology in the US, according to Artrya USA Co-CEOs Jory Tremblay and Ted Schwab. 

"AI technology like this holds the potential to change the way we practice medicine, and in this instance, may help us save lives. The Heart Center team is excited to be on the ground floor in evaluating Artrya's potential,” said Ridner.

AI-focused collaborations that aim to improve care for chronic conditions are growing.

In March, Cleveland Clinic began working with PathAI to enhance pathology diagnostics by building an AI-based digital pathology infrastructure. During the five-year collaboration, PathAI will use digitized pathology slides to improve AI algorithms with the help of clinical information.

A partnership between various departments of the University of Pennsylvania, including the School of Nursing and the Perelman School of Medicine, aims to use AI data to gain insight into caring for Alzheimer’s disease patients. The schools created the Penn Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratory for Healthy Aging (PennAITech), which will work to enhance in-home care methods for those with the disease.

Another collaboration between Health at Scale and Walmart in February aims to use AI to produce personalized provider recommendations for employees. Health at Scale uses an AI method to connect patients to the proper resources, and the organization's technology was made available to Walmart employees.