Artificial intelligence might soon be able to help clinicians understand exactly what is happening inside of the human brain.
What’s happening:
- Toronto based medical technology company Firefly Neuroscience has announced an agreement to go public on the Nasdaq via a merger with WaveDancer (NASDAQ: WAVD)
- Firefly’s FDA cleared technology leverages artificial intelligence for brain scanning to be able to identify cognitive disorders and mental illnesses in a revolutionary way
How it works:
- During a 40 minute test, the brain is measured using an electroencephalogram system while evoking specific processes in the brain
- That data is then validated and referenced against Firefly’s proprietary AI model which has access to age specific patient cohorts
- Firefly is then able to provide a science based diagnosis of what is happening in the brain and what treatment options are most helpful
Why it matters:
- Being able to more precisely understand what’s going on in the brain allows clinicians to be able to change medications for patients or get immediate feedback on how an individual is responding to a new treatment or therapeutic
- Brain scanning technology could lead to a major breakthrough in being able to identify dementia and other cognitive diseases much earlier than is currently possible
Going deeper:
- Firefly has partnered with many large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to use their AI technology including Takeda, Purdue and others
- In a partnership with Novartis, Firefly was able to successfully measure the impact that ketamine had on the brains of healthy patients
By the numbers:
- Firefly’s AI model leverages data from more than 17,000 patients
- Over $75M USD of venture funding has gone into developing Firefly’s proprietary technology
