Israeli MedTech companies have experienced quite the acceleration process following the COVID-19 outbreak, with digital health companies garnering the bulk of the focus. The AI medical train has left the station with companies like Ibex Medical, Aidoc, Scopio, and more all scoring funding and coveted FDA approvals this year. However, in the land of medical-AI FDA clearances, one horse stands alone, or should I say Zebra.

Enhancing surgical planning

Israeli startup Zebra Medical Vision, the deep-learning medical imaging analytics company, announces today its seventh FDA clearance. The newly approved solution utilizes the power of AI to extract bone measurements from X-ray scans, similar in quality to CT scans, for the purpose of planning orthopedic surgical procedures.

“Zebra Medical Vision is proud to lead the AI medical imaging market,” says Ohad Arazi, CEO of Zebra-Med. “Expanding from radiology to orthopedic surgery supports our mission of leveraging machine learning and computer vision to help patients achieve better care everywhere with more readily available resources.”

Many countries still suffer from a lack of accessible CT and MRI scanners. This is where Zebra Medical’s AI imaging analysis prowess becomes a clear-cut advantage for the medical field, as following the 7th FDA ok, the AI-powered imaging technology can provide an affordable solution for new markets and in places where MRIs aren’t available. Zebra-Med’s solution also addresses the logistical bottleneck spurred by unnecessary implants being delivered to each surgery, raising inventory and healthcare costs at large, due to limitations of existing planning solutions.

“The ability to determine implant size cost- effectively (without CT or MRI) will enhance preoperative surgical planning”, says Dr. Charles Lim, Total joint replacement expert, Menlo Park, CA. “This technology can particularly help with less common implant sizes (small or large) and for implant inventory management”.

Zebra-Med’s technology uses AI algorithms to reconstruct a 3D model of the patient's bones from standard X-ray images - providing orthopedic surgeons full-shape landmarks and measurement information accurately and affordably. Zebra-Med’s ability to create these reconstructions is based on the largest real-world, medical-image database available today.