The biggest difference between smart healthcare and traditional healthcare is that smart healthcare leverages the power of technology to improve healthcare quality and reduce the workloads of medical staff. In this process, startup teams reinvigorate the development of smart healthcare with new ideas and technologies, driving remarkable progress.
FlowVIEW Tek is an independent team that branched off from the National Measurement Laboratory of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute. They use an exclusive microfluidic chip system that integrates high-end AI image processing technology to create Flow AOI (automatic optical inspection), the applications of which include semiconductor wet processing and biomedical verification and analysis. Traditional optical inspection is only able to examine objects down to 200nm in size—light is diffracted when attempting to observe objects smaller than this, leading to inaccurate results. In the field of biomedicine, FlowVIEW Tek’s technology can not only examine urine, blood, particle size, and composition of innovative medical materials, but also enable AI-based automated classification. It is currently the only fluid optical imaging solution in Taiwan.
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred research in related fields. The AI Particle Imager is the latest technology developed by FlowVIEW Tek, and it can help research institutions identify changes in body fluids before and after a patient contracts a virus, making it ideal for researching and developing COVID-related drugs.
Neurobit, on the other hand, focuses on the research and development of rapid screening technology for high-risk cranial nerve-related diseases. It integrates clinical neurological examination principles and computer vision AI analysis technology to assist physicians in quickly and accurately diagnosing high-risk cranial nerve-related diseases.
The current treatment process of patients with brain diseases in medical institutions starts with prevention and early warning when patients experience initial dizziness. If the symptoms worsen, the patient must then receive diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. Since the early symptoms of a stroke or other brain diseases are not obvious, the vast majority of patients only undergo general testing at the initial stage, with less than 50% receiving computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.
Neurospeed, Neurobit’s quick screening diagnostic tool, can be operated with a single click to detect nystagmus and quickly identify patients who are at risk of getting a stroke. This mechanism is used for fast screening before diagnosis, after which the physician will provide proper confirmation and diagnosis, thereby improving the accuracy of stroke diagnosis and reducing the workloads of medical staff.
Compared with the electronystagmography (ENG) machines and assessments on the market, the fast screening tool developed by Neurobit is easy to operate, provides quantitative data, and can qualitatively and quantitatively assess dizziness. These advantages caught the attention of the medical community as soon as the technology came out. Currently, Neurobit is working with Taiwanese medical institutions to conduct clinical testing, after which the product will be taken abroad and promoted in the EU and US markets.
Kevin Lee, Co-founder of FlowVIEW Tek
Photo: DIGITIMES
Travis Yang, CEO of Neurobit
Photo: DIGITIMES
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20220124VL212/smart-healthcare-startup.html
