Philips, a global health technology company developing innovative solutions for the healthcare sector, has secured $25 million from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to improve predictive health monitoring of military officers.
Under the deal, Philips will enhance the development and deployment of the military-grade Rapid Analysis of Threat Exposure (RATE) algorithm, ensuring personnel’s well-being in environments with potential health threats.
RATE leverages the power of AI to detect pre-symptomatic infections in military personnel, helping contain the spread and reducing the downtime of the infection by seeking early medical intervention or practicing self-isolation.
Since its launch, the predictive health monitoring system has undergone multiple upgrades to improve its accuracy and effectiveness in detecting illnesses in military officers when faced with potential health threats.
The first version of the early warning system developed in 2019 utilized machine learning to analyze data from over 36,000 hospital-acquired cases to create a risk score for a wide range of infections.
In 2022, the DoD developed a wearable version utilizing biometric data from wearables to detect COVID-19 infection 2 to 6 days before symptoms appear, demonstrating its potential to improve military readiness by actively monitoring personnel health and well-being.
As reported by HIT, the latest funding will support further improvement of RATE’s accuracy and expand its detection capability for a wide range of health threats. It will also increase its access for military personnel on active combat duty and improve DoD’s health monitoring of active-duty soldiers.
Image Credit: Philips
