Interactive & digital marketing: Viz.ai, Neurolief’s migraine tech, and Kanerika-Microsoft partnership

By Joshua Slatko • [email protected]

Viz.ai adoption reaches 1,500 hospitals

Viz.ai, one of Med Ad News’ 2023 New Ventures to Watch, announced in January that the company has surpassed adoption in 1,500 hospitals in the United States, including the majority of the 50 largest healthcare systems. The company’s user base grew in 2023 by nearly 30 percent to 45,000 healthcare providers as it expanded its Viz.ai One platform with more use cases, especially in cardiovascular disease. The company also forged four new strategic partnerships with life science customers, now capping 7 of the top 30 life science companies in the world. With life science support, Viz.ai develops and deploys AI-powered solutions across its vast footprint to streamline patient journeys and accelerate speed to diagnosis and therapy.

“This was a momentous year marked by continued adoption of our AI-powered care coordination solution,” says Chris Mansi, M.D., CEO and co-founder of Viz.ai. “Viz.ai One is now trusted by 45,000 providers and serves five patients per minute – that’s one patient every 12 seconds. With more than 90 percent of our AI-powered alerts being viewed in under five minutes, we are pleased with our platform’s incredible engagement, which has made it indispensable to providers’ workflow. This couldn’t have been accomplished without the steadfast dedication of our team and close partnership with clinical stakeholders and lifescience innovators. In 2024 and beyond, we reinforce our commitment to accelerate patient access to therapy — enabling care teams to deliver the right care to the right patients at the right time.”

In 2023, Viz.ai reached several industry milestones in innovation and clinical evidence. With the introduction of the Viz.ai One platform, the company broadened its integration hub with electronic health records (EHRs) and radiology systems to deliver relevant patient insights and inform critical decisions at the point of care. Viz.ai also launched new capabilities in cardiology, such as its Echocardiogram Viewer and Reporting and Viz HCM, the first regulatory-approved hypertrophic cardiomyopathy AI detection algorithm and workflow tool. The FDA granted Viz.ai’s De Novo application for Viz HCM, creating a new regulatory category for cardiovascular machine learning-based notification software.

Now with more than 100 clinical abstracts and publications, Viz.ai continues to demonstrate significant real-world evidence on the patient and economic outcomes of AI-powered care coordination. One study on pulmonary embolism detection and care coordination that evaluated the performance of Viz PE with Viz Right Ventricle/Left Ventricle (RV/LV) algorithms found that, across 100 retrospectively-collected chest CT pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) images, Viz PE demonstrated a sensitivity and specificity of 91.1 percent and 100 percent, respectively. Earlier in the year, the VALIDATE study of more than 14,000 patients demonstrated that utilization of Viz.ai was associated with a 39.5 minute reduction in patient arrival to time of first contact with the neurointerventionalist for need for potential emergency endovascular treatment.

Japanese regulators approve first device for at-home treatment of migraine

Neurolief’s neuromodulation device Relivion has been approved by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW). According to company leaders this approval marks a historic moment for Neurolief and its partner Sawai Pharmaceutical Co., as Relivion is now the first neuromodulation device approved in Japan for at-home use in the acute treatment of migraine. Neurolief’s device was approved by FDA in March 2021.

Relivion is a novel, non-invasive multi-channel brain neuromodulation technology. It works by concurrently stimulating the occipital and trigeminal nerve branches in the head, effectively modulating brain networks associated with debilitating migraine headaches. The system is complemented by a state-of-the-art patient mobile app and a physician interface featuring cloud-enabled data-tracking capabilities, allowing seamless AI integration and enabling remote patient monitoring.

Marketing efforts for Relivion will be led by Sawai, which has entered into an exclusive partnership agreement with Neurolief for development and commercialization of Relivion for migraine and depression indications in Japan.

Scott Drees, CEO of Neurolief, expressed great enthusiasm for the MHLW approval, emphasizing the profound impact this decision will have on the millions of migraine patients in Japan. He underscored this achievement as a pivotal step in realizing Neurolief’s mission of bringing its pioneering neurotechnology to individuals globally.

Motohiko Kimura, president at Sawai Pharmaceutical, emphasized the company’s unwavering dedication to prioritizing patients through Sawai’s corporate philosophy of ‘Always Putting Patients First’. This commitment reflects Sawai’s strong resolve to contribute to healthier lives. With the upcoming introduction of the Relivion neuromodulation system in Japan, Sawai aims to elevate the landscape of acute migraine treatment options which is currently limited primarily to drug therapy.

Kanerika, Microsoft partner to provide EBI to pharma

Kanerika Inc. has partnered with Microsoft to build an enterprise business intelligence platform powered by Microsoft Fabric for a leading global pharmaceutical company in the United States. The All-In-One Comprehensive Analytics Suite aims to integrate complex data sources into a single lake-centric data mesh architecture and provide a cohesive view of sales, finance, MIS, budgeting, and business operations, promoting a culture of informed data-driven decision-making and strategic agility.

“Teaming up with Kanerika Inc. is a pivotal step in our ongoing pursuit of data excellence and analytics,” stated a C-Level executive from the pharma company’s leadership team.

The solution, company leaders say, provides various tools and experiences tailored to different user personas, from data engineers and scientists to business analysts and executives. This fosters data democratization across the organization.

Kanerika Inc. will equip the New Jersey-based pharma company with advanced analytics, real-time data processing, and a comprehensive view of its business operations.

“We are thrilled to align with their vision and deliver a data analytics platform that not only meets their current needs but also scales for future pharma industry demands, including M&A,” says Bhupendra Chopra, CRO at Kanerika. “Our alliances with Microsoft, AWS, and Informatica empower us to provide a robust and adaptable analytics framework, and we are excited to augment our healthcare industry footprint with newer use cases.”

According to company leaders, this collaboration will streamline internal operations and sales, sharpen market responsiveness, and enhance customer engagement through insightful, data-centric strategies for the pharma leader.