MaxQ AI—the medical imaging platform company formerly known as MedyMatch, one of last year’s FierceMedTech Fierce 15—is planning to go public, with an $8 million IPO listing on the Nasdaq under the symbol MQAI. Pricing terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 2013, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based company is developing AI-based tools to identify or rule out strokes or traumatic brain injuries in emergency rooms and ambulances, using deep learning software, patient data and CT scans to help physicians better target intracranial bleeding.
MaxQ’s initial three products includes the CT diagnostic tool itself, named AccipioDx; AccipioIx, a workflow-prioritization system, signaling potential bleeds and locations; and AccipioAx, which creates a series of annotated images and a 3D rendering of the brain derived from the original scans for further analysis.
The Accipio line is designed to be integrated with most existing medical imaging workflow platforms and medical imaging technologies, including CT, MRI and ultrasound.
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AccipioDx received a breakthrough device designation from the FDA earlier this year for diagnosing acute intracranial hemorrhages. MaxQ has not yet submitted any Accipio products for FDA approval, but plans to do so in the third quarter of this year, the company said in its prospectus.
“The healthcare industry is at an inflection point, at a ‘Max Q’ (a point of maximum pressure)—we believe AI has the potential to fundamentally reinvent healthcare as we know it, to deliver accurate and cost-effective patient care to billions of people around the world,” Chairman and CEO Gene Saragnese said in a statement announcing the company’s rebranding.
It expects a clearance decision for AccipioIx before the end of 2018, and decisions on AccipioDx and Ax in 2019. Though AccipioIx received a CE mark in May, the company has not generated any revenues since emerging from stealth in 2016.
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In March 2017, the company unveiled back-to-back AI partnerships with Samsung and IBM Watson to integrate its products into their radiology software and hardware platforms.
Samsung plans to use the software in mobile stroke units equipped with its NeuroLogica CereTom CT scanner. The companies hope it will allow staff to differentiate between ischemic strokes and hemorrhagic strokes in the field, allowing them to administer a drug that will dissolve the clot behind an ischemic stroke while en route to the hospital.
IBM, meanwhile, plans to incorporate the cloud-based tool in its Watson imaging offerings for the emergency room. MaxQ formed a similar, five-year distribution deal with GE Healthcare in November 2017.