The Oxford University spin-out set up by its technology transfer office raises the funds at the same time as winning a development award from the UK's National Health Service.
Intelligent Ultrasound has spun out from Oxford University, after it was set up by the University’s technology transfer company Isis Innovation.
Intelligent Ultrasound has raised £610,000 ($953,000) to develop software to reduce the risk of incorrect or missed diagnoses.
Tom Hockaday, managing director of Isis Innovation, said: "This is a University technology which will have a positive impact for clinicians, patients, and the taxpayer, as well as investors."
Intelligent Ultrasound’s software products are based on research from Professor Alison Noble of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, part of Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science.
The company has also been backed by the NHS National Innovation Centre, which has given a development award to the company.
The company’s other investors include the firm’s founders and the Oxford Invention Fund.
Professor Noble, the Technikos Professor of Biomedical Engineering, said: ‘We are combining conventional ultrasound scanning with advanced automated image analysis post-processing to improve the diagnostic quality of scans and ensure that the doctor has the best ultrasound-based information to make a clinical decision. It is perhaps the most exciting time in over 20 years to work in ultrasound research due to the rapid developments in 2D and 3D imaging. My laboratory at Oxford is responding to the clinical pull to dramatically reduce healthcare costs by using cost-effective technology such as ultrasound as an alternative to more costly MRI and CT scanning.’
Colin Callow, head of the NHS National Innovation Centre, said: ‘By creating the right environment and infrastructure for collaboration and partnership between industry, academia and the NHS, the National Innovation Centre can provide access to the expertise necessary to support the rapid development of exciting innovations so that they are truly ‘NHS Market ready’, identifying and solving adoption barriers both technical and organisational – before the product hits the market."
