Sight empowers physicians with lab-grade CBC results in minutes, enabling timely treatment with a maintenance-free platform that optimizes operational efficiencies.

CEO
Yossi Pollak
Founded
2011

Problem Tech Solves

Complete blood count (CBC) tests are one of the most commonly ordered blood tests in the world, with four billion tests ordered globally and more than 450M tests ordered in the US annually. Doctors rely on CBC for routine checkups, chemotherapy administration, clinical research trials, radiation monitoring, and much more, making this test an essential first-line diagnostic test. For clinical trials, regular CBC testing is used to monitor a participant’s health throughout the study. Often, CBC tests are outsourced to a diagnostic lab facility, which requires patients to travel elsewhere for a blood draw and then return to the clinical trial site to receive other therapies in cases where a CBC test is a prerequisite. This is costly, inconvenient, and causes unnecessary anxiety and frustration. Traditional CBC analyzers rely on drawing blood from a venous sample. Venous draws can be challenging for patients with not only needle anxiety (prevalent in psychiatry where CBC can be a requisite for drug monitoring), but also for patients with underlying conditions that require frequent blood draws. Frequent blood draws can also bring the concern for drawing too much blood in a given time for this vulnerable patient population. With Sight OLO, patients can give a sample with a finger prick, just two drops of blood (27 microliters), and receive full lab-grade CBC results in minutes. This can be performed in near-patient settings, eliminating the need for travel and long wait times for results.

Tech Brief

While it's clear the benefits to patients and physicians of bringing CBC testing to near-patient settings, this could not be achieved with existing technologies. Flow cytometry, for example, distinguishes cell types using indirect measures such as optical or electrical properties, requiring wet reagent management, clean up, liquid disposal, daily quality control checks, and highly trained staff to operate and manage. The analyzers require a large footprint, capital investment, and service fees, and are not cost effective when used in low volume test settings. This all results in a very poor option if the goal is to decentralize testing. Sight Diagnostics solved this century-old problem with 21st-century technologies and designed Sight OLO specifically for near-patient settings. Sight OLO is an AI-based blood diagnostics analyzer that offers accurate CBC results from just two drops of blood in minutes. Sight OLO leverages proprietary and patented technology to create a monolayer of cells and then uses digital microscopy to “digitize” blood to see and recognize different cell types by morphology using AI. This enables Sight OLO to be a compact analyzer (1 cubic ft) that operates from an electrical plug and uses single-use cartridges without external liquid reagent management and disposal. User error is mitigated by the Failsafe system and a touch screen that walks operators through every step. The result is a convenient, cost-effective, accurate analyzer designed for decentralized settings--bringing the central lab-quality CBC testing to near-patient settings.

Tech Differentiators

OLO’s performance is substantially equivalent to the market leader; in fact, Sight’s FDA 510(k) clearance was based on substantially equivalent data comparing OLO to the Sysmex XN. Sysmex requires high maintenance, a high volume of blood, and high fixed costs to operate. Sysmex often requires 10x more blood per test than OLO does; in fact, OLO is the first analyzer with 510(k) clearance from the FDA to run CBC tests directly from a finger prick of blood. Furthermore, flow-cytometry devices for labs require a large footprint and high levels of maintenance. Alternatively, flow-cytometry devices for near-patient settings are simply ‘miniature versions’ of these larger devices, so they still require high maintenance and often do not provide the same level of accuracy. These devices are also cost-prohibitive for wide-scale adoption. In contrast, OLO takes pictures of the blood sample and analyzes it with AI to provide results in minutes, with the same level of accuracy as Sysmex. By leveraging this AI-powered technology, OLO remains compact, enabling providers to conduct continuous CBC monitoring in near-patient settings. This is essential in decentralized clinical trials where fast, remote CBC testing allows researchers to understand patient adherence immediately while supporting a patient-centric clinical trial. Additionally, this reduces costs for clinical trials as they are no longer required to cover the costs of regular CBC testing through a third party.

Validation

Sight customer testimonials here: https://www.sightdx.com/evidence/us Scientific paper: An Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Diagnostic Platform for Rapid Near-Patient Hematology Dr. David B. Wheat MD Physician, POL at Clinton Family Care “The number one reason to deploy OLO was to reduce overhead cost. With OLO, we do not need to manage all the reagents, diluents and cleaning supplies, in addition to the quality control materials, which can be quite a lot of administrative work for a lean staff like ours. The real value is customer service, and Sight is just exceptional. It’s so far beyond anything I’ve seen in the industry.” Dr. Carlo Brugnara, Director, Hematology Lab at Boston Children's Hospital “OLO’s performance is comparable to analyzers that are 50 times bigger and much more complicated to operate. The ability to take that much analytical power outside of the central lab and bring it to any setting where you can perform a CBC analysis in minutes has huge implications for hospital wards, such as oncology clinics, emergency rooms and beyond.” Sight’s technology is particularly transformative in developing countries Michael D. Davis, RRT, PhD, FAARC, Cofounder, Partner Liberia “One of the primary differences in using OLO is that we reverse the paradigm on context versus quantitative data. If you can make it work in Liberia, you can really make it work anywhere.”

Why Us

Sight Diagnostics is working to decentralize diagnostics with its rapid, accurate, affordable, and scalable blood testing technology. Since being named a UCSF Digital Health quarterfinalist in 2020, Sight has made CNBC Disruptor 50’s list, named a semifinalist for the AACC Disruptive Technology award and won the Medical Design Excellence award.

❮ Return to FULL LIST OF FINALISTSView Next Company❯