Sight Diagnostics Wins Genesis Prize and Start-Up Nation Central Technology Competition, in Honor of Natan Sharansky

Sight Diagnostics®,  the company delivering lab-grade Complete Blood Count (CBC) results in minutes, was announced today as one of the winners in the Genesis Prize and Start-Up Nation Central technology competition for its efforts in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. The competition honored Genesis Prize laureate Natan Sharansky, who donated his prize award to fighting Covid-19. 

Out of the hundreds of Israeli-based companies under consideration, Sight was selected as one of the ten winners to receive a grant in recognition of the company’s efforts deploying its diagnostics technology where and when healthcare providers need it. Sight will be donating the funds to The Paamonim, a non-profit organization that helps Israeli families with economic recovery programs.  

When patients arrive at hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms, doctors must quickly assess each individual’s status and the severity of the disease. Once hospitalized, healthcare providers must monitor the patient’s condition and run daily tests, including the CBC, the most common blood test that gives insight into a person’s overall health. Traditionally, doctors need to ship vials of blood to the lab for analysis and wait hours or days for results, but Sight OLO leverages computer vision to provide CBC results in minutes from just two drops of blood.

“The judging panel found Sight Diagnostics to be among the winners of the competition — ten extraordinary Israeli companies whose technology can make a real impact in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic”, said Sana Britavsky, Deputy CEO of The Genesis Prize Foundation. “Congratulations – as Israelis, we can be proud of their spirit of innovation, and their spirit of tzedakah.”

At the start of the pandemic, Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital chose to deploy Sight OLO in a quarantine lab to help minimize the risk of spreading the virus. Other universities have implemented Sight OLO at the emergency department to quickly triage patients. In addition to serving COVID-19 patients, Sight also prototyped a mobile version of Sight OLO to service at-home chemotherapy treatment for immunocompromised patients who might otherwise risk COVID-19 infection to receive the blood tests needed for treatment at a hospital. 

“We are privileged to participate in the fight against COVID-19. The impact will continue even after the pandemic is behind us, whether it’s at-home medical services, identification of new biomarkers for COVID-19 severity or fast triages in ERs,” remarks Sarah Levy, Chief Technology Officer at Sight. “We are keen to help transform healthcare systems for the better, and we are just getting started.”

Most recently, the company has established research partnerships with Sheba Tel Hashomer and Shaare Zedek Medical Centers and collected data from more than 500 COVID-19 patients to develop effective tests for COVID severity and identify new biomarkers for the disease. 

To learn more about Sight and the winners of the Genesis Prize, visit: https://www.genesisprize.org/press-center/2020-12-24-genesis-prize-and-start-up-nation-central-announce-winners-of-the-competition-in-honor-of-natan-sharansky

*Sight OLO received regulatory approval for use in Israel and is CE Marked according to the IVD European directive at point of care settings. In the United States, Sight OLO is 510(k) cleared for use in moderate complexity laboratories; it has not yet been cleared for point-of-care use.

About Sight Diagnostics 

Founded in 2011, Sight Diagnostics aims to transform health systems and patient outcomes through accurate and pain-free blood diagnostic testing. Sight’s technology, developed over almost a decade of research, represents breakthrough innovations in diagnostic methodology. Sight’s latest blood analyzer, Sight OLO, performs a Complete Blood Count, the most commonly ordered blood test, in minutes. It’s compact: designed to be used in a variety of settings. Sight OLO creates a digital version of a blood sample by capturing more than 1,000 highly detailed images from just two drops of blood obtained from a finger prick or venous sample. These images are then interpreted by proprietary and fully automated AI algorithms. Sight’s first product, Parasight, has been used to detect malaria in almost 1 million tests across 24 countries. The company has rapidly growing offices in the UK, the US and Israel. Learn more at www.SightDX.com.

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