Under the direction of CEO Solveig Johannessen, Satisfai Health is transforming the landscape of gastrointestinal (GI) care with AI-powered tools designed to improve diagnostics, clinical research, and patient outcomes. With a focus on enhancing live image-based analysis in endoscopy and ultrasound, the company aims to elevate patient care by providing physicians with an accessible “expert on the shoulder” for GI expertise.
Satisfai Health was founded by Dr. Michael Byrne, driven by frustration with outdated GI diagnostic processes that often hinder accurate clinical assessments. Despite significant technological advancements in other medical fields, Byrne saw a lack of innovation in GI diagnostics and decided to act.
“He was inspired by technological advances in other industries and brought together developers and partners who shared his vision to apply AI-powered tools to enhance the precision and effectiveness of GI practice and research,” Johannessen explained.
Johannessen first connected with Satisfai as a consultant before becoming an investor in its Series A funding round. Recognizing the company’s potential, she formally joined as CEO in January 2024 to drive its growth from product development to commercialization. “Mike and I are very much yin and yang as a Founder and CEO,” Johannessen shared. “Mike is an incredible networker with deep clinical connections, and I’m a product gal who likes getting things done. We’re a really good match, and I saw that very early on.”
The current standard of care for diagnosing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and related GI conditions heavily relies on manual, visual assessments by gastroenterologists. Physicians review entire endoscopic videos and assign diagnostic scores on a scale from zero to three, a process prone to human error and variability.
“There’s a lack of accuracy and standardization due to inter- and intra-rater variability,” Johannessen explained. “There’s a lot of complex quantitative and spatial pixel-based information that is not discernible to the human eyes that AI can pick up.” This lack of precision creates challenges in both clinical care and drug development.
Additionally, Johannessen highlighted the growing burden of IBD worldwide: “The efficacy of how we assess and treat IBD has plateaued, while incidence and cost continue to increase.” She noted that global IBD cases have risen by 50% in the last 30 years, while current molecular and biologic therapies for GI disease have peaked at only 30-50% efficacy.
Satisfai Health’s AI-powered tools aim to fill this critical gap by offering more objective, data-driven assessments. “We can automate diagnostic evaluations frame by frame, providing a level of granularity and standardization that human reviewers alone can’t achieve,” Johannessen emphasized.
Satisfai Health has developed two flagship AI platforms: Certai and Sonai. Certai is an AI-powered ulcerative colitis scoring tool currently being adopted in clinical trials through a partnership with Alimentiv, the largest global CRO. The platform automates and quantifies disease activity, helping standardize clinical research assessments. Sonai is a next-generation ultrasound-based diagnostic tool currently in the R&D stage. It leverages AI to measure bowel thickness, a key marker for IBD.
“We’re a cloud-based platform fully integrated through APIs,” Johannessen said. “Our partners upload endoscopy videos, and our system provides automated scoring and data visualizations across the entire recording, allowing clinicians and researchers to view it as a granular breakdown throughout the colonoscopy recording.”
The company’s exclusive partnership with the International Bowel Ultrasound Group (IBUS) and its backing from Canadian federal grant funding further strengthen its development efforts.
Satisfai Health has made significant progress toward reshaping GI diagnostics. The company raised $9.4 million in Series A funding, fueling its R&D efforts and enabling key industry partnerships. Its flagship product, Certai, is expected to achieve commercial launch in Q2 2025, starting in clinical research markets.
Additionally, the company has secured a global partnership with Alimentiv, which will integrate Certai into its clinical trials, driving adoption at scale. Sonai, currently in development, is expected to enter product development by late 2025, with a future regulatory submission planned.
Looking ahead, Satisfai aims to expand its technology’s applications into adjacent chronic diseases and integrate multi-modal imaging capabilities for even deeper clinical insights. “Our tools can detect features that the human eye can’t,” Johannessen said. “We see enormous potential for expanding into predictive analytics and new therapeutic targets.”
The implications and opportunities for assistive technologies to improve the differential diagnosis of IBD and its subtypes are massive.
According to LSI’s Global Surgical Procedure Volumes (SPV) database, diagnostic endoscopic procedures are the second most commonly performed surgical procedures worldwide, second only to diagnostic procedures of the bladder. By the end of 2024, LSI projects that 37.9M endoscopic procedures will be performed. Of these, colorectal procedures, like those used to diagnose IBD and its subtypes, accounted for nearly 3.1M procedures. Colorectal procedures are also projected to increase at the fastest growth rate among the multiple types of endoscopic procedures, increasing at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2023 to 2028.
Given the high volume of diagnostic imaging procedures, coupled with a dwindling healthcare workforce, AI solutions can offer distinct benefits to patients and providers. As such, several major medtech companies have made notable acquisitions and investments in AI-based companies, from Olympus’ acquisition of Odin Vision in 2022 as part of its broader digital strategy to a recent acquisition by KARL STORZ of Innersight Labs to support KARL STORZ’s initiative to bring AI solutions into laparoscopic, endoscopic, and robotic surgery.
Johannessen has been selected to present at LSI Asia ‘25 next June 10-13 in front of hundreds of global medical technology companies. Join us in welcoming Johannessen to the event in Singapore, where she will share the latest updates on Satisfai Health’s technology and development.
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