Presaj Inc., a Cedar Rapids health care risk assessment and mitigation company, has been awarded a $256,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research grant to develop a system that identifies and reduces risk in high-impact surgical procedures and medical conditions.
According to a news release, Presaj is a digital tool which gives health care providers access to patient-specific risk data that accurately quantifies procedural, patient and other risk-factors, along with their interactions, for common medical and surgical procedures.
As a result, healthcare providers will improve medical treatment and outcomes for patients, reduce errors and lower overall medical costs.
Presaj uses artificial intelligence to combine engineering principles with clinical expertise to identify and address the specific steps in clinical workflow that pose the greatest risk for certain procedures, conditions, patients and facilities
“Doctors and nurses are regularly overwhelmed by alarms and overloaded with information from health records,” said Dr. Jim Levett, Presaj Chief Executive Officer, in the release. “Instead of telling providers how to practice medicine, the Presaj system will point out the steps with the most risk for each patient so the medical team can focus on what’s most important. When the software is deployed, it will only need to prevent one or two complications per year to save thousands of dollars and improve patient safety and experiences.”
Presaj obtained initial investments from ISA Ventures and BioConnect Iowa, and completed the Iowa Startup Accelerator program in 2021. In addition to a collaboration with UnityPoint Health– St. Luke’s Hospital, Presaj has enlisted experts from Duke University Medical Center and the University of Iowa College of Public Health, along with leading actuarial, machine learning, and engineering consulting firms. With this support and NSF funding, Presaj will build and test its initial prototype later this year.
