As part of the startup Interview series, we are going to interview Mr. Dovydas Matuliauskas from Ligence, a Lithuanian company working on more accessible and cost-efficient AI-powered 2D echocardiography analysis.
Dovydas, thanks for taking the time to catch up with us. Can you briefly outline the company’s story, what is Ligence’s key goal? Who are the founders and how it all became what it is today?
The idea came into mind to my colleagues Arnas and Karolis back at the beginning of 2019. Arnas was a resident doctor of cardiology at that time and did many heart ultrasound examinations, whereas Karolis was deeply involved with various AI projects. They decided it was feasible to create an AI system for automated interpretation of heart ultrasound studies. We gathered the team in March 2019. We had a lot of expertise with AI and medicine, but we had no idea how to make a business out of it and therefore had to learn many things organically. Nevertheless, we managed to raise a pre-seed round in June 2020, won a couple of acceleration programs, and had several project grants.
Congratulations to your team! What kind of products and services does your company offer?
Our current product is called Ligence Heart. This is a medical image viewer also known as echocardiography reporting station that displays DICOM format heart ultrasound studies and offers automation for easier reporting. The novelty is the neural network which is capable of recognizing different heart image views, detecting the phase of the heart cycle, performing segmentation of different anatomical structures, and was proven to be non-inferior to human operators. The platform allows completing heart ultrasound examinations at least 50% faster.
What’s the latest progress in the project, and what are you focusing on right now?
Your answer: We have recently submitted a patent application to WIPO and all the documentation to notified bodies regarding our software. We expect a CE mark for the device in September 2021. We have ongoing projects and are actively fundraising our seed round.
What pain of your customers are you helping solve? What is your company’s offering and what kind of customers and partners are you looking for?
Heart ultrasound examination is heavily dependent on the person performing it, therefore is prone to errors and subjectivity. Moreover, all of the measurements of heart’s function and anatomical features must be completed manually. As a result, the procedure takes from 30 to 90 minutes to complete and this creates patient waiting lines across all of the Europe. The average waiting time is around 4 weeks. The Ligence Heart software allows medical doctors or sonographers to skip manual measurements during the procedure because the software is capable of performing the necessary measurements without human input. What is left for a cardiologist is to simply validate the findings of the software. This makes study reporting much easier and quicker than before. We are looking for partners in medical device distribution in Europe.
What differentiates Ligence from its competitors?
Today Ligence has the most automated measurements comparing to any competition. Ligence Heart software has already been clinically validated. The CE mark is expected in September 2021. Ligence has successfully reached all of its milestones with relatively small funding (less than 0.5M EUR).
Do you use AI technology in your product? How does it work for you?
Yes, the Ligence Heart software is all about AI. The neural network is capable of recognizing different heart image views, detecting the phase of the heart cycle, performing segmentation of different anatomical structures, and was proven to be non-inferior to human operators. The platform allows completing heart ultrasound examinations at least 50% faster.
Do you have any projects related to COVID-19 research? If so, can you explain how your product is contributing to a global fight against coronavirus?
We have been granted project funding for the development of the automated system that enables medical doctors to quickly recognize the most common heart pathology in heart ultrasound studies met in COVID-19 patients (e.g. Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy, pericardial fluid etc.)
What is your business model and how are you planning to get early customers onboard? Have you already raised money for your operations and building the platform?
B2B software licensing. We either send a physical server with our software and set it inside a hospital or make a “virtual machine” installation inside the hospital’s servers. We offer free updates and support for 3 years.
What milestones have you had in fundraising and where are you now?
Our milestones are:
- to have a patent application,
- to have at least three installations across different countries,
- integrate with at least one Picture Archiving and Communication Systems provider,
- to clinically validate the product and to have a CE mark.
We have succeded in all of those!
What was it like growing your team? What are the challenges and surprises you encountered? What tips do you have for building a solid team?
Most of our team members come from a medical background, therefore it was fairly easy to gather the team. However, the real challenge was when we needed more people with expertise in software development and deep learning. There are not many people in this area and therefore it took almost half a year to hire someone. A strong founding team must have all the necessary qualities and competencies to successfully build a product, find investors, implement the solution. Four of our founders have the necessary qualities and skills that complement each other.
What are your company’s plans for the future, your major dream in 2021?
We wish to successfully raise the next funding round, acquire the CE mark and implement our solution into more hospitals.
What do you think about the business climate in Lithuania and in the EU in general?
Lithuania has a really active startup scene and the current policy is to foster as many startups as possible. Europe, according to reports, is still behind the US, India, and China in numbers of startup companies, however here we have plenty of talent and plenty of resources to start successful businesses. Moreover, I really love the business culture in Europe and how people are to each other.
To summarize our interview I would like to ask your opinion about the future of the HealthTech industry, especially considering the impact of pandemics and all this economic turbulence.
The pandemic allowed telemedicine to prosper. The number of teleconsultations was tens of times greater than the year before. Without any doubt, AI solutions will help drive the clinical workflow and aid medical professionals in everyday routines. The wearables will become new smartphones, everyone will have a smart watch or other similar device since they are becoming cheaper and give you loads of information on your overall health. I believe healthcare will become more digitalized over the years.
