Meet Will Hewitt, the 20-year-old Kiwi transforming cardiology – Stuff.co.nz

At 20 years old, Auckland student Will Hewitt is already on the frontline in the fight against heart disease.

Hewitts company, HeartLab, makes artificial intelligence tools to help doctors diagnose and treat the disease, which is responsible for almost one in three deaths in New Zealand.

Were getting doctors off of their computers and back in front of their patients, Hewitt said.

The technology used when scanning the heart continues to improve, yet the technology available to help doctors review the scan hasnt kept up its mostly a manual process.

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HeartLabs tools allow doctors to gather more detail from an echocardiogram, the ultrasound test used to examine a patients heart structure and function.

It also automates the repetitive and time-consuming tasks involved in taking measurements from the tests, reducing the time needed to interpret the results, which is currently around 20 minutes for each test.

SUPPLIED

HeartLab chief executive Will Hewitt, 20, has raised $1.1 million to help bring the companys artificial intelligence technology to market.

Raised in Nelson, Hewitts passion for science was obvious from an early age.

I would have been six or seven when I started taking appliances apart and putting them back together.

I was a bit of the odd one out in my family Mum is a deputy principal and Dad is in seafood marketing, but I was always interested in science and technology.

HeartLab was founded in 2018 at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute while Hewitt was a first-year applied mathematics student at the University of Auckland.

Co-founder and cardiologist Dr Patrick Gladding is an expert in cardiac imaging and previously founded a company specialising in molecular diagnostics.

The company has just received a significant financial shot in the arm, securing $1.1 million in a funding round led by Icehouse Ventures, with support from US venture capital firm Founders Fund.

The funding will help HeartLab bring its technology to the New Zealand market and expand its team from five to 10.

With progress accelerating at work, Hewitt has dialled back his study.

My degree might take a bit longer but its a really exciting time for HeartLab and thats my focus.

Supplied

HeartLabs engineering team, Conor Sutherland, left, Simran Singh and Will Hewitt, review research results.

Global demand for cardiac services continues to grow as ageing populations increase in many countries, Gladding said.

In New Zealand, the need is acute, with only 100 registered cardiologists to review the 100,000 echocardiograms performed annually.

Our health system is under enormous pressure, Gladding said.

We can reduce the pressure on cardiologists, get more people through the health system and save thousands more lives by using HeartLabs technology to help us.

The investment in HeartLab is the first for the LevelTwo Deep Technology fund established last month, a collaboration between Icehouse Ventures and Level Two.

LevelTwo is the birthplace of aerospace and small satellite company Rocket Lab and biotech start-up LanzaTech.

Icehouse Ventures introduced HeartLab to Founders Fund partner Scott Nolan through an office hours session, offered to startups enrolled in its Flux Accelerator programme.

The company is the fourth New Zealand business San Francisco-based Founders Fund has invested in and its third investment alongside Icehouse Ventures.

We are excited to back HeartLab and their vision to transform cardiology, Nolan said.

Automated systems that streamline doctors workflows and identify subtle patterns are part of healthcares future, and Will and Patrick are carving this path for cardiovascular care.

Icehouse Ventures chief executive Robbie Paul said HeartLab had a unique perspective on the world.

The tech is based on highly intellectual foundations and university research, and they have the brave ambition to apply technology that addresses the worlds number one killer disease.

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