Private operators account for nearly all of the early uptake, but in August last year Health New Zealand signed a $2 million pilot contract for HeartLab’s software to be used in its Te Manawa Taki (Midland) region, starting with Taranaki.
While Hewitt was talking up artificial intelligence well before ChatGPT pushed the technology into the mainstream, he says, “The AI has to be good, but we also have to solve the workflow for a clinician whose computer is bolted to a wall in a dark room.”
Scan results are stored in a secure cloud rather than a hospital’s local systems. That means a doctor in Auckland or Wellington can immediately assess a scan taken in small-town central NZ.
Across the Tasman, Advara head of non-invasive testing Thomas Mahoney says: “HeartLab’s cloud-based PACS [picture archiving and communication system] means we can access images and data from anywhere. It means we can do more mobile testing and improve patient access; our doctors can essentially review images live, potentially reducing risk and mortality for our patients.”
HeartLab’s “Pulse” software is mainly used to assess echocardiograms, simply because that’s easily the most common test. It can also be used for CT scans. Either way, it’s billed as a co-pilot to help speed assessment amid outsized waiting lists, rather than a human-replacement “autopilot”.
Echocardiograms are often used to spot common heart problems. Hewitt and his team are now researching how HeartLab could be used to spot hard-to-see diseases such as cardiac amyloidosis.
Hewitt founded HeartLab in 2018, during the first year of his Medical Engineering degree at the University of Auckland.
He has raised just over $8m in venture capital in a series of small rounds over the years, from backers including Uniservices (the University of Auckland’s commercialisation arm), Sir Peter Beck (via Outset Ventures), Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Icehouse Ventures and InVision Medical Technology – a firm founded by American cardiologist Dr David Ouyang that is also HeartLab’s key AI partner.
HeartLab has just 10 staff. Hewitt says his firm’s in-house use of AI for R&D and product development has kept numbers lean.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
