Drug Discovery and Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Women in Pharma and Biotech
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Resources
    • Video features
    • Podcast
    • Voices
    • Webinars
  • Pharma 50
    • 2025 Pharma 50
    • 2024 Pharma 50
    • 2023 Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Medical imaging AI startup Flywheel wins Series D round backed by NVIDIA, Microsoft and HPE

By Brian Buntz | June 29, 2023

Flywheel

[Image courtesy of Flywheel]

Minneapolis-based Flywheel has received $54 million in a Series D round backed by NVIDIA, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and other strategic investors.

Flywheel will invest the cash to fuel growth in core verticals, the pharmaceutical and public sector healthcare sectors. A notable Big Pharma customer is Genentech. The company also aims to ramp up expansion into emerging areas such as healthcare providers, payers, IT service providers and software vendors. Finally, Flywheel intends to extend its global footprint, especially in key markets in Europe.

Current challenges in medical AI

Medical imaging has long faced challenges with data complexity and a mosaic of metadata and formats, including DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) to JPG or TIFF and modalities spanning MRI, CT, PET and ultrasound. Despite some standardization, fragmented formats prevail from different imaging modalities and vendors. The resulting data variety can make data processing a chore. “Images come with embedded metadata and inconsistent file formats across different scanning devices and vendors,” Olson noted. “It’s not the size of medical images that pose a challenge. It’s the complexity.”

Challenge number one is making sense of the data and managing it, Olson said, adding “AI and ML quality depend on well-formed, consistent, diverse data, not just quantity but diversity.”

Future prospects

Flywheel has developed a number tools that facilitate expediting drug development processes through automating data preparation and enabling collaboration. “The automation can eliminate manually preparing data for machine learning and AI analysis. All of that happens within Flywheel,” Olson said. “We then support data science teams.”

Looking ahead, Olson anticipates significant changes in the industry. “I foresee major progress and shifts in data collection, access, and developing AI, leading to breakthroughs… We remain in the early stages as an industry,” he states. His anticipation stems from Flywheel’s drive to tackle the challenges of accessing and using medical imaging data for AI.

As the field of medical AI continues to grapple with these challenges given burgeoning public interest in AI. “Looking ahead to the next six months and further into the next couple of years, I believe there will be a surge of interest in AI due to the focus on large language models such as ChatGPT.”


Filed Under: Data science, Drug Discovery, machine learning and AI
Tagged With: artificial intelligence, data complexity, Flywheel, healthcare investment, medical imaging, Microsoft, NVIDIA
 

About The Author

Brian Buntz

As the pharma and biotech editor at WTWH Media, Brian has almost two decades of experience in B2B media, with a focus on healthcare and technology. While he has long maintained a keen interest in AI, more recently Brian has made making data analysis a central focus, and is exploring tools ranging from NLP and clustering to predictive analytics.

Throughout his 18-year tenure, Brian has covered an array of life science topics, including clinical trials, medical devices, and drug discovery and development. Prior to WTWH, he held the title of content director at Informa, where he focused on topics such as connected devices, cybersecurity, AI and Industry 4.0. A dedicated decade at UBM saw Brian providing in-depth coverage of the medical device sector. Engage with Brian on LinkedIn or drop him an email at bbuntz@wtwhmedia.com.

Related Articles Read More >

Zoliflodacin wins FDA nod for treatment of gonorrhea
FDA approved ENFLONSIA for the prevention of RSV in Infants
First clinical study results of Dupixent for atopic dermatitis in patients with darker skin tones 
Labcorp widens precision oncology toolkit, aims to speed drug-trial enrollment
“ddd
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest news and trends happening now in the drug discovery and development industry.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
Drug Discovery and Development
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • Medtech100 Index
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Medical Design & Outsourcing
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • R&D World
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Drug Discovery & Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Women in Pharma and Biotech
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Resources
    • Video features
    • Podcast
    • Voices
    • Webinars
  • Pharma 50
    • 2025 Pharma 50
    • 2024 Pharma 50
    • 2023 Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE