The health system joined New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health in investing in a $17.75 million funding round Feb. 18 that launched Avandra.
“As we think about transforming the way healthcare is accessed, experienced and delivered, we think there is a significant use case of the leveraging of data and analytics and digital health solutions, whether they’re AI-enabled or otherwise, into a number of applications,” Feby Abraham, PhD, executive vice president and chief strategy and innovations officer of Memorial Hermann, told Becker’s.
Avandra, which aims to create a network of imaging data for medical researchers, biopharma and AI companies, was co-founded by investment firm Aegis Ventures, which hosts a digital consortium of health systems including Memorial Hermann and Northwell. Aegis and SpringRock Ventures co-led the funding round.
“We believe imaging data is a critical component of developing better predictive mechanisms to understand disease early but also over time, to know longitudinally how it’s evolving,” Dr. Abraham said.