Anumana partners with Novartis to develop AI cardiovascular disease detection tools

Anumana, a joint venture between EHR data company nference and the Mayo Clinic, announced last week it had entered a strategic partnership with pharma giant Novartis to develop artificial intelligence tools to detect cardiovascular diseases. The collaboration will focus on deploying AI algorithms that analyze ECGs to find left ventricular dysfunction, which can lead to heart failure, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which can cause heart attack and stroke. The companies are pitching the partnership as a way to detect potentially deadly heart conditions and intervene before serious complications occur. "Many heart diseases develop for years before signs and symptoms appear, but the first event may be life threatening," Dr. Paul Friedman, chair of Anumana's Mayo Clinic board of advisors, said in a statement. "AI enables us to uncover hidden signals our bodies transmit to detect otherwise occult heart diseases, potentially years before symptoms appear. This collaboration has the potential to transform the use of a ubiquitous inexpensive test, the ECG, with the aim of democratizing disease detection and helping medical care teams to proactively manage heart disease ahead of time, and prevent some clinical events from ever happening."