«Thanks to artificial intelligence, we finally have a tool that can meet the high demands in primary diagnostics.»
— E. Schönmann, MD, Primary Care Physician, Aarau
AI-based coronary artery disease risk test
This article deep dives into diagnosing the risk for coronary artery disease in patients with the innovative AI-based test Cardio Explorer from Exploris Health. It also highlights the startup’s collaboration with Swiss Post in the occupational health space and with Post Sanela to connect the valuable health data to the electronic patient record.
This article series puts the spotlight on the Digital Health Academy 2024 cohort, highlighting their innovative solutions and their ongoing collaborations with digitalswitzerland members. Each article features one of the scaleups chosen to participate in the second edition of the academy.
Exploris Health
The Challenge
Heart attacks and the underlying coronary artery disease (i.e. blockage of arteries with plaque1, limiting and ultimately stopping the blood flow to the heart) are the number one cause of death–not only in Switzerland, but worldwide. This is a treatable disease, which is why it is important to identify affected people and save others from unnecessary examinations. Today, the most reliable diagnostic solutions are a CT2 scans, MRI3 scans, or an invasive catheter examination.4
But how is it decided if a patient should undergo either of these procedures or if they can be sent back home without further investigation? To make this decision, there are currently no reliable preselection tools in place. This often leads to informed guessing, resulting in either significant amounts of unnecessary imaging and invasive tests–burdening both patients and payers–or missed cases due to incorrect risk assessment.
The Solution
Exploris Health developed an AI-based test called Cardio Explorer®, which can reliably rule out and diagnose the presence of coronary artery disease at the same time. Both decision processes are enabled with similar accuracy as CT or MRI scans. This test, however, is purely software-based. It is CE-marked and has been clinically validated in over 4’500 patients. Only requiring blood test results, blood pressure, and information about the patient, it is easy to use and positioned as a first line test for healthcare professionals to efficiently identify patients that are at risk and recommend the appropriate next steps as suggested by the latest medical guidelines.
Impact on the Patient
Patients with an acute coronary artery disease are identified more quickly. And for the others, unnecessary further examinations are avoided, saving them from waiting times, radiation, and unpleasant invasive interventions.
Testimonials
«We believe Cardio Explorer, Exploris Health’s innovative cardiac test, will significantly improve care for patients with suspected coronary artery disease.»
— Dr. med. Thomas Helms, Chairman of the Board of the German Foundation for the Chronically Ill.
Team
Serial entrepreneurs, experts from pharma, diagnostics, AI, and Professors from university hospitals in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US.
Collaboration & Partnerships
Exploris Health works with a diverse range of collaborators and partners to advance its mission. The company collaborates with university hospitals to access data, identify unmet medical needs, develop innovative solutions, and conduct clinical validation. It has established distribution partnerships with electronic medical record providers, as well as key players in diagnostics and the pharmaceutical industry, to facilitate the adoption of its solutions by general practitioners, resident cardiologists, and emergency departments in hospitals. Additionally, health insurance providers collaborate with Exploris Health to support the reimbursement of its tests. Occupational health physicians and service providers also partner with the company to integrate its tests into employee heart health check-up campaigns.
Future Vision for Healthcare
Leverage AI to decode human biology and identify personalised diagnostic and therapy solutions in order to improve patient outcomes and substantially save costs for healthcare systems by enabling decisions at the right time and place.
Spotlight on collaboration with Post/Sanela
Goal of the Collaboration
The aim from this collaboration with Exploris Health was to identify focus areas and establish contacts across Swiss Post and Sanela, creating a short- and longer term win-win scenario. Three such potential focus areas were identified:
Occupational Health
Electronic Patient Record (EPR)
Ecosystem beyond Swiss Post and Sanela
The Collaboration Value
The collaboration ensured to quickly identify the appropriate stakeholders within such a large organisation as Swiss Post and identify areas for joint value.
Roadmap and Achievements
Occupational Health:
An event to create awareness about heart health and different risks for men and women took place mid-December 2024 at Sanela headquarters in Zurich. Exploris Health and their partner IFA (Institute for Occupational Medicine) introduced the Cardio Explorer during the event.
Theresa Reiker, mentor of the startup and Business Development Specialist & Head of Compliance at Sanela established the contact between Exploris Health and the leading Occupational Health Practitioner for all of Swiss Post. Discussions to include the Cardio Explorer within the company-wide heart check-up offering are ongoing.
EPR / Digital Health
The introduction to the Head of Sales Digital Health from Swiss Post, the leading technology provider of electronic patient records, led to an exchange of ideas on how the Cardio Explorer and the Swiss Post’s Digital Health/EPR-app could benefit from each other. Further refinement will take place in the near future.
Running an awareness campaign on EPR marketplace to inform about heart health was identified having high value in driving further interest in the EPR itself. More discussion will follow.
In addition, a potential integration of the Cardio Explorer into the Digital Health/EPR-App (via Swiss Post) and contributing reports to the EPR (via Sanela Stammgemeinschaft/communauté de référence) could be highly beneficial. Current efforts are currently focussing on scoping, feasibility and planning.
Ecosystem
Exploris Health was introduced to the Novartis Foundation and identified a common interest in improving cardiovascular health in city populations. The organisations are currently exploring potential involvement in ongoing initiatives which include multi-stakeholders such as AI4HealthyCities by the Novartis Foundation.
An Insightful Collaboration
«Things take time to materialise, but the seed is planted. We feel very comfortable that we will further collaborate for the benefit of Exploris but also Post and Sanela.»
— Dr. Manuel Roemer, Chief Strategy & Business Development, Exploris Health AG
«As someone with a public health background and a deep passion for cardiovascular health, mentoring Exploris Health has opened my eyes to the innovative possibilities for early detection. By fostering connections and building bridges between tools for the early detection of chronic diseases and the EPR ecosystem, we can lay the groundwork to advance preventive healthcare and improve public health outcomes across Switzerland.»
— Dr. Theresa Reiker, Business Development Specialist, Head of Compliance, Post Sanela Health AG
About the Organisations
Exploris Health: https://en.explorishealth.com/
Swiss Post Digital Health: https://digital-solutions.post.ch/en/digital-health
Post Sanela Health: https://www.post-sanela.ch/en/
About the Digital Health Academy
In collaboration with Swiss Healthcare Startups, digitalswitzerland launched the second edition of the Digital Health Academy, a 6-month cohort based programme for AI-driven digital health scaleups that enable patients to better understand and monitor their health. AllesHealth, CNS Therapy, Exploris Health, mobile health and Pathmate were part of the 2024 cohort and, through this academy, were positioned as thought leaders in the digital health space. As part of the programme, they joined a collaborative workshop with the programme’s partners, were mentored by experts, benefited from in-depth workshops and took part in a panel discussion on health monitoring at our partner Swiss Healthcare Startups’s ecosystem event, Digital Health Day in Zurich.
Want to know more? Check out last year’s publication “The Swiss healthcare system: entering a new digital era”, on the state of innovation in digital health in Switzerland.
Footnotes
1Plaque: Buildup of fats, cholesterol and other substances in and on the artery walls
2Computed tomography (CT): A diagnostic imaging procedure that uses a combination of X-rays and computer technology to produce images of the inside of the body.
3Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): A medical imaging technique that uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body (incl. organs, bones, muscles and blood vessels)
4Invasive catheter examination: An invasive procedure in which a thin tube called a catheter is inserted through an artery and guided to your heart to identify important information about the structure and function of the heart.