Philips has received $44.6 million in additional funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the adoption of AI globally. In particular, the development and use of the company’s Lumify handheld ultrasound technology.
According to a statement, this brings the total funding from the Gates Foundation to $60 million, after a $15.4 million investment in 2021. Philips says the money will aid in improving maternal health by putting its AI-guided ultrasounds into more hands, touting that the technology can be used by midwives and does not require an expert technologist.
“One of our key areas of focus is to build partnerships that bring together resources, expertise, and vision—working with organizations around the world to identify issues, find answers and drive change,” Rasa Izadnegahdar, MD, director, maternal, newborn and child health discovery & tools at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said in the statement. “A critical goal of our work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is to bring health technology to underserved areas of the world to help prevent women from dying in childbirth—an issue that is critical in high-income countries like the U.S. and U.K. as well.”
The additional funding comes after the handheld ultrasounds made a positive impact in Kenya, where the company said its devices are being effectively used by midwives to perform scans on expecting mothers. An expertly trained sonographer is often not available, meaning the Philips systems help to improve access, as using them only requires a few hours of training.
More information on the funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, including its goal, can be found by reviewing the full program outline here.
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