Qure.ai secures USD8M Gates Foundation grant for AI lung diagnostics

INDIA—Global digital health innovator Qure.ai has secured an USD8 million grant from the Gates Foundation to combat two of the world’s deadliest yet preventable infectious diseases: tuberculosis and pneumonia.

The funding specifically targets under-resourced regions where these diseases claim millions of lives annually despite being curable when detected early.

The grant will enable Qure.ai to develop a comprehensive open-source multi-modal database designed to accelerate future prevention and identification innovations.

This database will support World Health Organization lung-health diagnostic pathways while incorporating non-identifiable clinical history, medical images including chest X-rays, thoracic ultrasound, and high-resolution CT scans, as well as cough and lung recordings and laboratory markers.

Researchers and innovators worldwide will gain access to this resource, allowing them to develop, validate, and refine new AI models for global benefit.

Developing Point-of-Care ultrasound technology

The funding will also support Qure.ai’s development of AI-enabled point-of-care ultrasound algorithms serving as critical tools for early detection of tuberculosis and pneumonia.

These diseases represent two of the deadliest infectious threats in under-resourced regions, with tuberculosis claiming approximately 1.23 million lives annually and pneumonia causing 2 million deaths each year.

Among pneumonia victims, 700,000 are children under five years old.

Decade of innovation in remote healthcare

Prashant Warier, co-founder and CEO of Qure.ai, emphasized the company’s decade-long commitment to reaching underserved populations.

The organization has deployed AI-enabled X-ray technology in some of the remotest regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the heights of Mount Everest, and the depths of rural Southeast Asia to tackle tuberculosis detection and diagnosis.

“This is powerful progress that has reduced diagnosis rates from 14 days to 1-2 days, without even a clinician present,” Warier stated.

He expressed enthusiasm about leveraging this expertise to scale operations and reach more people through the Gates Foundation grant.

Bringing diagnostics to healthcare’s Blind Spots

Dr. Shibu Vijayan, Chief Medical Officer for Global Health at Qure.ai, highlighted how the latest developments in digital health and artificial intelligence enable the company to address healthcare’s blind spots.

The technology brings high-quality diagnostics within reach of every clinic, health worker, and child, regardless of geographic location.

Dr. Justy Antony Chiramal, Project Lead and Clinical Director for Global Health Innovation at Qure.ai, noted that the grant builds upon years of continuous innovation in public health and the company’s commitment to expanding AI’s potential for global health.

The project integrates pneumonia, tuberculosis, and broader lung health priorities with a particular focus on children in low- and middle-income countries.

“A child dies of pneumonia every 43 seconds, which represents an unacceptable and avoidable loss,” Dr. Chiramal explained.

This statistic underscores the urgent need for improved diagnostics and equitable access to care across vulnerable populations.

Global reach and impact

Qure.ai operates as a global health innovator with deployments across more than 105 countries and 4,800 sites worldwide.

The company’s AI solutions currently identify and manage tuberculosis, lung cancer, and neurocritical findings such as stroke, demonstrating the scalability and versatility of their technology platform in addressing multiple healthcare challenges simultaneously.