Southwood Inc. Joins Butterfly Garden to Deploy Echocardiography AI on Butterfly’s Imaging Platform
- Masatoshi Taketani
- Jul 26, 2024
- 3 min read
Southwood Inc. enters Butterfly Garden, leveraging Butterfly Network’s software development kit (SDK) to build and deploy AI for early detection of heart diseases that will be compatible with Butterfly’s leading imaging platform.
[Tokushima-ken Japan], July 27th, 2024 – Southwood Inc. (“Southwood”), a digital health company which develops and provides AI for echocardiography today announced it has joined Butterfly Garden, an artificial intelligence (AI) Marketplace launched by Butterfly Network, Inc, (“Butterfly”) (NYSE: BFLY) a digital health company transforming care through the power of portable, semiconductor-based ultrasound technology and intuitive software. Under the agreement, Southwood plans to build a platform solution based on diagnostic AI technologies for echocardiography used with Butterfly’s single-probe, whole-body handheld ultrasound system, subject to applicable approvals and authorizations.
Through this collaboration, Southwood aims to deploy an advanced AI tool, featuring with automated left ventricular ejection fraction measurements and precise view classification, onto Butterfly devices. The intent is to elevate diagnostic accuracy and efficiency to provide early cardiovascular diagnoses at the same level as a skilled doctor. This can improve the care of 523 million people worldwide who suffer from cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the leading cause of death.
In August 2023, Butterfly Network launched Butterfly Garden, allowing third-party developers access to its proprietary SDK and APIs to build new AI applications that work in conjunction with Butterfly’s imaging platform, bringing with it access to the largest point-of-care ultrasound customer base. Southwood, with capabilities to research and develop AI models useful for diagnosing and monitoring various CVDs, was an ideal match for the program.
“Butterfly’s ultrasound systems are small and portable, and therefore, ideal for use in hospitals, clinics, in home care, other nontraditional care settings. Furthermore, the Butterfly platform has already been widely adopted worldwide, making it an optimal environment for Southwood's AI as we fulfill our mission to enable connected care anywhere, anytime,” said Dr. Kenya Kusunose, Founder of Southwood.
Darius Shahida, Butterfly Network’s Chief Strategy Officer, added, “Southwood’s expertise in echocardiography AI makes them an excellent match for Butterfly Garden, joining our effort to continually expand the capabilities of Butterfly’s imaging platform to improve provider efficiency and patient care. We look forward to working together under a shared commitment to enhancing the quality of healthcare for everyone, everywhere."
About Southwood
Founded by Dr. Kenya Kusunose in 2023, Southwood is a digital health company whose mission is to realize a society in which an ultrasound-assisted AI can work with your doctor anytime, anywhere to connect you to a specialist if there are signs of disease through a casual examination. Dr. Kusunose has been continuously researching the potential of medical AI in the CVD field since 2018, when AI was not as developed as it is today. His research achievements include AI models for detection and prognosis prediction of pulmonary hypertension and heart failure in chest X-ray, and AI model construction for estimation of left ventricular ejection fraction in echocardiographic images and detection of genetic abnormalities in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In addition, the world is facing many serious issues such as disparities in medical care between regions. He founded Southwood in the hope that AI could be used successfully as a tool to solve these issues. Southwood believes that we can bring smiles to the faces of people around the world by connecting the results of our research to society and clinical practice. https://www.southwood.co.jp/en
About Butterfly Network
Founded by Dr. Jonathan Rothberg in 2011, Butterfly Network is a digital health company with a mission is to democratize medical imaging by making high-quality ultrasound affordable, easy-to-use, globally accessible, and intelligently connected, including for the 4.7 billion people around the world lacking access to ultrasound. Butterfly created the world's first handheld single-probe, whole-body ultrasound system using semiconductor technology, Butterfly iQ. The company has continued to innovate, leveraging the benefits of Moore’s Law, to launch its second-generation Butterfly iQ+ in 2020, and third-generation iQ3 in 2024 – each with increased processing power and performance enhancements. The disruptive technology has been recognized by TIME’s Best Inventions, Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas, CNBC Disruptor 50, and MedTech Breakthrough Awards, among other accolades. With its proprietary Ultrasound-on-Chip™ technology, intelligent software, and educational offerings, Butterfly is paving the way to mass adoption of ultrasound for earlier detection and remote management of health conditions around the world. Butterfly devices are commercially available to trained healthcare practitioners in areas including, but not limited to, parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America; to learn more about available countries, visit: www.butterflynetwork.com/choose-your-country.
Southwood Media:
Masatoshi Taketani, Representative Director
Butterfly Business & Technology Inquiries:
Darius Shahida, Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer
Butterfly Media:
Liz Learned, Head of Corporate Communications
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