Medical imaging startup Aidoc Medical Ltd. said today it has raised an extra $20 million in funding, bringing its total funding to date to $60 million.

The Series B extension round comes at a time when customers are increasingly turning to its artificial intelligence-based software, with the company saying it has tripled its revenue this year even amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The company has built AI models that radiologists can use to analyze computerized tomography or CT scans in real-time. The idea is to help them make medical diagnoses faster and with greater accuracy. Aidoc’s “Always-on” technology runs behind the scenes, working to identify the most urgent cases where immediate medical intervention can help to save someone’s life, the company says.

Aidoc’s AI models, pre-trained on more than a million CT scan images, essentially try to mimic the way that human radiologists analyze medial images. The models learn and improve over time, helping to increase accuracy the more they’re used.

Aidoc co-founder and Chief Executive Elad Walach (pictured) told SiliconANGLE that the volume of medical imaging the company has processed has gone up to “above normal levels” because of a backlog caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a resulting reduction in staffing at many hospitals.

“The influx of these new imaging demands has fallen directly on the remaining radiologists,” Walach said. “With the expected additional surge during the fall and winter, hospitals understand that adoption of new technologies, like AI, is necessary to handle the workload, when hospitals are at their busiest.”

Still, Walach said, Aidoc’s revenue growth could be attributed to natural acceleration of AI, noting that it’s an entirely new technology in the healthcare industry.

“Only coming to market early 2019, the significant impact and momentum for adoption has been increasing exponentially since then,” he said. “The pandemic might have accelerated this trend slightly, but generally, AI radiology solutions are being rapidly adopted regardless.”

That much is evident, because Aidoc isn’t alone in trying to use AI to help medical imaging professionals save lives. One of its rivals is Nvidia Corp., which is doing something similar. It’s using its latest AI systems to help the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging better analyze images of patient’s lungs. The idea is to help clinicians make more informed decisions regarding patient’s treatment options.

Aidoc said it now has six Federal Drug Administration-cleared products that radiologists can use to help flag abnormalities in their workflows. The company now serves more than 400 health centers in five continents.

That’s not to say Aidoc doesn’t still have hurdles to overcome. Constellation Research Inc. analyst David Chou previously told SiliconANGLE that AI companies still has more work to do to get radiologists to accept and embrace a technology that many fear could end up putting them out of a job.

“There are still many radiologists that oppose AI due to the fear of job replacement,” Chou said.  “AI will not replace the human effort in healthcare, but it can augment patient care.”

Walach told SiliconANGLE that Aidoc sees the radiology community as its most important partner, and indeed, that community could well play a part in addressing any fears that remain, he suggested.

“What’s interesting is that while polls have shown that medical students are concerned about AI replacing radiologists, the doctors who use our solution on a day to day basis are the most gung-ho about Aidoc,” Walach said. “Studies have also shown that with the increase in medical imaging, radiologists have an average two to three seconds to review each image, so an extra set of eyes is welcomed, not shunned.”

Looking ahead, Walach said Aidoc intends to use the new funds to expand its portfolio of medical imaging products and facilitate its expansion into more hospitals across the globe.

Photo: Aidoc