KardioStatus, a new biotechnology software development company founded in 2022 at the Warren Alpert Medical School, uses AI technology to analyze patient biometrics and forecast individual medical outcomes.聽
The company was founded by Anthony Chu, a cardiac electrophysiologist and clinical assistant professor of medicine, and Anshul Parulkar 鈥�10 MD鈥�18, a cardiology fellow at Rhode Island Hospital. They are working with a team of Brown community members, including recently onboarded medical student Emily Wang 鈥�22 MD 鈥�26, to develop their technology and seek FDA approval for its clinical use.
鈥淐urrent medical decision-making is, at best, reactionary,鈥� said Chu. 鈥淥ur vision is to use biometric-driven predictive analytics to facilitate proactive therapies. Imagine what we could achieve in medicine if we had a better understanding of the when in addition to the why. 鈥溌�
Prior methods of creating patient care plans have been largely reactive to existing health issues, a problem KardioStatus aims to solve, Wang said.聽
KardioStatus is currently working to address obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that causes episodes of interrupted breathing during sleep, Chu said. The group is using electrocardiogram data 鈥� biometrics used to analyze a patient鈥檚 heart rhythm and electric signaling 鈥� from OSA patients to investigate when individuals have an apneic episode.
Instead of reacting to apneic episodes after they happen, KardioStatus aims to predict them preemptively. Along with yielding information about a patient鈥檚 current health 鈥� such as sleep cycles or types of irregular heartbeats 鈥� the technology can 鈥渕edically forecast,鈥� Chu said.聽
Medical forecasting 鈥済ives physicians the ability to be proactive,鈥� Chu said.聽
KardioStatus is working in collaboration with the , led by Professor of Applied Mathematics and Engineering George Karniadakis. 鈥淲e provide algorithms, they provide data collection and what the problem is,鈥� Karniadakis said.
The AI algorithm from KardioStatus, created with the assistance of the CRUNCH group, is trained to understand the implications of the data from sleep apnea patients. 鈥淭he idea is that you can get signals from apnea patients and then you train a neural network with something called supervised learning,鈥� Karniadakis explained. 鈥淎fter you train the neural network, you鈥檙e hoping that it will predict new situations.鈥澛�
KardioStatus鈥檚 goal is to eventually collect data through wearable technologies, such as a patch or a watch, predicting outcomes without invasive testing, Chu said.聽
The first experiments have been remarkably successful, according to Wang. 鈥淏ased on the data that we have, (the algorithm) was highly predictive of the next sleep apnea event, which is super exciting because then we鈥檙e able to modify treatments and help patients have a more restful night.鈥澛�
KardioStatus is operating in a new biotechnology space classified by the FDA as 鈥淪oftware as a Medical Device.鈥澛�
鈥淚t鈥檚 unlike other types of software,鈥� Chu explained. 鈥淚t鈥檚 software that is tied to clinical outcomes and designed to function independently of medical grade hardware鈥� 鈥� instruments like heart monitors.
KardioStatus also hopes to use this developing technology for broader clinical applications. 鈥淭he idea is to create an algorithm that can take input data, whether it鈥檚 (electrocardiogram) data or eventually looking at blood serums to help predict the onset of diseases,鈥� Wang said.聽
The team鈥檚 ultimate goal is to streamline the process of diagnosing a patient and working on a treatment plan. 鈥淚deally it would be nice if you鈥檙e given a patient鈥檚 entire data set and you can tell them exactly what they may have already and any risk factors they have for other diseases,鈥� Wang said.
KardioStatus plans to engage with data from a group of participants diverse in sex, race, nationality and age. According to Chu, a lot of AI data has been 鈥渇lawed for decades鈥� because it is drawn from populations that are 鈥渕ale-dominated, caucasian, American and of a certain age type.鈥澛�
According to Chu, KardioStatis is currently operating on investments from the State of Rhode Island, a partnership with the University and funding from outside investors.
Francesca Grossberg is a Staff Writer covering Science and Research. She is a first-year from New York City planning to concentrate in Health and Human Biology.
