AMI Corporation and MUSVI Form Strategic Partnership for Medical Innovation

AMI Corporation and MUSVI: A New Era in Remote Healthcare

AMI Corporation, headquartered in Kagoshima City, is joining forces with MUSVI, based in Shinagawa, Tokyo, to usher in a transformative chapter in medical services. This partnership focuses on leveraging advanced AI medical devices and implementing remote healthcare services, notably through a groundbreaking memorandum of understanding.

The Motivation Behind the Partnership

The rising number of patients in Japan with heart conditions, such as heart failure and valvular disease, has become a pressing concern, particularly in rural and remote areas where gaps in specialist healthcare are glaring. In these regions, patients often face delays in proper diagnosis and treatment due to the shortage of cardiology experts. Hence, AMI and MUSVI aim to tackle this issue head-on by utilizing their combined expertise in technology and healthcare.

What Makes Their Solution Unique

The innovative collaboration brings together AMI's AI-powered digital stethoscope, known as the "Super Stethoscope (Remote Medical Support System Cloud Super Diagnosis)" and MUSVI's telepresence system "Mado". By integrating these technologies, they will facilitate remote auscultation and heart disease screening, making it possible to deliver specialized medical care even in areas lacking necessary expertise.

Why Proper Diagnosis Matters

In the initial stages of heart disease, subtle changes in heart sounds may occur, which trained medical professionals can detect through careful auscultation and detailed patient questionnaires. This underscores the importance of effective remote consultations that replicate in-person interactions. Traditional video conferencing tools often fall short due to audio issues, leading to misunderstandings that can create unnecessary stress for both patients and doctors. In contrast, the use of "Mado" enables seamless and natural conversations where medical practitioners can accurately assess a patient's condition, ensuring that their voices and emotions are clearly communicated.

The Advantage of Remote Auscultation

For patients, auscultation offers a non-invasive, pain-free method for health checks, fostering trust in the healthcare system. It allows medical professionals to promptly identify abnormal heart or lung sounds, playing a crucial role in diagnostics and treatment planning. Moreover, swift screening can significantly reduce the likelihood of patients suffering serious complications, simultaneously lowering healthcare costs.

How the Partnership Operates

The workflow for their collaborative system includes the following steps:
1. Medical professionals in remote areas use the "Super Stethoscope" to capture heart sound and ECG data, connecting it to "Mado" via PC.
2. Physicians in urban centers engage in consultations through "Mado," receiving real-time data shared via the content sharing feature, enabling them to make immediate assessments and provide necessary instructions.
3. Collected data automatically uploads to the Cloud Super Diagnosis system, with AI analysis results available in approximately 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Physicians can determine the necessity for in-person visits or monitor conditions based on the analyzed data and recorded audio.

This collective effort aims to establish a new model of telemedicine where both local healthcare providers and urban specialists collaborate to assess heart disease risks effectively.

Anticipated Benefits

- Capable of performing heart disease screenings at a specialist level in areas lacking access
- Speedy initial diagnoses to avert severe complications and reduce healthcare costs
- Diminished patient burdens—less need for long-distance travel or emergency transports
- Reduction of healthcare disparities, promoting comprehensive community care

Future Prospects

Looking ahead, AMI and MUSVI plan to broaden their applications beyond rural and island communities to include nursing facilities and home health care. By keeping an eye on global expansion, the duo aspires to contribute significantly to resolving healthcare access disparities worldwide.

Insights from Company Leaders

MUSVI’s CEO, Yusuke Sakai, expressed that, “By combining the capabilities of 'Mado', which creates seamless communication between patients and healthcare providers, with AMI's rapid diagnostic support via the 'Super Stethoscope', our partnership aims to address significant healthcare issues in remote areas effectively.”

In a similar vein, AMI’s CEO, Shinpei Ogawa, illustrated that this collaboration marks a pivotal step toward early detection of cardiac diseases and bridging healthcare disparities. “We envision a society where everyone, regardless of location, can access high-quality medical care. This initiative will see AMI evolve through AI and cloud technologies to improve accessibility to healthcare services,” he asserted.

Ultimately, both companies are united in their mission to reshape the future of healthcare, ensuring that equitable medical systems are within reach for all.