by Jacob Lee
June 18, 2024
Healthtech is a rapidly growing sector that leverages technology to enhance patient care and improve public health outcomes by providing real-time data and analytics to healthcare providers and organizations.
This technology encompasses mobile apps, telemedicine, wearable devices, and other innovative tools that expand access to high-quality care for all patients. Many of these technologies offer detailed analytics that are invaluable for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare processes.
In several key ways, healthtech software is reshaping the healthcare industry. It primarily boosts patient outcomes by allowing healthcare providers to quickly and accurately access patient information. This leads to more precise diagnoses, tailored treatment plans, and improved patient care.
Additionally, healthtech is altering the way healthcare is delivered by broadening access to medical services. For instance, telemedicine platforms allow patients to consult with doctors from their homes, minimizing the necessity for physical office visits and reducing related costs and risks.
Healthtech software is also driving a transformation in healthcare delivery by cutting costs. These technologies enable healthcare providers to administer care more efficiently and effectively, optimizing both the patient experience and operational expenses.
This industry can leverage the recent AI boom to capitalize on overall profitability and industry-wide growth. Expert predictions show that the healthtech sector will experience a compound annual growth rate of 22.2% from 2020 to 2025. In fact, current trends show higher rates of artificial intelligence and machine learning within the industry. Since AI can create diagnostic tools to help make accurate diagnoses and develop treatment plans through machine learning, healthcare providers can better treat high-risk patients.
Enter Spike
Spike is a Lithuanian startup that leverages AI technologies, specifically Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG AI), to enhance healthcare and its digital applications. More specifically, the company works to address the critical challenges of integrating AI into the healthcare sector, including the complexity of implementation, regulatory compliance, and the need for secure, accurate data handling.
Spike was founded 18 months ago by Povilas Gudzius and Nikita Pajanok. Povilas, who brings experience from the Quant data and AI team at Bloomberg in NYC, and Nikita, a Cambridge-educated Chief Data Officer, lead the company — the company operates out of San Francisco, California, and Vilnius, Lithuania.
Here are some of the services provided by Spike:
- Health Data API Aggregation: Spike offers a robust API that aggregates data from over 600 wearable and IoT devices. This aggregation allows healthcare providers and health tech companies to access comprehensive health data points, including vital signs, activity levels, and more specialized medical data like EHR (Electronic Health Records), blood test results, and genomics data.
- AI-Backed Solutions: Using RAG, Spike’s platform contains unique tools that enhance the accuracy and security of its data interpretation. As a result, AI output is extremely context-specific, limiting potential AI errors.
- Managed ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) Services: Spike manages an ETL process, enabling healthcare applications to efficiently analyze large volumes of health data.
- Single Consolidated REST API: Spike simplifies the technological integration through a unified REST API, which provides developers with immediate access to an array of sensors and health data points without the need for upfront development investment.
- Regulatory Compliance: As handling health data comes with stringent regulatory requirements, Spike ensures that all data processing and AI applications are compliant with relevant health data regulations such as HIPAA in the U.S. and GDPR in Europe. This compliance is crucial for ensuring user privacy and securing sensitive health information.
What’s Next For Spike?
Currently, Spike includes many notable companies within its consumer base: global insurance leader Seguros SURA, fitness apps Longebo and FITTR, sleep health company EMMA, Moody Month, and Pulsetto. The company has recently raised €3.2 million ($3.5 million) in a seed investment round.
The round was co-led by Practica Capital and TheVentureCity, with additional funding coming from investors based in Silicon Valley, New York, and Berlin. Contributors to this round included CEAS Investments, Plug & Play Ventures, Geek Ventures (notable for their investment in ShapesXR), and Axel Springer Porsche (APX).
We were impressed by the Spike team’s technical expertise and go-to-market skills. Given their rapid traction and widespread adoption of AI products with formidable competitive moats, leading this round was a natural fit for us,” said Donatas Keras, Partner at Practica Capital. “As the influx of sensor data changes some parts of the health industry, Spike is well-positioned for significant growth, and we are excited to partner with such a forward-thinking team.”
The funding will accelerate Spike’s creation of regulatory-compliant and secure Generative AI products while also enabling the expansion of its capabilities to aggregate a wider array of medical data, wearable, and IoT sensor data from over 600 devices. This expansion will include integrating Electronic Health Records (EHR), blood testing, lab testing, genomics data, and datasets from FDA-approved devices.
Subscribe to our newsletter.
This article was originally published on IMPAKTER. Read the original article.