On the last 17th, Medi Whale Inc. and Siloam Eye Hospital signed an MOU for enhancement of AI fundus screening device. Both sides agreed that their partnership would help the automatic fundus screening device to be successfully adapted in a clinical environment, not limited under the academic field. They are planning to reach a more advanced algorithm and its compatibility of eye disease auto-diagnosis through close cooperation.

“Many medical AI devices are developed in an experimental environment of medical labs, which sometimes are not compatible in the real clinical setting,” Kevin Choi, CEO of Medi Whale said, “the clinical insights of Siloam Eye Hospital accumulated from their experience facing the patients would help our solution to be effectively applied in clinics.”

On last 14th of December, Medi Whale Inc. opened an all-in-one eye disease auto-diagnostic device, in which artificial intelligence software and fundus camera are combined together. This medical healthcare startup, which develops a diagnosis system based on fundus photography, displayed the combined device during the Asian Pacific Vitreo-Retina Society(APVRS) 2018. Last September, Medi Whale started developing the auto-diagnostic device based on artificial intelligence after making a collaborative business agreement. In APVRS 2018, this co-developed product was first opened and now they are planning to move on for medical device approval, targeting the market in South Korea and Southeast Asia.

Medi Whale is planning to distribute the device to internal clinics or health checkup centers preferentially. “Eye diseases mostly do not have any symptoms that can be recognized by oneself,” said Kevin Choi, CEO of Medi Whale, “we are planning to distribute this device not only to the Korean market but also to the Southeast Asian market, where we expect such solution to be even more powerful.”

More information at : http://www.etnews.com/20181214000334

Medi Whale Inc. announced on last 4th December that they are now starting the sales of ‘DrNoon’, a diagnostic solution of eye diseases using artificial intelligence(AI). They said that they have recently established a business headquarter in Singapore to support the sales in Southeast Asia. They are now supplementing their manpower for sales for hospitals in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

DrNoon, developed by Medi Whale, an artificial intelligence software that makes a diagnosis about the patient’s eye condition based on the collection of over 100,000 eye diagnosis data. The diagnosis is made by analyzing the fundus photographs. It tells about lesions in eye vessels, macula, and optic nerves. The accuracy reached up to 95%. It can help diagnose diabetic retinopathy, which is a popular complication of diabetes.

The development of DrNoon is already finished. Medi Whale made a strategic decision to target Southeast Asian market first, where such diagnosis-supporting tool for diseases that needs knowledge of specialists would be even more powerful. In South Korea, it is going through its clinical trial for medical device approval early next year. They expect the commercialization to be possible in late 2019 in Korea.

Kevin Choi, CEO of Medi Whale, said that “We have already gone through a clinical trial on our own and now we are preparing for the clinical trial for medical device approval. Along with the medical device certification process going on, we are trying to look for demands for the solution, mainly including internal clinics and health checkup centers.”

“The cardiovascular disease diagnostic device will only cost about 10 USD per examination, which would supplement the preexisting, expensive computer tomography solution,” Kevin Choi said, “being devoted to finding a fast way for people to get healthy, we would like to support countries with weak medical infrastructure.”

A new technology that enables a diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases only through eye images was first opened. The vessels in eyes which reflect the overall body condition enables to expect risks of a range of diseases. Early this year, Verily have suggested a possibility of expecting basic biomarkers including age, blood pressure, and smoking preference only using fundus photographs. This technology, however, has suggested a much stronger cardiovascular biomarker.

Medi Whale Inc. said, on last 2nd, December, that they have developed a system that enables to predict a coronary artery calcium score(CACS) only using the basic patient information and fundus photographs. This startup is developing a diagnosis system based on fundus photography. They said that this result is from the medical data collected from about 50,000 eye images scanned from last April to October, which was analyzed by machine learning. When predicting the coronary artery calcium score(CACS) became possible using the artificial intelligence(AI), such technology is expected to be applied for a convenient health diagnosis system.

Until now, the coronary artery calcium score(CACS) was checked through a heart CT, which has some side effects that it gives radiation exposure and possibly cause an allergic reaction for contrast medium or toxic nephrosis. “Artificial intelligence(AI) in medical field can perform as a specialized doctor when medical infrastructure is not qualified enough, support doctors to find out lesions that are easily missed, or even suggest innovative diagnosis biomarkers beyond preexisting diagnostic tools,” said Kevin Choi, CEO of Medi Whale, “the technology we suggested is sharing the idea of Verily but have achieved a stronger prediction model.” He also said that “Medi Whale Inc. is aiming to suggest the fastest way to find diseases by observing the human eyes with the artificial intelligence,” and that they are expecting to “expand the range of such detective diseases to the overall human body, starting with the artificial intelligence diagnostic device for eye diseases.”

The technology was recently opened to the public at Radiological Society of North America(RSNA) 2018, which took place in Chicago, U.S.. Medi Whale Inc. said that they are going through additional data collection and verification in order to sustain a high diagnostic ability of the model in clinical trials. The eye disease diagnostic device using artificial intelligence, which was announced by Medi Whale Inc. early this year, is on a to achieve approval of Korean Food and Drug Administration.

More information at : http://www.viva100.com/main/view.php?key=20181202010000164

On last 25th October, a Korea-Indonesia Tech Startup Demo day took a place in Jakarta. Organized by Korean small and medium Business Corporation(SBC), Korean International Trade Association(KITA), Korea Creative Contents Agency(KOCCA), and Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy(BEKRAF), 25 startups from Korea and Indonesia have made their pitch for about 100 potential investors.

Medi Whale Inc. has participated in this program as one of the 15 Korean startups making business in the field of ICT and manufacturing. As a health tech startup, Medi Whale introduced its artificial intelligence solution to detect eye and cardiovascular disease through a non-invasive observation of eyes. The speaker explained that it can help patients and society to save healthcare costs while provides effective diagnostic support. The program was organized in purpose to encourage the Korean and Indonesian startups to scale up by having a chance to “collaborate with partners and investors”, as the South Korean ambassador said.

More information about the event at : https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/startups/25-startups-pitch-korea-indonesia-tech-startup-demoday

Medi Whale Inc., a healthcare startup based in South Korea, has made a pitch introducing its technology in Tech in Asia 2018 Arena pitch battle as one of the six selected finalists. Arena pitch battle is a startup competition annually held at Tech In Asia conference. This year, six startups from Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, and Taiwan were included in the competition finalists. The event was organized by Tech in Asia, which is the biggest technology news platform of Southeast Asia. Over 500 startups participated the offline conference last year.

This year from 23th to 24th October, Tech In Asia took a place in central Jakarta, Indonesia, with tech startups and investors participating. Exposition of promising technologies and network between companies were held. Kevin Choi, CEO of Medi Whale, said that “Medi Whale expects to be fully out to start its business opening the markets in Southeast Asia.”

More info at : https://e27.co/vietnams-uiza-wins-tech-in-asia-jakarta-2018-arena-pitch-battle-20181024/