New AI Program on the Scene for Radiology: Aldoc Medical

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly improving the science of radiology. The latest AI project to revolutionize the field is Aldoc Medical, an Israeli-based startup that aims to accelerate a radiologist’s workload with deep learning algorithms that detect “high-level abnormalities” in medical images.

Aldoc zooms in on the aspects of the scan that are most relevant to diagnosis. CEO and founder Elad Walach says that the idea for the technology derived from the high disparity of scans to radiologists. “Over the past few years, the amount of CT and MRI exams have increased dramatically, while the amount of radiologists have remained basically the same,” he told TechCrunch. “This has led to medical image interpretation becoming a severe bottleneck in healthcare today.”

In the era where AI technology is influencing every aspect of medicine, Aldoc faces substantial competition. Although they were recently awarded $7 million from VC TLV Partners, Magma Ventures, and Emerge. There are other medical tech companies with similar visions. IBM Watson Health is their main competitor, although Walach claims that their model is different because it focuses on “a narrow pathology set.” Zebra Medical Vision is another, however their product is mostly geared towards insurance companies, and their third competitor, MedyMatch specifically interprets scans of intracranial hemorrhage or brain bleed.

Although Aldoc is still in their early stages, they’re already getting substantial recognition for their work. In November 2016, they placed first in Geektime’s Techfest start-up competition. In the future, they hope to establish test building sites in the U.S.