A startup in Israel is using AI and a smartphone app to take couples on an easier and more successful journey to making a baby.

FertilAI, a medtech company based in Giv’atayim, has developed Fertilane: a clinical platform that predicts natural cycle ovulation and helps physicians make decisions about the fertility treatment their patients should receive.

The AI platform generates treatment recommendations to physicians, such as ovulation tracking, intrauterine insemination (IUI), hormonal injections (that trigger an ovary to mature and release an egg), or frozen embryo transfer (FET).

Doctors then accept the recommendations, with modifications if appropriate, and the patient automatically receives instructions via the linked smartphone app.

Patients additionally benefit because they’re likely to need 30% fewer blood tests and ultrasound scans.

“Every patient responds differently to treatment,” said Rohi Hourvitz, FertilAI’s CEO. “However, after analysing treatment cycles and outcomes from over 100,000 patients, we were able to learn patterns even on the most uncommon of cases, enabling us to provide physicians with accurate predictions and recommendations during every step of the treatment process.”

FertilAI hopes to enable IVF clinics to streamline their processes and treat more patients with the same number of staff at a time when demand is growing exponentially, allowing them to better forecast the optimal times to treat patients and therefore schedule more effective use of their operating rooms.

According to the company, Fertilane increases the average number of eggs retrieved that will be fertilised into embryos by 30% and clinical pregnancy rates by 8%. The platform is being adopted by 10 IVF clinics on the east coast of the USA, following two years of research in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

“Our mission is to guide physicians to make the best treatment decisions for individual patients,” said Hourvitz. “In addition, the app improves communications among the physician, patient and clinic team, ensuring patients are fully informed every step of the way.”