Date: Dec 09, 2020 Author: Liz Strzepa Source: NBC (
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Big things are happening at Biocogniv in South Burlington.
"We want to help in a meaningful and impactful way," said Tanya Kanigan, the company's Chief Operating Officer.
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Before the COVID-19 pandemic picked up in March, employees at the 1-year-old startup knew they had to help.
"I remember the day that Tanya walked in and said, 'Hey (COVID-19) is happening in China and I think that when it hits here it's going to be big. Hospitals are not going to want to do anything else but address this,'" said Artur Adib, Biocigniv's Chief Executive Officer.
The company got to work ordering blood samples and working with hospitals from across the country, including UVM Medical Center, to see if artificial intelligence could detect someone's COVID-19 status by analyzing the numbers in routine blood work.
"We discovered that with COVID-19, there was sort of a pattern in those thirty numbers (taken during routine blood work)," said Adib.
With promising results from their research, the company created a software solution called AI-COVID.
Biocogniv hopes the technology can help hospitals save PCR tests for patients who are most likely to test positive for COVID-19, saving these institutions money, resources and time.
"When everything's said and done, between collecting the blood, testing the blood and running the results through our algorithm, we think that in most hospitals everything is going to take under one hour," said Adib.
Emergency room doctor Jennifer Joe thinks the software is a game-changer.
"(I'm) hoping this can be a meaningful solution for patients, clinicians and the nation," she said.
AI-COVID is currently being reviewed for emergency use authorization by the FDA.
If approved, Biocogniv hopes hospitals across the country see it as another tool they can use to combat COVID-19.
