Topcon Healthcare, Inc. is collaborating with Pangaea Data to invest in Pangaea’s clinically validated artificial intelligence (AI) platform—marking the second strategic investment for the global ophthalmic device and digital health solutions company in less than a week.
The move is just the latest supporting Topcon’s ongoing Healthcare from the Eye initiative (but more on that later).
First, a rundown on Pangaea Data.
Founded in 2017, the software product platform developer is located in London, England, and San Francisco, California.
Its focus: Assisting healthcare and pharmaceutical providers in identifying and screening untreated and under-treated—undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, miscoded, uncontrolled, and at-risk—patients.
- Specifically, the company targeted the challenge of available intelligence in existing patient records and developed a solution known as PALLUX, an AI-based platform that identifies untreated patients to improve overall outcomes and clinical care.
Tell me more about Pangaea’s platform.
PALLUX is designed to “mimic” clinicians’ manual review by automatically analyzing and comparing structured and unstructured patient records against clinical guidelines.
- This includes reviewing varying types of patient data, such as signs and symptoms, family history, lab results, genetic screening results, and specialist reports
Via this real-time analysis and comparison, the platform then identifies patients who meet diagnostic or treatment criteria—but are notably not actively receiving treatment or disease management.
- See here for a look at the therapeutic areas and diseases PALLUX has targeted so far (note: ophthalmology and optometry are currently not included).
And how does it access these patient records?
By integrating directly into clinicians’ existing electronic health record (EHR) and downstream scheduling systems—without disrupting any clinical or IT workflows, according to Pangaea.
To note: PALLUX’s intuitive dashboard is equipped for an easy-to-use interface and integration—and is deployed within 8 to 12 weeks using existing infrastructure.
Let’s talk features.
Among its capabilities, the platform:
- Is deployed behind healthcare providers’ firewalls (with no transaction of data) to preserve privacy
- Processes patient records in several languages
- Provides high-accuracy identification across heterogeneous datasets
- Differentiates between conditions with overlapping symptoms
As a bonus: PALLUX is reported to be compliant with healthcare regulations (including HIPAA and GDPR standards), but is not classified as a service as a medical device (SaMD).
- Plus: See here for how this can benefit healthcare providers and clients on the pharmaceutical side of operations.
Alrighty, now to this Topcon investment.
The intent behind the companies’ new collaboration: To utilize PALLUX in order to address critical care gaps in eye health and systemic disease—including timely diagnoses and better overall patient management.
- As Topcon CEO and President Ali Trafeshi noted: “Pangaea Data’s unique ability to find missed patients using AI, and to do so without burdening clinicians, has powerful implications for eye care and beyond.”
And how exactly will the company be involved?
Key to this partnership (as with previous collaborations): Topcon’s Harmony digital health platform.
- What it is: A clinical image and data management platform for streamlining clinical practice workflows and organizing ophthalmic clinical data (details here).
And we can’t forget that this platform is also integral in that aforementioned Healthcare from the Eye initiative.
- What to know: This is a clinical strategy in which AI models are applied to ocular imaging data to enable both earlier detection and better management of ocular and systemic diseases.
- See here for the latest updates.
So what’s the plan in this?
The PALLUX platform will leverage the Harmony platform to create a digital interface for both optometric and ophthalmic clinical practices to identify patients in need of a follow-up or additional evaluation.
Among these patients: Those with undiagnosed glaucoma and diagnosed diabetic retinopathy (DR).
Take note:
- A reported half of all glaucoma patients in the United States are undiagnosed—with that number significantly higher for certain racial and ethnic groups
- An estimated one-third of diagnosed diabetics reportedly do not undergo an annual eye screening—and rates vary greatly within subsets of the U.S. population
Sounds promising! It sounds like Topcon has been on a roll lately …
It most definitely has—and this is just the latest of (likely) more to come!
In fact, over the last year, the company has announced several new partnerships, investments, leadership appointments, and beyond—all to advance its Healthcare from the Eye initiative.
Check them out here (starting, most recently, with Topcon’s investment in a microdosing drug delivery system).