Image exchange network firm Life Image partners with RapidAI to bolster stroke care in hospitals

Imaging care delivery and research company Life Image and advanced stroke imaging firm RapidAI announced a partnership Wednesday to bring the latter’s artificial intelligence-powered neuroimaging platform into more hospitals.

The agreement affords Life Image’s network of 58,000 global clinics—including primary and comprehensive stroke centers—access to RapidAI’s data-driven stroke imaging technology. The platform is already installed in more than 1,500 hospitals around the world, according to the June 24 announcement.

“Offering RapidAI’s cutting-edge technology to an even broader network of departments and sites through the extensive Life Image network means more physicians will have access to the proven Rapid stroke imaging platform, allowing them to make better transfer decisions, and speed time to treatment,” said Matthew A. Michela, president and CEO of Life Image.

Last month, researchers analyzed Rapid stroke imaging data from 800 hospitals and found that such exams had dropped by nearly 40% due to the pandemic. Lead author of that study, Akash Kansagra, MD, an assistant professor at Washington University’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, called the finding a “very scary phenomenon.”