Nvidia, Medtronic Partner to Create AI Platform for Medical Devices

Artificial intelligence (AI) developer Nvidia and medical technology company Medtronic have announced a collaboration with a focus on embedding AI into medical devices. 

The first step of the collaboration will see Nvidia’s AI technology integrated into Medtronic’s GI Genius, intelligent endoscopy module. Medtronic further intends to integrate Nvidia Holoscan, a real-time AI computing software platform for building medical devices, as well as Nvidia IGX, an edge AI hardware platform, into its GI Genius colonoscopy system. The partners hope that in the future, Nvidia’s technology could help develop algorithms for real-time medical procedures. 

As part of the collaboration, the partners are planning to create a medical device marketplace for AI applications. The marketplace will run on Nvidia’s technology and allow developers and technicians to develop their own algorithms to use on Medtronic’s medical devices. 

“This is a model I think is really great for the industry because it’s not easy for an AI developer with a single application to bring it to market. But when you have a world leader like Medtronic, who understands how to do the clinical trials and do the FDA submissions and actually bring the application to market, that’s when you have that three-way triangle of technology developer and medical device leader to really accelerate the pace of innovation,” Kimberly Powell, vice president and general manager of healthcare at Nvidia.