Ultrasound for Early Disease Detection with Kilian Koepsell from Caption Health

Today, I am joined by Kilian Koepsell, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Caption Health. We’re taking on the multifaceted topic of ultrasound for early disease detection. Join us as Kilian talks about the problem Caption Health identified in the world of ultrasound use, and how he is working to solve it. Hear how he is using machine learning to help practitioners to guide and interpret ultrasound imaging, why his first point of entry was cardiac health, and where the role of the machine ends and the medical expert begins. Kilian shares some challenges he has faced along the way, and encourages anyone with a similar idea to approach the FDA sooner, rather than later. Tune in today to hear how his concept aims to support healthcare in a changing world, and how he sees the future of Caption Health unfolding. Thanks for listening!

Key Points:

• An introduction to Kilian Koepsell, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Caption Health.
• What Caption Health does and why it is important for imaging. 
• Why there was a hurdle to get ultrasound technology used by more people.
• The two kinds of feedback Caption Health provides: guidance and interpretation.
• How machine learning is used to perform these two functions.
• Why their first focus is on the heart and why it is one of the most difficult organs to image. 
• Measurements taken by the machine for a practitioner to interpret.
• How the quality meter works to guide the probe and gives practitioners the feedback and confidence they need.
• Challenges in training machine learning on ultrasound imagery. 
• Validating models across many variations.
• Why it is so important to take FDA considerations into account from the beginning.
• How Kilian ensures that he is developing technology that will be of use to practitioners.
• How the Caption Health vision has changed since its inception.
• Having a high level thesis to survive a changing world.
• Where Kilian sees the impact of Caption Health in five years.

Quotes:

“We realized that even though the hardware was available at a much lower cost to many more people, there was a big hurdle to get the ultrasound used by more people because it is actually very difficult to acquire good ultrasound images.” — Kilian Koepsell

“We use machine learning to understand the relationship between the imagery and the position of the probe in 3D space, and then guide the user to the right spot without the user having to even understand what they are looking at.” — Kilian Koepsell

“By just looking at the imagery you can see if the heart is not pumping well or if it’s enlarged or if the valves are not closing properly - all different kinds of structural heart diseases.” — Kilian Koepsell

“Normally you would require an expert to look over their shoulder and give them the feedback, but with this device, they can train themselves, and they get better over time by using it on patients.” — Kilian Koepsell

“Anyone who is trying something similar, I would encourage to get in contact with the FDA as early as possible.” — Kilian Koepsell

Links:

Caption Health

Kilian Koepsell on LinkedIn

Kilian Koepsell on Twitter

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