Analytics Insight announced in their June digital magazine of that BrainQ is one of the most Innovative AI solution providers for 2018. Analytics Insight is a media, branding and technology platform with a unique focus on insights, trends, and opinion from the world of data-driven technologies. BrainQ is based in the Givat Ram Hitech Village.
Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare represents technologies that enable machines and algorithms to make sense, comprehend, and learn from complex data. In the field of neurodisorders, which are typically chronic states, the analysis of data can transform healthcare by helping healthcare professionals make better decisions, diagnose better, and provide more personalized, and therefore more effective treatment.
BrainQ’s mission is to lift paralyzed victims of neurodisorders such as stroke and spinal cord injury ‘back on their feet’ using advanced AI tools. Neurodisorders affect hundreds of millions of people every year and are a major cause of disability. Stroke, one of BrainQ’s leading indications, is the world’s #1 cause of disability with approximately one-third of its survivors remaining permanently disabled, unable to perform standard daily activities.
BrainQ’s Brain Computer Interface (BCI)-based device uses AI to observe the characteristics of selected functional motor movements in the brain and apply those same characteristics directly to a patient’s Central Nervous System (CNS). The company’s digital therapeutics device, BQ 1.0, uses Electroencephalography (EEG) data from a patient performing motoric tasks to identify their high-resolution spectral patterns. Using proprietary machine learning (ML) algorithms, these patterns are then translated into a frequency-dependent, low intensity and non-invasive electromagnetic treatment, which enhances recovery through facilitating relevant networks in the CNS associated with these spectral patterns.
The company was Co-founded by Dr. Yaron Segal (CTO), Yotam Drechsler (CEO), and Prof. Esther Shohami (CSO). Dr. Yaron Segal, founded BrainQ to search for a cure for his 17-year-old son, Lear, who suffers from a rare brain syndrome. Since its inception, BrainQ has raised $8.8 million in funding and conducted several pre-clinical trials as well as first in human clinical trials, which has shown promising results. Dr. Segal holds a Ph.D. in geophysics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). Yotam Drechsler is an alumnus of the Boston Consulting Group and has an academic background in math, computer science and cognitive science from HUJI. Professor Emeritus Esther Shohami is a world-renowned expert in neurotrauma.
BrainQ is at the frontier of AI-based precision medicine. The company sees growing trend towards using such technologies for unmet problems and is essential for treating the most complex organ – the brain.
More immediately, in the field of neurodisorders, the solutions available do not help enough people. One-third of people who suffer a stroke will be paralyzed and dependent on others to complete basic, daily tasks. The projected cost of stroke alone in the US is $240 billion by 2030. The company believes that BrainQ’s technology will disrupt this pattern of injury and burden and revolutionize the field of neuro-treatment.
The current treatments for neurodisorders in healthcare leave much to be desired. They are either marginally effective or treat only the symptoms, not the core issues underlying the disorder. At BrainQ, the company aims to solve these ‘unsolvable’ issues by approaching treatment of neurotrauma from a data-driven and patient-friendly approach and provide precision medicine-based solutions, and the results to date have been encouraging.
p>In addition to its medical innovation, BrainQ is working at the cutting-edge that intersects machine learning with EEG analysis. BrainQ has created and continues to collect data for its own BCI-based EEG database. Additionally, its proprietary algorithms uncover spectral patterns of brain activity present in EEG spectra and give high-resolution insight that outperforms the current standard.
BrainQ is proud to collaborate with world-class experts in both machine learning and neuroscience. The company has worked with Google’s experts, such as Peter Norvig, and other leaders in the field of ML algorithms.
Additionally, the company’s scientific advisory board is composed of top-notch neuroscience scholars, including Prof. Niels Birbamuer, a world leader in brain-computer interfaces, Dr. Nathan Bornstein, who directs the Shaarei Zedek hospital neurology department and serves as Vice President of the World Stroke Organization, and Prof. David Liebskind, Professor of Neurology and Associate Director of the Stroke Center at UCLA.
BrainQ’s current clinical trials are taking place in premier medical institutions both in Israel and abroad. Ongoing communication with professionals in these departments provides the company with additional insight into improving its technology and treatment.
