Avail Medsystems founder and former CEO Daniel Hawkins has a new job as president and CEO of MRI software startup Vista.ai.
Palo Alto, California-based Vista.ai (founded and incorporated as HeartVista) makes AI-guided software for automating magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams.
Vista.ai was founded by Chief Medical Officer Bob Hu, Chief Architect and Head of Research Juan Santos and Chief Technology Officer William Overall. Its advisory board includes Stanford University doctors and professors and the radiology chair at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The company won FDA 510(k) clearances for its HeartVista Workstation with RTHawk application software for the acquisition of real-time and accelerated images from GE Healthcare whole-body MRI systems in 2014, 2017 and 2017. In 2019, the FDA cleared the company’s AI-assisted One Click MRI acquisition software for cardiac exams with GE scanners. The company updated its software to be compatibile with Siemens Healthineers’ MRI scanners for another clearance in 2021.
HeartVista raised a $9 million Series A round in 2020 and rebranded as Vista.ai in 2022 under former CEO Itamar Kandel in a move to reflect its wider focus beyond the heart.
“While our initial goal with One Click MRI was to address pent-up demand for cardiac MRIs (CMRs), our team plans to adapt and apply the technology to other MRI challenges and medical issues,” the company says on its website.
Hawkins launched the marketing and sales department for Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci surgical robot (which just released its fifth-generation system) and then co-founded and led Shockwave Medical as CEO.
Medical Design & Outsourcing: Intuitive co-founder Dr. Fred Moll and Daniel Hawkins discuss the digital OR
In 2017 he founded Avail Medsystems, which developed an operating room telepresence system that lets surgeons collaborate in real-time with experts around the globe.
Avail shut down for lack of funding last year despite hundreds of system placements around the start of 2023 and a deal with Medtronic Neurovascular.
Avail sold its technology to medical robotics startup Mendaera, which is developing a fist-sized system for procedures including percutaneous instruments.