US-based medical device company Exactech has signed an exclusive licence agreement with Advata, a software company focused on patient outcomes and healthcare management.
Under the terms of the agreement, Exactech will gain access to Advata’s new software that can potentially advance its machine learning (ML)-based clinical decision support tool, Predict+.
Predict+ is a data-driven, clinical decision support tool, developed using previously published, peer-reviewed research, in partnership with Advata in 2019 and rolled out in November 2020.
It was designed to better inform surgeons regarding the expected outcomes that can be achieved after shoulder arthroplasty.
The software can be accessed using the Equinoxe Planning App preoperative planning software, used with the ExactechGPS navigation system in the operating room.
Exactech plans to add the newly licensed software to its Active Intelligence platform.
The addition will further support the integration of Predict+ with the Equinoxe Planning App, along with other software and databases, said the medical device maker.
Exactech extremities senior vice president Chris Roche said: “I am proud of Exactech’s vision to utilise enabling technologies with the goal of improving clinical outcomes and for making this investment to expand our in-house artificial intelligence capabilities.
“This investment in new software and the hiring of this amazing machine learning team will serve as a catalyst for even more powerful and predictive artificial intelligence research and development applications for the Equinoxe shoulder, and also for other Exactech hip, knee and ankle products.”
According to Exactech, Predict+ is the world’s first software to generate personalised risk-benefit analyses using ML, to help predict patient outcomes post-shoulder replacement surgery.
It was developed based on the clinical data generated from a large-scale single-shoulder prosthesis outcomes database of more than 15,000 patients.
Advata chief technology officer Sudarshan Chitre said: “Advata is proud of the productive research and development collaboration with Exactech over the past several years.
“With the help of Advata’s exclusively licensed software for orthopaedic applications, Exactech now hosts Predict+ and can steward the continued development of this innovative ML-based product.
“This licensed software will encourage new innovations and improvements in the usability of Predict+ and other future applications.”
Furthermore, Exactech has hired an experienced team of machine learning researchers and engineers to further advance its ML research and development capabilities.
The new team will improve its ability to produce additional artificial intelligence (AI)-based software for various orthopaedic applications, said the medical technology company.
Exactech Machine Learning new vice president Vikas Kumar said: “My team and I share Exactech’s vision that machine learning has the potential to transform healthcare decision-making.
“When paired with high-quality healthcare data, novel ML applications will provide orthopaedic surgeons with valuable new data to help them make more informed, evidence-based decisions through which we aim to optimize clinical outcomes after arthroplasty.
“My team and I are proud of what we have developed with Exactech since 2019, and we are excited about what we will develop and deploy in the years to come at Exactech.”
