Otologic Technologies, one of Inno’s 20 Wisconsin Startups to Watch in 2020, has closed on $275,000 in funding from friends and family.
The Milwaukee company is developing an artificial intelligence-based system that will help doctors better diagnose ear disease.
Dan Wenger, chief strategy officer for the company, previously said 85% of children in the U.S. visit a clinic for possible ear infections, resulting in billions of dollars spent on the visits each year.
The problem, he said, is seven out of every 10 diagnoses is wrong given the tools doctors are using.
The system the company is developing will capture five-second video clips of the patient's inner ear, and using its software, will compare the images to a database of known cases of ear infections. Based on the images, the software will then display similar diagnosed cases to the doctor on a computer, giving the doctor a better accuracy rate for diagnosing the infection.
"Studies report ear disease is commonly over-diagnosed, and we're spending $4 billion a year in the U.S. treating ear infections,” Wenger said in a statement. “We need to put better tools in the hands of healthcare teams to examine and diagnose ear disease. These tools are even more important as telemedicine takes a larger role, as we have seen during the Covid-19 crisis."
Products made by the company will require regulatory clearance before launching to the health care market, the startup stated in an announcement about the funding. The company previously was awarded a $420,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health.
