Flywheel Collaborates with Microsoft and NVIDIA to Propel End-to-End AI Development Platform on Microsoft Azure


MINNEAPOLIS – November 22, 2023 – Flywheel, a leading medical imaging artificial intelligence (AI) development platform, today announced the launch of its software-as-a-service (SaaS) data management solution on Microsoft Azure. The Flywheel platform is integrated with NVIDIA MONAI, part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, and Azure Machine Learning Studio for development and deployment of production-grade AI applications. This new SaaS offering, which evolved from the company’s managed service that has been available since 2015, can expedite significant advancements in medical imaging research and AI model development across the healthcare ecosystem. 

Flywheel provides a sophisticated infrastructure for the curation of high-quality, standardized datasets within a secure, scalable, and user-friendly SaaS solution. The platform facilitates an accelerated process to prepare and train data for AI model development and supports research among pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, research institutions, and healthcare providers.

Healthcare breakthroughs have long standing barriers when it comes to unlocking the powerful insights trapped in medical imaging data. The Flywheel collaboration with Microsoft and NVIDIA helps researchers and healthcare professionals overcome these barriers and accelerate the management, curation, and analysis of medical imaging data to extract and mobilize valuable insights that advance personalized care, clinical research, and real-world evidence (RWE).  

The company established an agreement with Microsoft to launch its SaaS solution on Azure, and Flywheel is now available on the Azure Marketplace. In addition, Flywheel solutions integrate with Azure Machine Learning MLOps capabilities and NVIDIA MONAI to support clinical AI collaboration at enterprise scale without redundant model-building workflows. By leveraging the power of Flywheel, Azure and NVIDIA, users can accelerate model development by freeing up data preparation time, enabling reproducibility of AI models, and facilitating collaboration between medical researchers, data scientists, and their stakeholders.

In addition, Flywheel users will be able to seamlessly enhance patient cohort discovery and enrich images with refined data from radiology reports all with one-click from mPower Clinical Analytics by Nuance, a Microsoft company. Dr. Richard Bruce, Associate Professor of Radiology and Radiology Vice Chair of Informatics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said, “As an established Nuance and Flywheel customer, we are excited to explore how this deep integration between systems may allow us to increase the speed and scale of research. Our focus is on bridging the gap within medical imaging from innovation to patient care in ways that improve outcomes and make innovation care more accessible.”

“We are standing on the cusp of a revolution in healthcare, poised to leverage the vast potential of medical imaging data. But harnessing this potential responsibly means ensuring the data is meticulously managed, accurately labeled, diligently curated, and rigorously tested. It’s a matter of trust. Our collaboration with Microsoft and NVIDIA epitomizes this commitment,” said Trent Norris, Chief Revenue Officer at Flywheel. “The synergy between Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, NVIDIA MONAI and Microsoft’s advanced services creates a robust platform that is integral to our mission. This unified approach is not just about technology. It’s about empowering researchers, clinicians, and scientists around the world with the proven scalability of our AI enabling solutions. It enables them to accelerate discovery, drive innovation, and ultimately, enhance healthcare outcomes globally.”

“Flywheel’s expertise in medical imaging, combined with the power and scale of Azure, along with the advanced imaging analytics capabilities of mPower, is ushering in a new era of healthcare innovation,” said Peter Durlach, Corporate Vice President, Health & Life Sciences at Microsoft. “Our partnership is geared towards a future where Flywheel’s platform combined with Microsoft’s cloud and AI capabilities will help transform patient care through accelerated discovery and AI-driven insights.”

Learn more at the Radiological Society of North America Annual Meeting in Chicago at Flywheel’s exhibit, booth No. 4170, McCormick Place, South Hall A. For more information about Flywheel on Azure Marketplace, visit the public listing here.