In an aging society, the care of chronic diseases has become a major social burden and has imposed significant impacts on the healthcare system. Elderly patients often face complicated medical procedures, unclear disease progression, and overcrowded settings in large hospitals. In 2010, Eric Lee returned to Taiwan from abroad to care for his mother, who had long suffered from chronic diseases related to bone and heart health, and went through firsthand the complexities of the healthcare system-ranging from resource bottlenecks to delayed diagnoses. Motivated by his personal journey, Lee co-founded AIM with physician Dr. Michael Yen in 2018. The company officially launched its product development activities in late 2020, focusing on solving pain points in chronic disease care for the elderly population through state-of-the-art AI diagnostic imaging technology.
With Taiwan on the brink of becoming a super-aged society, diseases such as osteoporosis and degenerative arthritis are increasingly prevalent. However, early symptoms are often unnoticed or ignored, causing many patients to miss optimal treatment windows. Traditional diagnosis modalities like DXA bone densitometry or costly CT/MRI scans are time-consuming to schedule and not widely available, making large-scale community screening difficult. Furthermore, cardiac function assessment relies heavily on cardiologists operating advanced ultrasound systems, creating a bottleneck in primary care and public health services.
Making Precision Care Accessible: The AI Revolution in X-ray and Ultrasound
According to Lee, AIM's core technology leverages patented proprietary deep learning algorithms to analyze medical images from standard X-ray and ultrasound equipment. Its flagship solution, DeepXray, delivers automated bone density and joint degeneration analysis in under 30 seconds, generating clinically relevant reports. Validated by leading medical institutions including Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taipei Medical University Shuang-Ho Hospital and Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, DeepXray achieves over 0.9 correlation with gold-standard DXA scans and maintains a world-class absolute error below 0.05 g/cm2.
The company's second core product, DeepSono, focuses on automated cardiac ultrasound analysis. Using portable ultrasound devices, DeepSono autonomously outlines myocardial contours and calculates ejection fraction (EF) and global longitudinal strain (GLS)-traditionally requiring manual assessment by cardiologists.
AIM's solutions have earned Class II medical device certification from authorities including the US FDA, Taiwan's TFDA, Japan's PMDA, and Vietnam's IMDA, and are expanding to other targeted countries-making it one of the few Taiwanese medical AI startups with comprehensive international certifications.
Scalable Business Model and Global Expansion
To accelerate adoption, AIM offers medical institutions a printer and cartridge business model, including a one-time software license fee at 10% of the full cost to lower entry barriers, followed by a SaaS-based monthly subscription or usage-based billing. Since its 2024 certification, AIM's solutions have been deployed in over 50 clinics and hospitals across Taiwan and Vietnam, with entry into the Japanese market underway.
"In a competitive global medical AI market, AIM's edge lies in delivering quantitative diagnostic data-not just risk classification," said Lee. While most medical AI solutions on the market only classify patients into high-, medium-, or low-risk categories, AIM goes beyond simply identifying risk levels and provides actionable and clinically relevant number-based metrics. AIM also prioritizes algorithm optimization and platform-based, fully automated diagnostic workflows, significantly enhancing clinical efficiency. Its long-term mission is to democratize precision care by pairing affordable devices with advanced AI technology so that the general public around the world will all be taken care of.
Future Roadmap: Elderly Mobility and Cardiac Care
Lee stated that AIM will continue to expand its product portfolio centered around elderly mobility and cardiac care by leveraging widely available X-ray and ultrasound devices in primary care settings. Upcoming features include sarcopenia risk prediction, enhanced integration of handheld ultrasound with AI, and new developments in abdominal ultrasound, AI-assisted chest disease detection, and preoperative anesthesia risk analysis.
Lee also underscored the evolution of Taiwan's startup ecosystem, which in recent years has matured significantly, especially in terms of global outreach. Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) has actively facilitated overseas market connections and aligned investment resources, supporting AIM in its global expansion. In addition to tapping into international markets, Lee recommends that the government and hospitals provide more PoC/PoB habitats to accelerate the development and global reach of Taiwan's medical AI sector, increase clinical deployment opportunities for startups, and bring precision care to communities around the world.
Article edited by Jack Wu
