The world’s tech giants continue to make acquisitions aimed at deepening their presence in the healthcare world. This week, Samsung acquired a French medtech startup focused on making fetal ultrasounds more efficient with AI.
Samsung Medison, the South Korean tech giant’s medical device subsidiary, signed an agreement to buy Sonio, which was founded in 2020.
Sonio’s AI platform — which was cleared by the FDA in August of last year — automates ultrasound reporting. The technology is meant to enable healthcare providers to conduct ultrasound exams with greater accuracy, speed and efficiency, explained CEO Cécile Brosset.
What Healthcare Can Learn from Costco
The path forward is clear: employers must evaluate their health plan the same way they do their Saturday shopping excursion.
“Sonio assists healthcare professionals in performing prenatal examinations with the highest quality standards, verifying quality and ensuring completeness of examinations, while streamlining workflows,” she said.
The company receives images as they are acquired by the sonographer, regardless of the ultrasound machine’s model or brand, Brosset explained. Sonio’s platform then processes these images in the cloud and provides practitioners with a real-time analysis.
The platform also includes clinical decision support tools designed to prioritize potential rare diagnoses. Sonio claims that its technology can identify more than 300 potential prenatal syndromes and anomalies with an accuracy rate above 90%.
The company’s technology is reliable for each maternal patient, regardless of their age, BMI, maternal or ethnicity, Brosset added.
What’s Keeping Healthcare CIOs Up at Night: How to Improve Patient Satisfaction by Handling Calls More Efficiently
Health systems have spent billions on portals while investments in modernizing the voice channel — the dominant preference of healthcare consumers — have taken a backseat.
Sonio sells its software to hospitals, women’s health groups and private physician practices. The technology is currently being used at “multiple care sites” across the U.S., including medical group Pediatrix.
Brosset believes Sonio’s technology complements Samsung Medison’s portfolio and will be an asset to its customers, as it offers “an innovative solution for their reporting and workflow efficiency needs,” she declared.
“The AI features of Samsung ultrasound machines and Sonio’s AI features are compatible and complementary. Sonio Cloud reporting software leverages the results of the ultrasound machines to build reports in the most efficient way,” Brosset said.
Once Sonio is integrated as a part of Samsung Medison, she expects the company to continue to grow its footprint and market share. Sonio will remain a vendor-neutral, independent company headquartered in France, Brosset stated.
Photo: Prostock-Studio, Getty Images