An AI spectral technology rapid COVID-19 detection test has shown promise in clinical trials by achieving a 95% success rate.

The test developed by Newsight Imaging Ltd. (Ness Ziona, Israel) includes a single cost-effective chip and uses an AI algorithm to separate the profile of a human infected with a specific virus, from a human infected with a different virus or from a healthy human. Newsight’s revolutionary spectral device, which can identify and classify evidence of a virus in the body in less than a second, simultaneously checks 1024 spectral channels, currently in the visible light spectrum of 400-700 nm. During the ongoing trial at the ARC Innovation Center of Sheba Medical Center (Tel HaShomer, Israel), the company plans to present a device that will be capable of examining a spectral profile in wavelengths of up to 1100 nm. Newsight and Sheba’s ARC Innovation Center are also establishing a joint company called Virusight Diagnostics Ltd. that will make the COVID-19 test and other ground-breaking solutions commercially available to the medical community around the globe.

“Under laboratory conditions, we were clearly able to differentiate between COVID-19 samples that were positive and those that were negative, with a 95% percent accuracy rate. For a new AI based technology such as this, the results are quite encouraging,” said Professor Eli Schwartz, of the Center for Geographic Medicine and Tropical Diseases at Sheba Medical Center, who is leading the trial.
“The corona pandemic forced us to be extremely creative. With our team of experts in chip design, optics and microbiology, in a great collaboration with Prof. Schwartz and his team, we were able to utilize our ground-breaking advantages in the machine vision world, validated in our 3D technology, into the spectral analysis world, and specifically to virus detection. Our AI based solution is unique as we have developed all the technology solution starting from a spectral chip, through its firmware, boards, and of course AI algorithms,” said Eyal Yatskan, CTO & Co-founder Newsight Imaging.

“We are very excited about this collaboration between Sheba Medical Center’s ARC program and Newsight. I am confident that given Newsight’s leading technology and ARC’s innovative approach and ecosystem of collaborators, we will able to provide cutting-edge diagnostic solutions that could be transformative in our battle with COVID-19 and beyond. ARC, which stands for Accelerate, Redesign and Collaborate, aims to bring to market game-changing innovation, and Newsight is a perfect partner to join the ARC global ecosystem,” added Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, Deputy General Director, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Innovation Officer.

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Newsight Imaging Ltd.
Sheba Medical Center