Artificial intelligence (AI) company BeeKeeperAI has partnered with Topcon Healthcare, a provider of medical devices and software for eye care, for enhanced eye healthcare.
BeeKeeperAI provides privacy-focused, multi-party collaboration software for AI development. On the other hand, Topcon Healthcare specialises in advanced imaging and remote diagnostics of an eye.
The partnership will enhance Healthcare from the Eye initiative, a strategy of applying AI models to imaging data from the eye. It is powered by Harmony, Topcon’s cloud-based digital health information platform.
Harmony will be integrated with BeeKeeperAI’s EscrowAI tool, which is designed to improve privacy and permit algorithm developers to confidentially compute on real-world eye data.
This integration will speed up the application of AI models to eye imaging data. The goal is to enable earlier disease detection and improve disease management.
Topcon Healthcare CEO and president Ali Tafreshi said: “Through our collaboration with BeeKeeperAI, we are helping accelerate a new wave of advanced AI solutions drawing insights from real-world data, while maintaining the highest levels of security, privacy, flexibility, and efficiency.”
One of the initial projects will enable AiScreenings, based in France, to validate its aiVista model using fundus photographs on the Harmony platform in the US.
The EscrowAI platform will help Topcon Healthcare protect data privacy and safeguard AiScreenings’ intellectual property.
As part of the partnership, Topcon Healthcare is investing in BeeKeeperAI to support its work and expand EscrowAI’s capabilities.
Tafreshi will also join BeeKeeperAI’s board of directors. Additionally, the partnership will utilise Microsoft Azure confidential computing to advance the Healthcare from the Eye initiative.
BeeKeeperAI co-founder and CEO Michael Blum said: “By integrating our EscrowAI platform into Topcon Healthcare’s Harmony data environment, we have created a new model for protecting sensitive data access and algorithm intellectual property end-to-end. This new approach accelerates real-world AI development and deployment.
“With our Topcon Healthcare partnership, we have created a secure collaboration network consisting of a healthcare solutions company, data stewards who utilise the Harmony platform, and AI developers.”
Harmony hosts vast patient records and images in the Microsoft Azure cloud, offering storage for large data sets.
EscrowAI platform is also Azure native, providing end-to-end encryption for data, images, and algorithms.
In May this year, Topcon Healthcare partnered with Microsoft to deliver Healthcare from the Eye initiative via a connected healthcare platform.
