ABOUT US
Our Mission
Fifth Eye’s mission is to provide over-burdened hospital clinicians access to unique, real-time information to:
- Reduce preventable adverse events: identify patients at risk of deterioration and facilitate early diagnosis and intervention;
- Reduce length of stay: augment clinical judgment and support timely step-down or discharge decisions.
Our Story
The Challenge
In 2014, an emergency department physician was frustrated with the lack of progress on new tools that could give him a heads up regarding which patients might become unstable and crash. His goal was to reduce the frequency and severity of preventable adverse events.
He challenged a team of physicians, nurses, data scientists, and computer scientists at the University of Michigan to develop a robust and practical means to identify and monitor patients at risk of deterioration – simply, quickly and accurately.
Better by Design
The team’s project goals were twofold. First, create a single metric that correlated well with the current standard in patient monitoring, vital sign-based assessments. Second, add a predictive capability to ultimately get ahead of vital signs.
Design goals included:
- Real-time results
- Trended history
- Easily interpreted
- “Anytime, anywhere” access
- Easily implemented into a hospital’s existing workflow
- Unbiased toward race or other factors
Model inputs: The team identified a variety of continuous, non-invasive physiologic measures that are widely used and automatically collected as candidates. These included SpO2, ECG, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, and others.
The team looked at these variables alone and in combination. By applying cutting-edge signal processing techniques and machine learning, they were able to extract hidden information from a single ECG Lead II signal to develop a novel analytic that could continuously monitor a patient’s hemodynamic status.
Fifth Eye is Born
Eventually, members of the team formed a company called Fifth Eye. Fifth Eye’s goal was to develop their analytic into medical device software that could be deployed in hospitals.
Fifth Eye continued to work closely with physicians and nurses to develop a product that was not only accurate, but easy to integrate into their existing workflow. They named the company’s first analytic “AHI” (pronounced ‘AH-hee’) which stands for “Analytic for Hemodynamic Instability.”
AHI is able to determine if a patient is stable or unstable in less than 10 minutes, and to provide clinicians with easy access to a continuous trend line updated every two minutes. In March 2021, the company was granted FDA De Novo status to market AHI in the USA.
The AHI System
Fifth Eye continued to search for a means to provide earlier awareness of patients at risk for serious illness. The approach was to create a “leading indicator” to alert clinicians to patients at risk for hemodynamic instability ahead of identification via vital signs.
In December 2021, the company received FDA clearance for its second generation product, the AHI System. In addition to AHI, the AHI System added a new analytic called AHI-PI. “PI” stands for “Predictive Indicator.” As the name suggests, AHI-PI is able to classify patients into one of three categories: low, moderate or high risk for a future episode of hemodynamic instability. Importantly, AHI-PI communicates risk with “traffic light’ simplicity – along with the AHI trend line – for at-a-glance awareness of a patient’s hemodynamic trajectory on any browser enabled device.
Today, the AHI System is deployed at multiple hospitals and is commercially available in the United States.
Our Team
JEN BAIRD
CEO, BOARD MEMBER
Successful venture-backed serial entrepreneur
JEFF BASCH
CFO
Broad cross-functional management expertise across multiple startups
MARK SALAMANGO
CTO, BOARD MEMBER
25+ years leading software product development teams
ASHWIN BELLE, PHD
CHIEF ANALYTICS OFFICER
Expert data scientist with specialization in signal processing, computational medicine, and machine learning
ERIC PERGLER
VP OF SALES
Sales management executive driven to deliver for customers through consistent work ethic, strategic thinking, and sense of urgency.
BRANDON VARILONE
VP OF ENGINEERING
Proven ability to consistently and effectively architect and deliver technology initiatives in early-stage startup companies – from idea to commercial product.
ADAM HILLIG, RN, BSN, CFRN
CLINICAL SPECIALIST
Registered Nurse with 20+ years of critical care and flight nursing experience. Trusted execution partner with deep appreciation of the clinician experience.
LISA CONFORTI, BS, RRT
STRATEGIC SALES AND IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER
Registered Respiratory Therapist with 15+ years experience at the bedside and in the medical device industry as a trusted clinical expert and successful project manager.
BRYCE BENSON, PHD
SENIOR DATA SCIENTIST
Expert in bioengineering, cardiac electrophysiology, signal processing, biomedical data analysis
TOM SHEHAB, MD
BOARD MEMBER
Over 25 years of diverse healthcare experience as a physician, healthcare executive, and successful venture capitalist
BILL SCHMIDT
BOARD MEMBER
25+ years experience in medical device and health IT sectors, including successfully building and exiting a digital health company and serving as Managing Director of Cultivation Capital’s Life Sciences Fund.
ROBERT KLINE
BOARD MEMBER
Serial entrepreneur and executive with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare and life science industries.
AELIN
CHIEF CANINE OFFICER
Friend to all. Lover of a power nap.
Our Partners
AHI is the new standard for detecting and predicting hemodynamic instability. Contact us to learn more.