Behavioral health-focused virtual reality company Floreo has acquired Autism Eyes, an autism diagnostic tool developed by Cleveland Clinic Innovations.
This news coincides with an announcement that Cleveland Clinic has made a strategic investment in Floreo.
Founded in 2016, Floreo uses a virtual reality platform to help neurodiverse individuals develop new skills. The platform allows therapists to provide customized lessons to meet clients’ needs. The technology can be used in therapy, educational, or family settings.
Floreo now plans to integrate Autism Eyes into its services.
“The Autism Eyes product enables the use of eye tracking data to be applied to autism diagnostics and assessment,” Vijay Ravindran, Floreo’s founder and CEO, told Behavioral Health Business. “Integrating Autism Eyes will enable Floreo to expand beyond social and life skills therapy to also diagnose new cases of autism and to assess its severity.
“Related to this, we believe eye tracking will become a common feature in VR headsets as exemplified with the launch of Apple Vision Pro and already available in the Meta Quest Pro.”
Autism Eyes works by having the person being evaluated watch a 7-minute video with a series of stimuli. An external eye tracker captures the patient’s eye-gave data. Autism Eyes can then use its tracking algorithm to provide an autism risk index (ARI) and severity index (ASI). The goal of the technology is to speed up the process of autism diagnosis and screening.
“The rising incidence of autism demands cutting-edge technology solutions to help individuals and their families, and Cleveland Clinic remains committed to driving innovations in autism treatment and services,” Geoff Vince, executive director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations, said in a statement. “Floreo’s VR platform combined with the eye-tracking diagnostic capabilities of Autism Eyes will help build an integrated pathway tailored to each individual’s needs.”
With this new investment, Cleveland Clinic will become the second largest outside investor in Floreo. Cleveland Clinic will send a representative to serve as an advisor to Floreo.
“Funding from our Cleveland Clinic partnership will be used to support Floreo’s current roadmap which includes seeking FDA approval for Floreo’s therapy platform later this year as well as the work to integrate Autism Eyes into Floreo,” Ravindran said.
Floreo received an FDA breakthrough designation and was accepted into the agency’s total Product Life Cycle Advisory Program. Both programs aim to accelerate the clearance process for products already in the process of seeking FDA clearance.