Dopl Technologies secures $6.3 million to introduce remote robotic ultrasound services in rural hospitals.
Dopl Technologies has secured $6.3 million in seed funding, led by SpringTide Ventures, to further develop a telerobotic ultrasound platform aimed at obtaining FDA clearance. This system, named Traverse, enables sonographers to remotely control a robotic arm equipped with haptic controllers and cameras to conduct diagnostic ultrasound examinations on patients at remote locations. The platform is designed to be hardware-agnostic, allowing it to integrate readily available robots and ultrasound equipment into current hospital systems. With this new funding, total investments in the company have exceeded $8 million.
Founded in 2022 by a former engineer specialized in medical AI from Nvidia and practicing cardiologists and radiologists, Dopl's team also includes members with experience from Butterfly Network, Philips, Microsoft, and Amazon. The company has completed its FDA pre-submission engagement and established a 510(k) regulatory pathway, and the funding will enable them to focus on verification, validation, FDA submission, and initial pilot projects at rural hospitals in Washington State.
While they seek FDA approval, Dopl has introduced CareBridge, a temporary service that dispatches traveling sonographers to underserved hospitals. Patients in the areas served by Dopl experience wait time reductions of up to 90%. The intention is to transition these partner hospitals to the telerobotic system following regulatory approval. Dopl estimates there is a $40 billion annual reimbursement opportunity for U.S. hospitals as telerobotic imaging gains traction across the country. Similar to Corti’s approach in medical coding, Dopl perceives the shortcomings in clinical workflows as challenges to be addressed through reasoning and AI development, rather than simply replacing healthcare professionals.
Over 50 million Americans reside in regions with inadequate access to diagnostic imaging. The shortage of sonographers is a systematic issue due to lengthy training, an aging workforce, and challenges in recruiting specialists to rural areas. Although AI has demonstrated superior performance in certain cancer assessments, most imaging AI still requires a human to perform the initial scan. Dopl believes that this acquisition process can be handled remotely, potentially transforming the sonographer shortage into a logistical challenge solvable through robotics and connectivity.
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Dopl Technologies secures $6.3 million to introduce remote robotic ultrasound services in rural hospitals.
Dopl Technologies secured $6.3 million to develop a telerobotic ultrasound system. Sonographers will control it remotely using haptic controllers. The next step is obtaining FDA clearance. The system promises a 90% reduction in wait times.
