Inova Invests in Digital Pathology Software Company Deciphex

Partnership will aid in development and validation of AI tool to enhance productivity

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May 20, 2019, 09:02 ET

FAIRFAX, Va., May 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Inova Personalized Health Accelerator (IPHA) announced today an investment in Deciphex, a company developing digital pathology applications for clinical and toxicologic pathology. These applications triage high volume, low complexity samples, allowing pathologists to focus on the more difficult, critical content of pathology images.

The Inova Personalized Health Accelerator (IPHA), a program that fosters med-tech innovation in technologies that are strategically important to the Inova Health System, recognizes that the pathology industry is beset with increasing caseload and diagnostic complexity, against a globally declining number of pathologists to service the workload. IPHA believes Deciphex's software solution, which combines digital pathology with artificial intelligence, will provide Inova physicians with a tool to increase productivity and allow them to focus on more complex cases.

"Deciphex has a strong management team with an innovative solution. IPHA intends to leverage Inova's expertise in pathology to further propel Deciphex into a global leadership position in the AI digital pathology market," IPHA Director Mike Thomas stated.

"At Inova, we're excited to be at the forefront of deploying artificial intelligence to transform diagnosis and treatment of diseases," said Hassan Nayer, MD and Chairman of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Inova. "Our partnership with Deciphex will enable us to accelerate adoption of digital pathology in clinical practice to improve accuracy, efficiency and availability of pathological diagnosis."

The company has recently launched its first product for preclinical/toxicologic pathology, Patholytix Preclinical, which is already in use with some of the world's leading Pharma and CROs. Patholytix Preclinicial is designed to accelerate the evaluation of drug safety, streamlining the interaction between distributed pharma sites and external collaborators while also accelerating the review of digital pathology specimens.

"It's a real pleasure to work with Inova Personalized Health Accelerator in fulfilling our vision to transform pathology," says Donal O'Shea, Ph.D and CEO of Deciphex. "The team has such strong domain experience in healthcare and AI, which provides a strong value add to the available capital. The investment will have a huge impact on our ability to accelerate our commercialization program and to bring the best possible products to our customers and collaborators."

About Inova Personalized Health Accelerator

The Inova Personalized Health Accelerator is a unique program that provides C-suite coaches, customized plans, early stage capital, connections to strategic partners and later stage capital, and introductions to customers for healthcare technology and services entrepreneurs. This approach to enhance med-tech entrepreneurs' efforts to accelerate new companies through the early stages of product design, capital formation and commercialization will serve as the foundation for a stronger healthcare ecosystem in the mid-Atlantic region. Additional program information is located at www.inovapha.org.

About Inova

Inova is Northern Virginia's leading nonprofit healthcare provider, employing more than 18,000 team members and serving more than 2 million individuals annually through an integrated network of hospitals, primary and specialty care practices, emergency and urgent care centers, outpatient services and destination institutes such as the Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, Inova Schar Cancer Institute and Inova Neuroscience and Spine Institute. Our mission is to provide world-class healthcare – every time, every touch – to each person in every community we have the privilege to serve. Founded in 1956 as the Fairfax Hospital Association, Inova has grown with its surrounding community and the region to provide a full spectrum of health services, including Northern Virginia's only Level 1 Trauma Center and Level 4 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Its hospitals have a total of 1,800 licensed beds.

Four of Inova's five hospitals have received five-star rankings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; they are the only hospitals in the Washington, DC region to have earned the highest rating from the federal agency. To achieve its mission of providing world-class healthcare to a diverse community, Inova is home to prominent clinicians and scientists who drive innovation to improve patient care, prevent disease and promote wellness. More information and statistics about Inova can be found at www.inova.org.

SOURCE Inova