Dr. Uli Kreutzer
Media Relations
18.11.2019 | Pressrelease
Ruelzheim – The German technology company ITK Engineering, headquartered at Rülzheim, Rhineland-Palatine, and the Japanese startup Hacarus have jointly developed a proof of concept for a personalized patient monitoring system, serving to evaluate ECG signals. It not only evaluates anomalies in a single patient heart’s ECG in near real-time, but also provides at-a-glance comparisons with the expected normal ECG curve. Missing interpretability has been one major acceptance hurdle for classic deep learning approaches in medical applications as the decision-making process of AI has been a black box up to now. The novel AI technology is visualized in a form that can be interpreted by doctors and supports them in fast and accurate judgement. “Our sparse modeling-based technology can extract results even from small amounts of data, and the lightweight algorithm performs even on embedded systems such as wearables,” says Kenshin Fujiwara, CEO and founder of Hacarus.
At MEDICA, we are going to show visitors that the benefits for the patient can go hand in hand with patient safety, cyber security and data privacy. These are fundamental requirements for CE or FDA approval for a medical device.
Richard de Klerk, Head of R&D Medical Systems Engineering at ITK Engineering
Hacarus and ITK Engineering present the joint technology demonstrator for the first time at Düsseldorf’s MEDICA on November 18 through 21, 2019. The proof of concept was co-engineered in Japan and Germany, integrated by ITK Engineering based on 25 years of systems engineering experience in medical grade connected systems including wearables, mobile medical apps, algorithms and secure interfaces. “The application in cardiology on real-time ECG data is just one example among many that shows how greatly AI solutions can benefit patients and doctors – we see further applications in medical imaging, therapy support in mental health and in laboratory diagnostics,” says Takashi Someda, CTO of Hacarus.
Hacarus kicked off the pre-commercial rollout of its medical AI solutions in 2018, after four years of research and development. Hacarus’ sparse modeling- based technology is currently being evaluated both in Japan and Germany for applications that support medical trials, preemptive treatment and medical diagnostics. ITK Engineering brought many years’ know-how in the areas of software and systems engineering, systems integration, device connectivity and cyber security to bear in this collaborative effort to develop a proof of concept. These areas are becoming increasingly important in the course of digital transformation. ITK Engineering has been rising to the associated challenges as an ISO 13485- and ISO 27001-certified development partner. The technical proof of concept described in this press release is a feasibility study which is currently neither commercially nor clinically available.
