Radiologist Mark Michalski, MD, has been appointed as the CEO of a new “healthcare AI company creation platform” called Ascertain, those involved announced on Tuesday.
Launched by the for-profit investment arm of hospital system Northwell Health and startup studio Aegis Ventures, the company aims to work with entrepreneurs to launch new artificial intelligence offerings. Ascertain has raised $100 million in seed funding and earlier this year started the company Optain, which aims to identify diseases via retinal imaging.
Michalski has 20 years of experience in the field, most recently leading strategic development for healthcare and life sciences at Amazon. He also was founding executive director of the Mass General Brigham/Harvard Center for Clinical Data Science and served as president and chief medical officer of the Butterfly Network and Hyperfine Research.
“Health systems are facing unrelenting financial pressures and an unprecedented workforce crisis. It is challenging to watch the impacts on my provider colleagues and their patients,” Michalski, a board-certified radiologist who completed his training at Yale and Stanford, said in an Aug. 22 announcement. “I've seen what is possible when you bring best-in-field technologists together with deep clinical know-how. We have an opportunity to re-engineer the experience of healthcare, equitably, and for all patients.”
Ascertain also named Gregg Fergus as its new executive chairman. He previously served as CEO at venture studio 4Catalyzer, where he worked with Michalski to launch several healthcare companies. Those included two publicly traded imaging startups—ultrasound-maker Butterfly Network and portable MRI developer Hyperfine. Fergus also previously served as president and chief operating officer of DNA Sequencing company Ion Torrent.
“We have a unique opportunity with Northwell Health to create innovative companies and solve the hard problems in healthcare,” Fergus said in the announcement. “Now is the time to deliver the promise of AI and meaningfully impact the healthcare industry.”
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.