Adam Isley, Dr. Kaylan Barbrey and the team behind Artemis Immersive have a clear vision for the future of medical imaging. And that future is in 3D.
Its first product it is looking to launch, VoxScan, is an imaging and patient empowerment tool that makes medical imaging data more accessible to patients, caregivers, and other medical team specialists. The Voxel App enables individuals without radiology training to visualize and interact with MRIs and CT scans in a 3D, immersive, and more easily digestible format.
The 3D images can help a patient better understand what is actually happening in body scans, which are traditionally opaque and difficult for a non-trained professional to interpret.
That can be a win-win for the healthcare industry, Isley told Hypepotamus. It all comes down to improving how doctors communicate with their patients. The platform can help medical professionals and physicians be more involved in how they treat their patients and help them better plan for invasive medical procedures they might need.
To keep the product transparent and accessible, Isley said they are targeting the price to be around $5 per patient session for its Immersive Medical Record, without the need for copays/payer coverage.
Animating The MedTech Scene
The early-stage startup out of North Carolina has built out an “assertive and scrappy approach” to testing its early concepts and product ideas with their target customers, Isley added. A lot of its customer discovery has been done through dinner research sessions at hospital systems, which have allowed the team to get feedback directly from more medical professionals.
“[But] patients are our ultimate customers,” Isley added. “We know we can make the biggest impact for them by making it easier for physicians to provide them amazing and excellent healthcare.”
Of course, building a tech platform that resonates with both physicians and patients is no easy task. But Isley says it is what makes building the MedTech space so rewarding.
“One of the things I love most about the healthcare industry is that it’s an expert level industry for product design. You’ve got so many very different stakeholders involved, (doctors, nurses, specialists, patients, caretakers, payers, etc) that it enables really interesting value prop modeling,” he said. “For example if we build a product patients love and doctors hate, it’s lost. If doctors love it and patients hate it, also over. So it’s like solving a very intricate problem, with a killer payout in the end…we help people live better, healthier, and happier lives. Ideally, at least.”
Get To Know The Team
The North Carolina-based startup has assembled a hybrid team of medical and pharmaceutical professionals, as well as animation experts to bring the platform to life. Isley spent eight years in the pharmaceutical industry and eight years in clinical research at industry giants like IQVIA and GSK. His wife and co-founder Dr. Kaylan Barbrey is a licensed and practicing pharmacist.
Co-founder Bill Blakesely, based in Cumming, Georgia, heads up Artemis’ medical animation. He previously helped build out the 3D animations for A.D.A.M. Interactive Anatomy (AIA), which has become a staple educational piece in medical schools.
Other team members and co-founders bring extensive professional backgrounds in healthcare and product design.
Building At The Beach
Isley and Barbrey live in Ocean Isle Beach, a beach town near the North and South Carolina border. Isley said that building Artemis in North Carolina has been a specific value add for the company, as the state provides “a world class collection of life science experts,” clinical research firms, hospital systems, pharmaceutical companies, and what Isley described as a “killer startup ecosystem.”
That startup scene has proved a fertile starting point for the MedTech company. In March of this year, the team pitched a CED Venture Connect, a popular VC conference in Raleigh. The startup also took home the top prize at last month’s NC Tech’s State of Tech Exponential in Durham.
Moving forward, the team is looking for more hospital networks, cancer centers, diagnostic and ambulatory imaging clinics to join Artemis’ pilot. It is also looking for ways to expand more into cities like Atlanta. That move is personal to Isley. His young nephew, who lived in Atlanta, passed away roughly ten years ago after a three-year battle with Leukemia. He said that St. Jude Hospital was an important resource for his family during that time.
“We would love to be able to offer our software to them and others, so people can better understand their conditions, their physiology, and ultimately their total state of health one day.”
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Featured photo from Artemis Immersive Facebook