Herndon, VA, May 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) today announced that CIT GAP Funds has made a follow-on investment in Vienna, Va.-based MetiStream, developer of a platform that uses big data, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning to reveal hidden insights in unstructured clinical data. Since CIT’s initial investment earlier this year, MetiStream has launched Ember Clinical Reviewer (CR), a solution to accelerate the analysis of patient and population data for COVID-19 and other clinically focused use cases by leveraging Ember’s advanced NLP and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. The additional funding from GAP Funds will be used for product enhancements, and increased marketing and sales efforts.
As it pertains to the current COVID-19 pandemic, every health system in the U.S. is rapidly generating large amounts of data that can be used to more effectively identify and manage patients infected with or immune to COVID-19 infection. This data, such as symptoms or health risk factors, is buried within the free-text clinical notes and documentation of electronic health records (EHR). The unstructured nature of healthcare data makes it difficult for health systems to integrate it with other high-value data sets, which will cause significant delays and even prevent health system leaders from having an accurate understanding of COVID-19’s impact on patients. A key example is the identification of a cohort of patients who may be a donor or recipient candidate for antibodies. To address data extraction and speed to insight challenges, MetiStream built Ember CR to accelerate the analysis of patient and population data for COVID-19.
“We want to do everything possible as a company to support the healthcare community's fight against COVID-19. The best way we know how is through better data so that organizations can quickly leverage all of their clinical information to treat and manage their patient population in the changing environment,” said Chiny Driscoll, CEO of MetiStream. “We thank CIT for their continued support during these unprecedented times, enabling us to accelerate the development and testing of our new product.”
Ember CR, which is built upon MetiStream’s scalable, cloud-based end-to-end Ember NLP and AI platform, automates the extraction and processing of structured and unstructured healthcare data found in free text EHR notes and other healthcare documentation formats such as searchable and non-searchable PDFs. The extraction and processing of both structured and unstructured data sets will enable providers and related healthcare organizations to deliver actionable analysis and insights with evidence-based reports, predictive analytics, and “Next Best Action” considerations for cohorts of COVID-19 patients.
“CIT is proud of our many portfolio companies going out of their way to make a difference in the fight against COVID-19. MetiStream is actively collaborating with multiple providers and related healthcare organizations to further address various COVID-19 data and analysis needs using the Ember Clinical Reviewer solution,” said Jennifer O’Daniel, Investment Director at CIT GAP Funds. “Information access and analysis are critical to managing challenges facing the healthcare industry today. We look forward to seeing what MetiStream will do next.”
About MetiStream
MetiStream specializes in addressing the challenging unstructured data problem in the healthcare industry. MetiStream’s mission is to help organizations access and gain value from all of their data assets to develop a deeper understanding of the patient population, improve quality and proactively impact patient outcomes. MetiStream’s SaaS-enabled Ember solution is an interactive healthcare analytics product delivering an end-to-end solution at the intersection of NLP and predictive analytics. Located in the Washington DC area, MetiStream is led by industry experts with backgrounds from top technology companies. For more information, please visit www.metistream.com.
About CIT GAP Funds
CIT GAP Funds makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean tech and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors and the Commonwealth of Virginia. CIT GAP Funds’ investments are overseen by the CIT GAP Funds Investment Advisory Board (IAB). This independent, third-party panel consists of leading regional entrepreneurs, angel and strategic investors, and venture capital firms such as New Enterprise Associates, Grotech Ventures, Valhalla Partners, Harbert Venture Partners HIG Ventures, Edison Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intersouth Partners, SJF Ventures, Carilion Health Systems, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, and Alpha Natural Resources. For more information, please visit www.citgapfunds.org.
About the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)
Investing in Virginia's Growth | CIT concentrates on the early commercialization and seed funding stages of innovation, helping innovators and tech entrepreneurs launch and grow new companies, create high paying jobs and accelerate economic growth throughout the entire state of Virginia. Founded in 1985, CIT accelerates next generation technologies and technology companies through commercialization, capital formation, market development initiatives, and expansion of broadband throughout Virginia. Our programs include | CIT GAP Funds | Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) | Virginia Founders Fund | Broadband/Rural Broadband | Smart Communities | Cybersecurity | Unmanned Systems | SBIR/STTR Support (Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) & Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs) | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. CIT’s CAGE Code is 1UP71. Contact: 2214 Rock Hill Road #600, Herndon, VA 20170 | 703.689.3000 | www.cit.org | You can also follow CIT on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.