Idoven, a pioneering European health tech company, has taken a major step forward in its mission to improve cardiovascular disease diagnosis by purchasing NVIDIA DGX H100 systems. This strategic investment aims to exponentially accelerate Idoven’s AI algorithm training and validation processes with NVIDIA computing, software, and expertise. Telefónica, also an investor in Idoven through its corporate venture capital arm Wayra, has been selected as a key partner to provide expertise in equipment provision, housing, and maintenance.

By advancing artificial intelligence in the medical field, Idoven seeks to develop more reliable systems to tackle cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death worldwide and the largest cost driver in the global healthcare system.

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Addressing the Global Burden of Cardiovascular Diseases

The urgency of addressing CVDs is underscored by the fact that they account for 32% of global deaths, with a cardiac arrest occurring every two seconds. In Europe alone, doctors spend approximately one million hours annually analyzing electrocardiogram (ECG) data to diagnose heart conditions. Furthermore, the global annual cost associated with CVDs is $770 billion, with projections reaching €932 billion by 2030.

Idoven’s Vision: A New Era in Cardiac Diagnostics

The founders of Idoven, Dr. Manuel Marina Breysse, Chief Executive Officer, and José María Lillo Castellano, Chief Scientific Officer, envisioned a future where cardiac diagnostics could be standardized and improved globally, intending to reduce the 17 million annual deaths due to cardiovascular diseases. To achieve this vision, they identified three key requirements:

Firstly, they foresaw a future where cardiac signals would be processed in advanced data centers like the ones being built today. These centers would facilitate the analysis of health data in the cloud through an API seamlessly integrated with any heartbeat-recording sensor.

Secondly, they embarked on developing Willem, Idoven’s AI-powered ECG Analysis Platform capable of providing heart diagnoses anywhere, anytime.

Lastly, they committed themselves to establishing the scientific evidence to validate this approach, showcasing its ability to safeguard patients, alleviate waiting lists, empower physicians in managing and treating diseases, and ultimately, drive down healthcare system costs.

Manuel Marina Breysse, CEO and Co-Founder of Idoven, stated: "Our vision at Idoven has always been to leverage cutting-edge technology to save lives. We strongly believe that by training our own medical models, releasing them through APIs, and fostering contributions from hospitals and market leaders, we can build a reliable alternative to the emerging fragmented AI solutions and biases of black-box models that do not achieve the performance stated in validation datasets in real-world settings. Foundation models like the one we are building in cardiology will play a pivotal role in the upcoming AI revolution in healthcare. With the acquisition of this powerful AI supercomputing platform from NVIDIA, we are boosting our collaborative research together with our partners and clients from leading hospitals, pharma, and medical device companies to take Willem - our flagship AI model already reaching cardiologist-level accuracy in some tasks - to the next level. AI technology is redefining how cardiovascular diseases are diagnosed and managed, ensuring better outcomes for patients worldwide." 

With the acquisition of this powerful AI supercomputing platform from NVIDIA, we are boosting our collaborative research together with our partners and clients from leading hospitals, pharma, and medical device companies to take Willem - our flagship AI model already reaching cardiologist-level accuracy in some tasks - to the next level.

- Manuel Marina Breysse, CEO and Co-Founder of Idoven

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Implementing Advanced AI Infrastructure 

To bring this vision to life, Idoven has invested in building its own data center with NVIDIA DGX H100 systems. This advanced AI infrastructure will be installed and maintained at Telefónica's data center.

NVIDIA DGX systems are poised to significantly enhance Idoven’s capabilities. Designed for AI workloads, the systems will accelerate the training and execution of AI models used to analyze ECGs, resulting in faster and more accurate diagnoses. Their optimized parallel computation architecture will enable Idoven to process multiple ECGs simultaneously, reducing processing times and ensuring quicker patient responses.

Additionally, the DGX systems’ extensive memory and scalable architecture will empower Idoven to handle larger and more complex datasets, supporting the company’s growth and expanding its diagnostic reach.

Roberto Cruz, CTO of Idoven, emphasized: “Integrating these advanced NVIDIA DGX systems into our infrastructure is a game-changer. The increased computational power will allow us to process and analyze cardiac data with unprecedented speed and accuracy, reducing training time from months to days and significantly enhancing our AI capabilities and diagnostic processes.”

The increased computational power will allow us to process and analyze cardiac data with unprecedented speed and accuracy, reducing training time from months to days and significantly enhancing our AI capabilities and diagnostic processes

- Roberto Cruz, CTO of Idoven

“Idoven’s AI algorithm training and validation processes, powered by NVIDIA technologies, represent a step forward in the advancement of AI in healthcare,” said David Niewolny, Director of Business Development for Healthcare and Medical, NVIDIA. “NVIDIA DGX systems provide Idoven with a powerful AI infrastructure to help improve the accuracy and efficiency of cardiovascular disease diagnosis.” 

NVIDIA DGX systems provide Idoven with a powerful AI infrastructure to help improve the accuracy and efficiency of cardiovascular disease diagnosis

- David Niewolny, Director of Business Development for Healthcare and Medical, NVIDIA

Telefónica as a technological partner

Managing large volumes of medical data demands an exceptionally secure and reliable data infrastructure. To achieve this, Idoven has selected Telefónica as a key partner for its project. Telefónica’s data center solutions adhere to the highest security standards, providing comprehensive support in equipment provisioning, hosting, and ongoing maintenance. Telefónica’s expertise will ensure that Idoven’s AI infrastructure operates at peak efficiency while ensuring the protection of the critical data.