Petriage Awarded Patent for AI-Driven Telehealth Tech Beyond Pets
Petriage has announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office will be issuing the B2B pet health technology company’s second patent on June 7, 2022, encompassing teletriage for all animals, including humans.
The new patent No. 11355249 differs from Petriage’s first patent for its remote pet symptom analysis tool. The second patent signals that Petriage can potentially further develop its unique AI-driven symptom analysis and triage technology to provide similar telehealth solutions for human health care. While likely years away, such services could include state-of-the-art features that its online triage system for pets already offers. These include a symptom analysis tool to identify human ailments with increasing levels of urgency, virtual consultations with physicians and automated remote monitoring, among others.
Petriage CEO Joe Coury said that, for the present, the company intends to continue expanding the services it offers veterinarians and pet owners. “But with our sophisticated machine learning component that continues to realize richer and richer data, we could envision using such learnings to provide humans with the right telehealth information at the right time.”
When Petriage applied for its limited-scope patent for its pet evaluation and triage system, which the US Patent and Trademark Office granted in February 2021 for 20 years, the company also began a longer-term track to approve a patent that widens its scope and language to encompass all animals.
Co-founders Shlomo Freiman, DVM, Casey Olives, Ph.D. and Allon Freiman developed the new patent.
“Our original impetus was to empower vets like me and provide their clients with peace of mind by leveraging AI to deliver remote patient care,” said Freiman. “But the 97 percent-plus accuracy of the AI-driven symptom analysis tool has exceeded what we initially envisioned.”
Added Olives: “What has proved so exciting is that our unique machine learning model for health data is demonstrating how to marry the clinical side with the data science side, first with pets and now potentially for humans.”
With its symptom analysis tool, Petriage continues to bring fully integrated telehealth services to veterinary practices and their clients. In early January, it signaled its intent to pioneer real-time pet health monitoring through a partnership with Smart Tracking Technologies, LLC., the technology leader in smart pet wearables.
Under the partnership, Petriage will integrate real-time pet health data from its symptom analysis tracker into Smart Tracking Technologies’ Link Smart Pet Wearable device. Link Users can access the symptom analysis tool and, for a nominal additional monthly fee, gain unlimited access to Petriage Live, a premium 24/7 veterinary Nurse Helpline. Petriage is hoping to beta test the wearables application this year.