Royal Philips has today announced it has received an award of up to US$33.7 million under the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)—an agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Autonomous Interventions and Robotics (AIR) programme, led by Ileana Hancu to advance artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled robotic procedure automation for stroke care.
Working with Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA), Boston University (Boston, USA) and J Mocco of Weill Cornell Medicine (New York City, USA), Philips will develop technologies for remote-assisted and increasingly automated endovascular procedures, helping expand access to advanced stroke care.
As noted in a Philips press release, expanding access to mechanical thrombectomy procedures requires new approaches that combine imaging, robotics and AI to extend expert care beyond today’s stroke centres.
Philips is advancing robotic procedure automation by integrating imaging, robotics, AI-enabled automation and smart interventional devices on its Azurion image-guided therapy platform. The current project will develop technologies for endovascular navigation, robotic device control, image-based procedural guidance, workflow automation and remote intervention. These technologies will be designed to support image-guided procedures while enabling increasing levels of supervised autonomy under expert clinical oversight, Philips also states.
“This ARPA-H programme accelerates our long-term vision for image-guided intervention,” said Bert van Meurs, chief business leader for image-guided therapy at Philips. “We’re helping shape a future where expert care is no longer limited by geography or workforce constraints. The goal is not to replace expertise, but to make expertise scalable and accessible.”
“Strong robotics and AI research has laid the scientific foundation for this effort, building on years of foundational work in image-guided and robotics procedural automation to help expand access to time-critical stroke intervention,” added Betsabeh Madani-Hermann, the company’s head of research.
Philips will collaborate with Johns Hopkins University and Boston University as part of the programme, combining Philips’ expertise in image-guided therapy and workflow automation with leading academic capabilities in robotics, clinical translation, and procedure automation. Johns Hopkins University will be responsible for developing autonomous device navigation, led by Axel Krieger, while Boston University will be responsible for developing steerable catheters, co-led by Tommaso Ranzani and Sheila Russo.
“Robotics has the potential to improve precision and accuracy in endovascular stroke care, while also extending specialist expertise through remote procedures,” commented Mocco, who is described in today’s press release as an additional clinical collaborator with Philips. “I am excited to work alongside Philips and the academic partners in this programme to translate this potential into clinically meaningful innovation, developing technologies that support clinicians and are designed to improve patient outcomes.”
