USA —Anumana, a company spun out of the Mayo Clinic Platform, has teamed up with Pfizer to develop an AI tool that analyzes ECGs for evidence of the disease.
Through the partnership, Anumana will conduct a clinical trial and seek regulatory approval, according to Anumana’s news release.
Anumana, which was founded in 2021 and is part of the portfolio of the nference software company, plans to develop the AI-ECG tool as a software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD) and market the algorithm in the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Anumana has previously with the Mayo Clinic developed software to address cardiac issues.
The health technology company licensed AI-ECG algorithms from Mayo Clinic for low ejection fraction, hyperkalemia, and pulmonary hypertension.
All the algorithms have received breakthrough device designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The most recent software targets cardiac amyloidosis, a frequently undiagnosed and progressive disease characterized by stiffening of the heart walls, interfering with the function of the left ventricle.
Shortness of breath, knee pain, bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome, kidney disease, and gastrointestinal issues are among the symptoms.
The condition is difficult to diagnose due to the wide range of symptoms. Early detection would allow clinicians more time to develop more effective treatment plans, improving clinical outcomes over time.
The company stated that the research deal with Pfizer will help deepen its efforts in implementing AI-enabled early detection software, which can help in revealing the signals from ECGs that cannot be interpreted by humans.
“The challenge in diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis can prevent patients from getting treatment while the disease continues to progress,” David McMullin, Anumana’s chief business officer, said in a press release.
“We believe this collaboration [with Pfizer] will demonstrate the power of Anumana’s AI-ECG algorithms to help clinicians intervene earlier, giving them greater ability to improve patient outcomes and prolong lives.”
The non-invasive, painless 100-year-old ECG test gives the potential to AI-ECG algorithms to reach more patients earlier.
The project is the latest of many that aim to use AI to spot infinitesimal trends in data that might not be picked up by manual data review until much later.
This is not Anumana’s first pharmaceutical collaboration. It announced a strategic collaboration with Novartis earlier this year to develop AI tools to detect cardiovascular diseases.
They will first concentrate on algorithms that analyze ECGs to detect left ventricular dysfunction, which can lead to heart failure, as well as atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which can lead to heart attack and stroke.
Anumana announced last month that it had acquired NeuTrace, a company that develops AI applications for analyzing electrical signals in the heart.
nference has also expanded its collaboration with the Mayo Clinic. It launched its real-world evidence-generation platform, nSights, in September.
Another Mayo Clinic-affiliated heart health project recently received 510(k) clearance. Ultromics announced earlier this month that its machine learning-based decision-support system for detecting heart failure with preserved ejection fraction had received FDA approval. EchoGo Heart Failure was created in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic.
Meanwhile, Pfizer has been working on treatments to address the condition’s thickening of the heart muscle.
Its most recent blockbusters, Vyndaqel and Vyndamax, were approved in May 2019 to treat cardiomyopathy caused by transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (ATTR), and the company has worked to raise awareness of the disease.
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