Decorte Future Industries, a Cambridge-based startup using artificial intelligence to extract health data from sound, has launched Sonus Health, a first-of-its-kind app that lets pet owners and vets check a pet’s heart and overall health using only a standard smartphone microphone. The technology, co-developed with veterinary cardiologists, is described as delivering accuracy equivalent to in-clinic health assessments for a fraction of the cost, turning everyday devices into remote diagnostic tools for companion animals. The launch comes as the company positions the app as a way to extend specialist cardiac expertise beyond traditional veterinary settings.
The company situates Sonus Health against what it calls a crisis in veterinary care, noting that during the first year of COVID, over 150 million new pets joined households globally, the largest jump recorded in history. By the age of six or seven, 40-60% of pets develop chronic conditions, while veterinary prices have risen by more than 60% since 2015, and the article states that faced with costs of up to $1,600 for advanced diagnostics, many pet owners are being forced into euthanasia due to unaffordable care. Sonus Health uses artificial intelligence to extract complex health information from sound captured by a smartphone placed against the animal’s chest, providing instant preliminary readings on heart rate, heart rate variability and murmur indications, followed by a detailed health report reviewed by a veterinary cardiologist that can identify anything from whether the pet is in pain to complex indications of serious disease. Each successful scan automatically involves a Diplomate in Veterinary Cardiology, a consultation with whom normally would cost northward of $1,000, and the app is already in use with over a dozen veterinary clinics worldwide, with over 160 clinics across multiple regions signed up to a global waitlist.
Alongside the product launch, Decorte Future Industries has expanded its leadership team with executives drawn from booking platforms, data analytics and veterinary cardiology. Daniel Steele, founder and chief executive of one of Europe’s largest booking platforms, who grew that company from 0 to 1 million users and 0 to £50 million in bookings, has joined as chief technology officer. Linda Jiang, former chief operating officer of Wluper and co-founder of what became China’s largest mobile data analytics company, acquired by Alibaba, joins as chief revenue officer, while veterinary cardiologist Laurent Locquet, who heads an online school of 400 veterinary cardiologists, becomes head veterinarian. Founder and chief executive Dr Roeland P-J E Decorte warns of a looming “petpocalypse” as pandemic pets reach the age when complex conditions typically emerge just as costs and capacity pressures intensify, and he argues that bringing in senior stakeholders from some of the largest veterinary hospital groups worldwide gives the company the technology, industry and clinical expertise to deliver specialist-level assessment and triage at scale to any pet owner, nurse or veterinarian with a smartphone.
