Essential Factors for Launching New Medical Imaging Technology

October 02, 2023 - On September 26, 2023, Exo, a medical imaging startup, announced the launch of its newest imaging device: Exo Iris. Iris is a portable ultrasound device that combines point-of-care imaging, artificial intelligence, and health information technology (IT) systems.

LifeSciencesIntelligence sat down with Sandeep Akkaraju, co-founder and CEO of Exo, to discuss the launch of their newest device and what makes a good investment in life sciences technology. Akkaraju has had a hand in multiple life sciences startups and provided critical insight into how to secure resources for these projects.

Current Limitations in Medical Imaging

Although medical imaging has significantly improved since its inception, there are significant limitations and barriers to accessing imaging.

“Almost 80% of the world has no access to any medical imaging,” estimated Akkaraju. According to a 2022 article published in the University of Western Ontario Medical Journal, an estimated 50–75% of the global population cannot access diagnostic imaging tools, such as ultrasounds.

Beyond limited access to devices, a global shortage of radiologists is also a limiting factor for access to diagnostic medical imaging.

“Today, we [Americans] have roughly 20,000 trained sonographers who are serving a population of approximately 320 million Americans. So, something's fundamentally wrong out there,” noted Akkaraju.

The Radiological Society of North America notes that as the world population ages, requiring more imaging, the radiology workforce will be unable to keep up.

“There are care deserts across the world. This is not just a developing world issue. This is an issue today in the United States,” added Akkaraju.

Exo

Akkaraju and his team began the organization by acknowledging gaps in ongoing imaging care. Although medical imaging has advanced significantly in the past few decades, there are still many limitations to the available technologies. Akkaraju told LifeSciencesIntelligence that his team asked themselves to consider the following scenarios:

• What if providers could screen, diagnose, and monitor chronic illnesses easily?
• What if babies could be screened when they’re born to minimize the risk of hip dysplasia?
• What if screening for chronic and dangerous conditions could be easily screened during primary care appointments?
• What if maternal and infant mortality could be prevented through easy and readily accessible screenings?
• What if providers could rapidly assess if a patient’s stomach pain is cramps, gallstones, or an abdominal aortic aneurism?

According to Akkaraju, the company intends to determine “how to put powerful tools in the hands of caregivers to affect care and unconstrained care in a major way.”

Exo Iris

The company’s newest launch is Exo Iris.

“It's built on a proprietary silicon technology that gives high fidelity imaging and makes it affordable. We’re [Exo] a Silicon Valley company. Silicon Valley is all about taking sand, converting it into silicon, and putting it into people's pockets. It's an old business model. But with Iris, our goal is to enable a new set of people to use this,” Akkaraju told LifeSciencesIntelligence.

“[Exo is] broadly redefining medical imaging with an ecosystem of products that include handheld ultrasound device that fits into the pockets of caregivers and works as simply as using a smartphone camera,” he added.

Beyond developing an easy-to-use portable device, Akkaraju and his team have incorporated real-time artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics technology to help providers get instant insight into a patient’s health.

“[Providers] can simply sweep over an organ and get immediate answers, like how [a patient’s] heart's functioning or if their lungs are normal,” added Akkaraju.

In addition to intuitive imaging and imaging analysis, Akkaraju noted that Exo hopes to improve interoperability and data sharing by allowing providers to see patient information throughout their care journey.

He explained that Iris aims to get real-time insights into the human body into the hands of providers at the point of care.

“This is not about a scheduled visit to an Exo lab or a radiology department to get scanned. This now unlocks the power of imaging in the pockets of many different caregivers,” he emphasized. “We've spent a lot of time on highly proprietary chip technology that we've developed out here that blends that imaging excellence that you get with the affordability of silicon.”

“We've developed a real-time architecture that allows providers to analyze every frame of data that's coming out in real-time, so the AI can crunch that in real-time and give insights as to what's going on,” Akkaraju went on.

While the product just launched, providers in the US can get the device for a starting price of $3,500. Comparatively,  that a new mid-range ultrasound machine costs $15,000–60,000. A new high-range ultrasound machine can cost up to $100,000.

Important Factors Informing This Launch

Akkaraju provided insight into the launch process for this product, focusing on identifying areas of need and evaluating the market.

“Everything is about that product market fit. A lot of companies focus on developing a minimum viable product. We [Exo] focused on developing a minimum lovable product, and clearly, this is a platform that we're going to build on,” Akkaraju commented.

He explained that launching the first-in-kind product is an enormous undertaking, as with any industry. It is vital to lay a strong foundation so that future iterations have something to stand on.

“We're starting in the acute care space, but that's a starting point. We must be laser-focused on the initial customers we plan to serve and expand from there. It's not a device for everybody yet, but that's the goal over time,” he explained.

Securing Investments

“We've been fortunate to have raised about $320 million with top-tier investors,” revealed Akkaraju when asked how he secured investments for this technology.

While he did not provide extensive detail about securing investments, Akkaraju emphasized the importance of building a team of experts. The people working to develop and launch the product must be well-versed in their respective fields, with an in-depth understanding of market needs and expectations.

“Ultimately, building something this complex takes an incredible team to do that. This is a pretty big transformative technology.\ And to be able to do that, it's all about the team and the credibility of the team.”

“For us, it's always been about growing that circle of trust around us. Methodically staging ourselves across that process has been an important aspect.”

Moving Forward

“Changing medical practice takes time,” stated Akkaraju, echoing the voices of major industry leaders and subject matter experts.

The company plans to continue building on Iris to help address the gaps in diagnostic medical imaging.

“We are starting in certain segments. The key for the company is determining how to take this from specialist users to mainstream markets. This is about nurses, EMTs, home care or acute care at home,” Akkaraju mapped out. “We're focused on those high growth, new emerging markets. We'll also continue to innovate and execute on making this simpler.”

“Our ultimate goal is simple: to ensure that every patient across the globe can receive faster, more accurate medical answers. That's what we're focused on. It takes time to build that out, and we're focused initially on frontline workers and making sure that they have the tools, and we're going to expand from there,” he concluded.