Light AI’s app-based solution achieves gold standard diagnostic-level metrics in pre-FDA validation studies for Strep A, marking the start of a new era in disease detection. Its product will launch in time for the upcoming flu season.
What if knowing you needed antibiotics was as easy as consulting an app on your phone? Well, that’s soon to be a reality thanks to Light AI.
Light AI, a Vancouver-based healthtech company, has come up with a friendly and reliable alternative to confirm whether a sore throat requires medical attention. Its AI solution, which is being turned into an app, can confirm the presence of Strep A, and flag if treatment may be needed, within 60 seconds. It will roll out in the North American market later this year as a wellness app.
Anyone with a smartphone can download the app to scan the back of their throat using the device’s camera. Once the scan is complete, the app generates and analyzes an image, providing results in under a minute to indicate if medical attention is needed.
Light AI’s solution is touted as user-friendly because it is non-invasive and does not require a swab culture to confirm the presence of Strep A. The solution also aims to address the issue of access.
“We are now at the crossroads of a paradigm shift involving healthcare, data, and AI,” said Anthony Schaller, Light AI’s newly appointed President and CTO, in a recent announcement. “Using the lens of your mobile phone in a matter of seconds, inexpensively, advances the movement toward global parity of treatment and is very empowering.”
For those in underdeveloped countries, accessing essential products like at-home testing kits quickly is often difficult. The same challenge exists for those in rural America.
It is estimated that 30 million Americans live in areas with inadequate access to healthcare, often referred to as medical deserts, limiting access to essential services like pharmacies, primary care, hospitals, and trauma centers.
Where invasive Strep A is involved, early diagnosis and treatment, in some cases, can be the difference between life and death.
North America witnessed a spike in invasive Group A Streptococcus (iGAS) infections throughout the 2023 and 2024 high seasons which exceeded what was seen prior to the pandemic.
Light AI’s long-term vision is to combine the smartphone with AI in-the-Cloud to create a Digital Clinical Lab to provide quick and accessible diagnosis for a range of conditions.
Light AI plans to release several products to the market, including a Practitioner App which will require regulatory body approval.
And this is just the beginning for this type of technology. As mobile diagnostics expand globally, some healthtech experts are exploring how decentralized technologies like blockchain could one day support secure, portable health data, particularly in regions with limited access to centralized healthcare infrastructure. What comes next could reshape how, and where, people can access care.
