WHO’s new equity fund leverages AI-powered technology to help stroke patients

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Geetha Tharmaratna, Chief Impact Investment Officer of the WHO Foundation, at the OurCrowd Investment Summit.

A company using AI-powered technologies to help rehabilitate people with severe brain injuries, including those caused by strokes, has attracted the attention of the World Health Organization (WHO) Foundation.

The Global Health Equity Fund (GHEF), established in September, will soon be ready to make its first round of investments.

The fund is a $200 million venture capital investment fund that focuses on innovative technologies that could improve health worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Was formed with OurCrowd, a global venture investment platform that encourages investment in early-stage emerging technology companies while still private

The fund is nearing a $20 million preliminary funding round, and BrainQ’s device could benefit soon.

One in four adults over the age of 25 will have a stroke in their lifetime, often resulting in damage to neural networks in the brain causing impaired motor function.

The Israeli technology company, BrainQ, has developed a wearable device that uses non-invasive electromagnetic fields, tuned to extremely low frequency and low intensity with the aim of promoting neurological recovery in the central nervous system.

The Israeli company has already received accelerator funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC) in 2019 and its device is in clinical trials.

A growing body of evidence indicates that neural oscillations at specific frequencies are linked to the initiation of periods of neuroplasticity, suggesting that using noninvasive brain stimulation techniques to neuromodulate at specific frequencies may influence these oscillations and aid in neurological recovery. according to BrainQ.

The oscillatory patterns of people who have had a stroke are measurably different from those of healthy individuals, according to the company, which operates on the assumption that exposing such unhealthy individuals to specific EMF frequencies associated with healthy functioning can improve plasticity. network and functional ability.

science fiction

Geetha Tharmaratnam, Chief Impact Investment Officer of the WHO Foundation, described the device as science fiction and said it was significantly cheaper than existing therapies.

It replaces a combination of physical, occupational and speech therapy, Tharmaratnam said.

Being a wearable device, you can bring it to your home so that your family members can become part of your caregivers. And the last thing is, the time that recovery happens is a fraction of the time that recovery happens right now for stroke, he added,

Tharmatnam attended the OurCrowd Global Investment Summit in Israel last month and was looking for potential investments for the GHEF.

“The number of stroke victims worldwide is enormous,” he said. “This is not just a problem in North America or Europe; it’s everywhere. So BrainQ is an example of a company that we would be interested in when we start investing.”

GHEF is in line with the WHO Foundation’s Access Pledge, which ensures that portfolio companies will deliver their solutions for people and countries experiencing inequality. Each company is required to develop an “access plan.

Tharmaratnam supports the fund from the WHO Foundation, while OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved and OurCrowd Managing Partner Dr. Morris Laster lead it. The WHO Foundation and OurCrowd will create an advisory board to provide assistance.

Technology is a big part of the answer

GHEF was conceived due to the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the inequitable access to health technology solutions and vaccines in low- and middle-income countries.

“COVID-19 was a wake-up call for me as an investor,” Medved said in September when the GHEF was announced. “The pandemic has opened my eyes to health inequality around the world and strengthened the potential of innovative technology to save lives.”

Tharmatnam joined the WHO Foundation a year ago and GHEF is one of her first projects. Currently, the program only works with OurCrowd, but hopes to develop several other partners around the world focused on similar concepts.

“No country or health care system was ready for COVID,” Tharmatnam said. “My mandate is to align investors with WHO’s mission and awareness that insufficient health funding is available across the board.”

He told Health Policy Watch that the first step is assessing how health care is administered, and “technology is a big part of the answer.”

“Technology is the magic of our generation, but misused it can amplify exclusion,” Tharmaratnam said. “If you’re building a diagnostic tool, it has to be able to work in Brazil. It must be able to work in Nigeria. I need to be able to work in Indonesia.”

He said the foundation’s role is to lead a sea change in the investment space by creating awareness among private companies of the value of financial and healthcare return on investment.

“The fund can really rally around companies to help them enter markets they may not have otherwise considered, recognizing that they present huge opportunities and have huge needs,” added Tharmaratnam.

Checks and balances

The WHO Foundation has been criticized in the past for accepting funds from companies that do not align with global health standards. In 2021, for example, she was accused of receiving $2.1 million from food and drink multinational Nestl, which it accused of violating international infant formula marketing codes.

But the foundation said receiving funds does not imply endorsement of a company’s activities.

Tharmaratnam insisted the foundation has “the same checks and balances” as the WHO “regarding who we can take money from. If we raise funds from you to support WHO activities, then you must be in line with that.”

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