Philips revealed that it’s begun a deal to acquire SpectraWAVE, an innovator in Enhanced Vascular Imaging (EVI) of coronary arteries, angiography-based physiology assessments, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical imaging.

The transaction’s financial terms were not disclosed.

SpectraWAVE’s intravascular imaging and physiological assessment tech offer solutions to treat coronary artery disease. The Bedford, Massachusetts-based company was founded in 2017 and currently employes over 70 people.

Percutaneous coronary interventions are minimally invasive procedures that use intravascular imaging and physiological assessment to treat coronary artery disease. A growing body of evidence shows using intravascular imaging and physiological assessment tech significantly improves patient outcomes for percutaneous coronary interventions.

“Our global leadership in image guided therapy is driven by deep clinical collaboration combined with our latest technology insights across hardware, software and AI, to innovate interventional procedures for better and more patient impact. Our world-class portfolio integrates interventional systems and devices into one platform, Azurion, serving patients worldwide,” said Philips CEO Roy Jakobs. “We are doubling down on image-guided therapy and expanding our portfolio in the coronary intervention segment with the addition of SpectraWAVE’s AI-powered innovations in high-definition intravascular imaging and angio-based physiological assessment, enabling us to deliver better care for more people.”

SpectraWAVE’s HyperVue imaging system combines Deep OCT (next-gen comprehensive optical coherence tomography) and NIRS (near-infrared spectroscopy) into its EVI imaging segment, providing detailed structural and compositional images of coronary arteries during percutaneous coronary interventions. This includes rapid setup, acquisition, and automated AI image analysis. It earned a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nod in March 2023.

The company’s X1-FFR is an angiography-derived, AI-enabled physiology solution that calculates Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) from a single coronary angiogram, offering a non-invasive ischemia assessment and turning routine X-ray images into coronary physiology data for simplified percutaneous coronary intervention workflows. It received FDA clearance in October of this year.

X1-FFR complements Philips OmniWire iFR technology by extending physiologic guidance to wire-free scenarios and equipping clinicians with a versatile toolkit to broaden the adoption of coronary physiology in daily practice.

“Philips shares our deep conviction that the convergence of intravascular imaging, coronary physiology and AI can fundamentally improve how every patient with coronary disease is treated,” said SpectraWAVE CEO Eman Namati, Ph.D. This partnership allows us to integrate and scale HyperVue and X1-FFR into the world’s leading image-guided therapy ecosystem, expanding choice for clinicians and supporting more consistent, high-quality care for the millions of patients who depend on coronary intervention each year.”