An Israeli startup is working to integrate artificial intelligence and predictive analytics into the clinical workflow.
Founded about three and a half years ago, CLEW Medical provides a platform that functions as a standalone tool or that can be integrated into an existing solution.
“The goal is really not to change the existing workflow in a hospital,” Izik Itzhakov, CLEW’s vice president of business development, said in a phone interview. Instead, it’s to “take what already exists and provide insights,” with the ultimate aim of improving patient care.
More specifically, the startup’s platform utilizes a hospital’s existing data to give clinicians information they can use to manage ICU and tele-ICU patients.
The solution is “trying to identify physiological deterioration before you can see any physiological changes on the patients themselves,” Itzhakov said.
In addition to pinpointing potential complications with patients, the Israeli company strives to assist clinicians. ICU staff members spend a decent portion of time reviewing patients, and they often deal with false alarms. CLEW’s system wants to reduce that alarm fatigue and provide more educated alerts about each patient’s condition.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Itzhakov also noted that the platform has different kinds of alerts for various types of patients. This is key, he said, because one can’t look at a 65-year-old male smoker in the same way as a 25-year-old pregnant woman. It’s important to treat each of them individually and come up with a prediction that’s relevant for their condition.
One specific complication CLEW looks for is sepsis. As Itzhakov pointed out, it frequently goes unnoticed, and by the time it is noticed, it’s often too late to make a difference. Thus, the startup wants to identify sepsis in patients a few hours ahead of time.
Though it is currently headquartered in Israel, Itzhakov said one of CLEW’s next big goals is to open an office in the United States. It has already done work with healthcare systems like Mayo Clinic and Tel Aviv Medical Center. More recently, it teamed up with WakeMed in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The company, which has about 30 employees, also eventually hopes to move into markets in Europe and Asia.
“There’s a lot of hype around artificial intelligence and predictive systems,” Itzhakov said. “There are a lot of different companies trying to address this problem in different manners.”
What sets CLEW apart, he noted, is that it examines the specific condition and status of the patient. Additionally, it adjusts its model to fit the existing workflows of the healthcare organizations with which it works.
Photo: MATJAZ SLANIC, Getty Images
