On one hand, It’s pretty obvious that the use of AI and data in clinical atmosphere and medical centers can lead to new treatments and medical breakthroughs. However, on the other hand, none of us want our private medical info, which is used to train the different ML models, moving freely through various servers, databases, and virtual environments, right? A new Israeli startup, called Rhino Health, emerges from stealth mode with a system that connects hospitals and AI developers, providing access to a large, continually updated, distributed dataset from a diverse group of patients, while maintaining patient confidentiality and privacy.

From internal data to a distributed database

“There are inherent challenges stemming from collaborating entities not being able to share data between them. There’s a need for a solution to determine who’s allowed access to certain info and in what way, as well as regulating each access point,” explains Rhino Health CTO and co-founder Yuval Baror in a chat with Geektime. “We realized that the market demands a better way to collaborate, with many organizations still going about the process manually and with outdated tools.”

Baror explains that the company’s distributed database is comprised from a large variety of patients. The data continuously updates, leading models to produce better and more consistent results. This is instead of relying solely on info from one medical center, as is common practice today. "Rhino Health is bringing together foundational learnings and emerging best practices from AI-forward industries to ensure that healthcare solutions are solving real-world problems and delivering consistent results," added Baror. "With Federated Learning, we're able to do this in the privacy-centric manner this industry demands, advancing the interests of patients, hospitals and technology developers alike."

$5M Seed round

In addition to emerging from stealth, the company also announced a $5 million Seed round, led  by LionBird Ventures. The round also saw participation from Arkin Holdings and private investors. The company has offices in Tel Aviv and Cambridge, Mass, and is looking to quickly expand and recruit to its small but elite team.

Rhino Health was founded by CTO Yuval Baror, who previously worked on the Duplex Google project, and founded MentAd - acquired in 2017 by SocialCode; and CEO Ittai Dayan MD. Prior to leading Rhino Health, Dayan headed the Data Science center at Mass General Brigham.

Adding to the exciting announcements, Rhino also revealed an interesting collaboration with NVIDIA. The Rhino Health Platform will tap into NVIDIA Clara (a dedicated SDK for medical data), which should assist the company reach more devices and expand its market reach.