Clairity, a startup developing AI for breast cancer risk prediction, has decided to skip the traditional health-care sales pipeline and market its algorithm directly to patients. The company is offering the tool through Everlywell, the consumer testing company, rather than waiting for health systems and insurers to adopt it. In a statement, Clairity said that waiting on doctors and insurers would have taken too long.
According to STAT, the product is part of a new generation of AI-based risk prediction algorithms for medical images. The company's message to patients is framed as a choice: 'Don't wait. Choose to be informed.' The direct-to-consumer launch reflects a broader trend of clinical AI tools moving around established gatekeepers, though it also raises questions about how such risk predictions should be delivered and paid for.