Bosch’s partnership with Highmark Health is bringing AI space tech to life sciences

Two of the biggest names in Pittsburgh tech and healthcare will start the new year with an AI-powered life sciences diagnostic.

Bosch, a company that helped launch the tech concentration in the Strip District with the opening of local research offices there in 1999, and Highmark Health, a longtime heavyweight of the Pittsburgh medical industry, are behind the new research collaboration. Announced at the CES 2022 convention taking place this week in Las Vegas, the partnership will use audio sensor technology and artificial intelligence to detect pulmonary conditions in children. Clinical trials will start in the first quarter of the year via the Allegheny Health Network’s (AHN) pediatrics center.

The foundation for the idea, the companies said, comes from the practice of physicians listening to audio patterns from the heart and lungs. In applying tech to that role, they hope Bosch’s platform can streamline the process and improve patient care at home.

The device itself — referred to as the Bosch SoundSee — is a collaboration with local space tech company Astrobotic that employs a combination of high-fidelity microphones and machine learning to detect sound patterns or other audio characteristics associated with an event or condition. The SoundSee is already in use at the International Space Station, where it interacts with NASA’s Astrobee robots to monitor sounds emitted from machines and other components essential to systems and their maintenance at the station.

“It has always been the vision of Bosch that the SoundSee technology would have applications beyond space,” said Samarjit Das, leader of the Intelligent Internet of Things Group at Bosch Research in Pittsburgh, in a statement. “Our new research collaboration with Highmark Health and Allegheny Health Network is another important step in demonstrating the potential of this technology — and specifically artificial intelligence — to provide benefit to humankind.”

Tech and trials

Before the SoundSee technology can be applied in a healthcare setting, though, the company will need to gain FDA approval for use following the clinical trials. Those initial tests will involve using the device on a small number of pediatric patients to see how well the data collection and AI-powered diagnostic match up with the diagnosis already determined by the physician. A press release did not specify which conditions this initial clinical trial will be testing for, though it did name asthma as a potential condition the device could eventually help diagnose.

This isn’t Bosch’s first foray into the healthcare world. Already, its healthcare solutions division has a device available to measure fractional nitrous oxide concentration for asthma patients at home. The Vivatmo me, as it’s called, uses that measurement to determine the probability of airway inflammation, and then sends that information to physicians through an app. The device is currently available in Germany and Austria, with the company planning to gain approval for it in the United States as well.

“This unique collaboration between two industry leaders fits squarely with our mission of exploring technological innovations that can improve the health and wellness of our patients and members,” said Kelly Shields, senior research data scientist at Highmark Health. “Bosch’s global leadership in the development of pioneering industrial and consumer technologies and Highmark Health’s R&D expertise, along with AHN’s leading pediatric expertise is an incredibly promising combination that we believe can help transform the diagnosis and treatment of asthma and other breathing disorders.”

A trend to watch

More than furthering the use of existing technology, this collaboration marks what could be the beginning of an important trend for 2022. The partnering of Bosch — a company whose opening of local research offices in 1999 helped launch the tech concentration in the Strip District — and Highmark Health — a longtime heavyweight of the Pittsburgh medical industry — signify a push from some of the area’s biggest corporations to be more entrepreneurial in the life sciences.

Community leaders predicted collaborations just like this last fall, most notably when Megan Shaw, Innovation Works’ managing director for life sciences, commented that Pittsburgh has an advantage to thrive in the overlap of artificial intelligence and life sciences. And while new ideas from the startups that Shaw’s organization works with are vital to the innovation landscape in Pittsburgh, the financial support that comes with partnerships between large corporations like Bosch and Highmark are also essential to the notoriously expensive development process of the life sciences.

Whether or not this deal will be the first of many across life sciences and other tech sectors for Pittsburgh this year remains to be seen, but it’s a promising sign that companies large and small here might be ready to fulfill the city’s medical innovation potential.