NIH has awarded a US$2m SBIR Phase II grant to Treatment.com to build an AI family history tool for earlier diagnosis and better preventive care.
The two-year project, run with Rush River Research, will advance a culturally sensitive system that helps people record and share family medical histories. The aim is to support timely risk assessment and preventive screening.
The award also provides more than US$500,000 to enhance Treatment’s Global Library of Medicine and integrate advanced AI across its commercial platforms. Treatment.com, a US-based subsidiary of Rocket Doctor AI, will lead development.
“We are excited to continue this important work with Treatment and our partners following the success of Phase I,” said Julie Lundstrom, co-founder, Rush River Research. “Our goal is to help families have informed conversations about their family health history and better understand the important role it plays in their overall wellbeing. This project shows how thoughtful design, cultural awareness, community insight, and collaboration can combine with AI innovation to create medical technologies that are more effective and accessible for everyone.”
Phase II SBIR awards follow NIH peer review and back projects with scientific merit and real-world potential. This work focuses on applying family health history to improve diagnosis and treatment, particularly in African American communities that face higher mortality from conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.
Treatment and Rush River Research will draw on usability and literacy testing and community input to refine the tool for preventive care, early diagnosis and targeted screening. Insights will be applied to improve family history collection for all populations.
“We’re excited to deepen our collaboration with Rush River Research and apply our next generation AI technologies to make a tangible difference across all communities,” said Dr Kevin Peterson, founder and chief medical officer, Treatment.com. “Conventional AI models can overlook the realities of historical, genetic, and cultural differences. This important work helps bridge that gap, advancing our understanding of how health is shaped by the relationships, families, and communities where people live. By combining the complementary expertise of Rush River Research and Treatment, we are creating AI systems that are more modern, more accurate and ultimately more human-centred.”
