Technological advancements are undeniably reshaping the healthcare landscape, revolutionizing how patients engage in their treatment process and how doctors work, diagnose, and treat—and this is one of the most dynamic and life-changing research areas today.
In Romania, we have an active MedTech sector due to recognized healthcare players Medlife, Regina Maria, and even the public system working together with innovation facilitators, such as InnovX accelerator or, very recently, Innovation Labs, to support and promote ambitious start-ups looking to change the world.
One such start-up is Autosymed, a company founded in Iasi by a team of Polish scientists, doctors, and researchers working closely with Romanian developers to create a solution that “will radically improve the activity of invasive cardiologists in the near future”. The company’s representatives gave several pitches in the InnovX program that Autosymed participated in 2023. Furthermore, their participation in the accelerator has been rewarded with an important recognition award from the sector market leader, Medlife.
But what exactly does Autosymed’s CadFlow system do? We had the opportunity to discuss the system’s newest achievements with Katarzyna Heryan, the chief researcher, and the company’s development and future strategy. Autosymed announced that it had completed the implementation of yet another Grant from the Norway Funds at the end of April 2024.
CadFlow, the AI solution dedicated to the medical industry, provides automatic coronarography data analysis, including stenosis detection, characterization, and quantification. It also automatically calculates the SyntaxScore parameter to ensure optimal patient treatment.
Since coronarographies, also known as coronary angiographies, are the gold standard in the diagnostics of atherosclerosis. This pathology is the root cause of life-threatening conditions such as heart attack, stroke, or reduced blood flow to the limbs. In summary, the main causes of over 17 million deaths in 2023 alone. The subject is prone to raising intense interest in academic and healthcare sectors, but it should raise interest for the large public.
As K. Heryan shared with us, the World Heart Report statistics are disturbing, stating that as many as half a billion people across the world continue to be affected by cardiovascular diseases, causing close to a third of all deaths globally each year. Up to 80% of premature heart attacks and strokes can be prevented, and the company’s solution addresses this segment: traditionally, a doctor performs the coronary angiography image analysis in 30-35 minutes on average to provide necessary calculations to determine the SyntaxScore.
The manual calculation strictly depends on doctors’ expertise: Those with 20 years of experience can use the calculator manually and deliver results in 2-7 minutes, depending on the complexity of the case.
However, young, still inexperienced cardiologists may even refrain from performing the calculations due to their lack of proper experience and the time-consuming nature of the process (long learning curve). Unfortunately, this negatively impacts the accuracy of the diagnosis and prevents treatment optimization tailored to the specific needs of the patient.
Considering that manual means human error may occur, this translates to a limited number of patients being diagnosed with precision. CadFlow system addresses these challenges.
According to K. Heryan, the last system update showed staggering improvements in accuracy and efficiency. Our doctors concluded and confirmed that the process is now four times faster with enhanced quality of suggestions, impacting more precise diagnostics. The calculation time is now reduced to 7-8 minutes, with more to come.
This certainly is only the latest step this team took, but not the last, as K. Heryan clearly states: “We will not stop here, but continue to refine our algorithms and advance our solution to set the gold standard in SyntaxScore calculation. We aim to empower doctors worldwide to diagnose and treat more patients with enhanced accuracy, ensuring each individual receives the best possible care. As a result, healthcare providers can offer more effective care, improving patient outcomes and quality of life”.
We asked how Autosymed would promote and monetize the CadFlow solution next. The company representative explained that their strategic approach was to secure IP and trademarks and define a tailored go-to-market strategy. Both aspects were the subject of the 3rd Norway Fund, which they accessed and developed over the past months.
In terms of patents, the company has filed for one and has conducted extensive research on the innovation and singularity of its system, with encouraging results. This step should help the team get academic and practical validation in a super competitive and complex environment and protection for the invention. Furthermore, during the trademark registration process and as part of the extensive marketing research conducted, the team determined that the initial name of the system, CorFlow, needed to be optimized to fit marker regulations, and this is how CadFlow came to life and is currently a trademark registered name in Romania.
“Romania is the home of our company and our initial target market. We have analyzed several European options, and our research also went outside Europe. Finally, we concluded that the conditions Romania offers, the clear support for start-ups, access to funds, and most importantly, the access to healthcare operators and the overall government’s dedication to improving healthcare in the country provide us with the best possible context to launch our product globally”, K. Heryan mentioned too. Next, Poland and Germany are targeted in the foreseeable future, but Autosymed’s ambition is to become a global provider.
As supporters of the Iasi innovation ecosystem, we could not be more proud to have Autosymed in our network. We will follow their development closely in the future.
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