ThinkSono Joins Butterfly Garden to Deploy ThinkSono AI on Butterfly’s Imaging Platform

LONDON, England, October 10, 2023 (Newswire.com) - ThinkSono Ltd (“ThinkSono”) a leading Ultrasound AI company, today announced it has joined Butterfly Garden, an artificial intelligence (AI) Marketplace launched by Butterfly Network, Inc, (“Butterfly”) (NYSE: BFLY) a digital health company transforming care through the power of portable, semiconductor-based ultrasound technology and intuitive software. 

Under this partnership, ThinkSono plans to build ThinkSono AI training solutions and ThinkSono Guidance, a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) clinical solution for use with Butterfly’s single-probe, whole-body handheld ultrasound system, subject to applicable approvals and authorizations. ThinkSono and Butterfly aim to enable healthcare practitioners to learn several key point-of-care ultrasound scans, including the detection of deep vein thrombosis (DVT). 

Venous thromboembolism

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is associated with a major global burden of disease. Worldwide, the incidence of VTE is 1–3 per 1000 individuals, rising to 2–7 per 1000 in individuals aged over 70 years, and 3–12 per 1000 in those over 80 years. VTE, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolus (PE) are the leading cause of hospital-related disability-adjusted life years lost.

Using these estimates, and using the most conservative incidence figure, globally at least 7.7 million people will require investigation for VTE every year. An aging population across many countries will lead to a greater health burden, particularly in middle- and low-income countries where early death from infection is decreasing. 

Mortality from VTE is common, a European study estimated 534,000 deaths per year and a similar study in the US reported 300,000 deaths per year. DVT has a high level of morbidity. 30–50% of the surviving patients develop long-term symptoms in their affected leg (post-thrombotic syndrome).¹

Opportunity for the Future

In August 2023, Butterfly Network launched Butterfly Garden, allowing third-party developers access to its proprietary SDK and APIs to build new AI applications that work in conjunction with Butterfly’s imaging platform, bringing with it access to their prominent point-of-care ultrasound customer base. ThinkSono, with its real-time ultrasound AI capabilities, was an ideal match for the program. 

Fouad Al Noor, CEO and Co-Founder of ThinkSono commented, “We are hugely excited to deploy ThinkSono’s real-time AI software on Butterfly’s platform due to the extensive reach, real-time ultrasound streaming capabilities and integration with the entire Butterfly ecosystem. Butterfly has the largest community of handheld POCUS users worldwide, and so it was a natural choice for us to seek to partner with them.”

Darius Shahida, Butterfly Network’s Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Business Development Officer, added, “We are excited to welcome ThinkSono to the Butterfly Garden. Their innovative AI and technology are great early examples of the types of tools we hope to bring to our community of users through Butterfly Garden - a premier destination for AI in ultrasound.”

About ThinkSono 

Founded in 2016, ThinkSono (www.thinksono.com) has developed the world’s first real-time Ultrasound AI software to enable non-ultrasound healthcare staff to perform DVT scans. This technology addresses the worldwide unmet medical need for better DVT detection. 

Furthermore, ThinkSono is developing training solutions for other ultrasound AI applications which aims to increase access to ultrasound imaging and upskilling non-ultrasound trained healthcare staff to perform key ultrasound scans. ThinkSono’s DVT solution has already been trialed in hospitals across the UK, EU and is now expanding into the U.S.  

With several patents granted and multiple peer-reviewed papers published in prominent journals such as Nature Digital Medicine, ThinkSono has demonstrated its leadership in the Ultrasound AI space. The company aims to enable any healthcare professional to use the power of ultrasound to diagnose disease and increase the universal access to ultrasound imaging. 

About Butterfly Network

Founded by Dr. Jonathan Rothberg in 2011 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange through a business combination with Longview Acquisition Corp., Butterfly created the world's first handheld, single probe whole-body ultrasound system using semiconductor technology, the Butterfly iQ+. Butterfly's mission is to democratize medical imaging and contribute to the aspiration of global health equity, making high-quality ultrasound affordable, easy-to-use, globally accessible, and intelligently connected, including for the 4.7 billion people around the world lacking access to ultrasound. Through its proprietary Ultrasound-on-Chip™ technology, Butterfly is paving the way for earlier detection and remote management of health conditions around the world. The Butterfly iQ+ can be purchased today by trained healthcare practitioners in areas including, but not limited to, parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America; to learn more about available countries, visit: www.butterflynetwork.com/choose-your-country.

Citations

1. Kainz, B., Heinrich, M.P., Makropoulos, A. et al. Non-invasive diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis from ultrasound imaging with machine learning. npj Digit. Med. 4, 137 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-021-00503-7

Source: ThinkSono Ltd