BOC leads Series B-plus for Chinese AI player Shukun

Existing investors China Creation Ventures (CCV) and Huagai Capital re-upped. CCV led the first tranche of the Series B - also worth RMB200 million - in February 2019. This followed a Series A round led by Hua Gai Capital and Morningside Venture Capital in 2018. Marathon Venture Partners provided RMB22 million in angel funding a year earlier.

Founded in 2017, Shukun's core product is a three-dimensional heart disease diagnosis solution used by more than 200 tier-one hospitals in China.

For a traditional heart-disease imaging examination and diagnosis, doctors need at least 30-60 minutes to complete the scan-diagnosis-initial report-report review process. Patients must then wait 1-3 days before getting the report. Shukun provides an end-to-end solution that enables some hospitals to offer a same-day service to patients.

"One CT session creates some 400 images. We can use them to reconstruct a three-dimensional ‘virtual heart' and give a pre-diagnosis," Lei Zhang, Shukun's chief marketing officer told AVCJ in a previous interview. "It normally takes 30-40 minutes for a doctor to review and analyze all the images. With AI, this process can be cut to four minutes."

However, there remains a stark difference between theory and practice. A host of legal issues surround the use of AI in this way – all of which come back to the point that doctors hold medical licenses, not technology solutions.

"If a patient is misdiagnosed, the ultimate responsibility for that lies with the doctors; they can be sued for medical malpractice but not the AI," said Michael Keyoung, head of North America at healthcare investor C-Bridge Capital. "That's why a physician still goes back and reviews the images and make a proper diagnosis, rather than just reading the AI-generated report."

Some industry participants question whether AI represents a workable solution in this area. Ajay Royyuru, a vice president of health care and life sciences research at IBM, insisted that no matter how effective AI solutions prove to be, they will not displace the expert practitioner.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Healthcare
• Technology
• China
• artificial intelligence
• China Creation Ventures
• Bank of China
• CCB