Health-tech company Qure.ai has received an $8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, bringing fresh momentum to the fight against tuberculosis and pneumonia, two diseases that still claim millions of lives every year, largely due to late diagnosis.
The funding will help Qure.ai develop AI-powered point-of-care ultrasound tools designed for use by frontline health workers. These tools aim to make early diagnosis possible in places where access to specialist doctors and advanced imaging facilities is limited, such as rural clinics and community health centres.
Founder and CEO Prashant Warier said the grant reflects a shared belief that technology should serve people where the need is greatest. He noted that ultrasound, when paired with AI, has the potential to become a simple, affordable, and reliable diagnostic option at the point of care.
For many patients, especially in underserved regions, reaching a hospital with a trained radiologist can take days or even weeks. Qure.ai’s technology seeks to bridge this gap by combining portable ultrasound devices with artificial intelligence that can quickly analyse images and flag signs of lung disease. This can help healthcare workers make faster decisions and start treatment sooner.
A key part of the project is the creation of a large, open medical database made up of anonymised chest X-rays, ultrasound images, CT scans, lung sound recordings, and lab data. By making this data available to researchers around the world, Qure.ai hopes to encourage collaboration and speed up innovation in lung disease diagnosis.
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