AI Turns Ultrasound Into The New Tricorder: GE HealthCare acquires Caption Health

In the classic Star Trek series, the Starship Enterprise’s Chief Medical Officer Leonard “Bones” McCoy uses a portable handheld device called a tricorder to perform medical assessments of humans and aliens alike. You never saw Bones with a stethoscope, but his tricorder could detect vital signs, body chemistry, and biological function through radio waves, much like today’s portable ultrasound devices. Moreover, throughout the series, other Starfleet personnel other than Dr. McCoy operated the tricorder to save lives.

Today we are announcing that recently independent GE HealthCare (GEHC) is acquiring DCVC portfolio company Caption Health, whose AI-driven software allows ultrasound echocardiograms to be delivered by non-specialists in any setting, greatly increasing the potential for early detection of disease. GE HealthCare is a market colossus with over a hundred-year history in a range of medical diagnostic imaging (including X-ray, MRI, ultrasound, mammography, and many others). Most significantly, they chose to make an AI-focused investment as their first acquisition as a new, independent company.

Ultrasound technology really got moving in the 1960s (like Star Trek), but the initial devices were large and cumbersome to use. They gained purchase in women’s health — for those of us who are parents, it is remarkable to see your child’s heartbeat in the womb — and over time made their way into emergency departments and other parts of the medical stack. Unlike X-rays, ultrasound does not produce excess radiation to medical staff and can diagnose a range of health issues including blood clots and bleeding, broken bones, tears in ligaments and tendons, hemorrhages, pneumonia and many more. It does it quickly and effectively. There is one catch, though: it takes substantial training to perform these procedures.

Caption Health was the first company ever to receive FDA approval for an AI-guided medical imaging acquisition system. Its guidance-assisted navigation is as simple as the directions sent to guide an Uber driver: the person capturing the heart scan follows the directional arrows issued by the software and does not need the training of an ultrasound tech, nurse, or doctor. It is a perfect DCVC company because it democratizes the early detection of heart disease or failure by lowering the cost and complexity of delivering preventative care. Thousands of Caption scans have been delivered by medical and nursing assistants as well as armed services personnel.

One of Caption’s singular inventions was the ability to accurately deliver an AI-guided “Ejection Fraction,” what the company calls AUTOEF. The ejection fraction measures the effectiveness of the heart in delivering oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body. Less than 40 denotes distress; above 52 is normal to optimal. Not only does the navigation software tell the operator where to move the wand, the software constantly takes images until it has enough data to deliver the Ejection Fraction analysis as well as a range of images of the heart for the cardiologist.

Caption initially focused in on cardiology because heart disease is the leading cause of death. It can be treated with medication, diet, and exercise, providing patients with longer and more enriched lives—but only if it is found (and the sooner the better). And Caption has undertaken work in other areas, including lung disease. Expect to see this exceptional technology cover a range of medical diagnoses.

All companies are about people. Caption was started by two AI visionaries: Kilian Koespell and Charles Cadieu. When CEO Steve Cashman joined the team almost two years ago, the company moved from offering an enhancement to current cardio technology (i.e., making a medical device) to becoming a portable tech-enabled health service pioneered by the company called Caption Care. This was a pivotal change: getting the business model for preventative care right. Industry legend Joe DeVivo joined Caption as independent Chairman last year to help round out its strategy and industry reach. We have been fortunate to have been on the journey with them.

And looking forward, DCVC is deeply invested in a range of new AI technologies to increase human enablement. We seek to radically expand the range and lower the cost curve of medical care in many endeavors of human health, including surgery and stroke treatments. Expect to hear more soon from our portfolio company Proprio, for example.

While I grew up in the era of the stethoscope, the merging of Caption technology into GE HealthCare gives me hope, even confidence, that we will see the tricorder in our lifetime.