The GI Genius module’s AI-based enhancements include green boxes that highlight areas that may need extra scrutiny during a colonoscopy. [Image courtesy of Medtronic]
Think of a software-based business model — an app marketplace — where third-party developers create new AI tools to boost early colorectal cancer detection during colonoscopies. It’s a type of product development strategy that may become more common among medical device companies, especially as they shift toward more innovation in the digital space.
The world’s largest medtech company points to GI Genius as the first FDA-cleared, AI-assisted colonoscopy tool that helps physicians detect polyps leading to colorectal cancer. Cosmo Pharmaceuticals, GI Genius’s developer and manufacturer, designed it to host multiple AI algorithms. Medtronic has exclusive worldwide distribution rights.
By integrating Nvidia’s Holoscan and IGX technologies, Medtronic seeks further enhancement of the module’s AI capabilities. The Nvidia tech will enable Cosmo Pharmaceuticals to introduce an Innovation Center website that will enable third-party developers to train and validate their AI models, with the intent to distribute them through GI Genius’s new AI Access platform.
Medtronic sees the partnership as a game-changer
Giovanni Di Napoli, president of the Gastrointestinal business at Medtronic, showed a GI Genius video at our DeviceTalks West event in Santa Clara, California, this past October. He described how there’s a decrease in lesion detection from morning through the afternoon when it comes to getting a colonoscopy.
GI Genius’ AI-based enhancements change the game by placing green boxes around areas that may need extra scrutiny during the diagnostic imaging procedure, helping to prevent physicians from losing their focus.
“This technology makes the morning and the afternoon the same,” Di Napoli said at the time.
In a Medtronic news release out today, Di Napoli said GI Genius will be able to accomplish even more now that it can host multiple real-time AI applications. He called the move a game-changer for physicians performing gastrointestinal procedures.
“We are committed to working with the best and brightest minds in the field of AI to develop new technologies that can improve patient outcomes and transform the way we approach healthcare,” Di Napoli said in a separate news release from Nvidia.
Medtronic intends to integrate Nvidia Holoscan — a real-time AI computing software platform for building medical devices — and Nvidia IGX, an industrial-grade edge AI hardware platform, to run with GI Genius. Holoscan provides the full-stack infrastructure needed for scalable, software-defined processing of streaming data at the edge, according to Nvidia.
“Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that can increase the speed, efficiency and effectiveness of global health systems,” said Kimberly Powell, VP of healthcare at Nvidia. “We’re collaborating with Medtronic to accelerate AI innovation by enabling a software-defined business model, with the goal of improving clinical decision-making, reducing medical variability and driving better patient outcomes.”
