PointCaré, a healthcare technology startup headquartered in Ghent’s Wintercircus and founded in 2022, has successfully raised nearly €1.5 million from private investors. The funding supports the development of OnTarget, an AI-driven platform designed to interpret real-time data from operating rooms and intensive care units. By integrating streams of data from multiple medical devices, the platform delivers tailored, situation-specific recommendations to clinicians. The company is positioning OnTarget as a key player in the field of explainable AI, aiming to lead innovation in intelligent decision support systems within critical care environments.
Van Overmeire brings a multidisciplinary background in astrophysics, medicine, anesthesiology, civil engineering, and jazz drumming, enriched by business economics training. His experiences in operating rooms and ICUs highlighted the outdated workflows in hospital settings and inspired the conceptualization of OnTarget. “Critical care is integrated care. Providing care in the OR or ICU involves many components, and the effects of one aspect of treatment often have far-reaching consequences for others,” explains founder and CTO Dr. Henri Van Overmeire. “Critical care departments are filled with high-tech devices generating massive data streams. But data alone doesn’t save lives: the key is to take the right action based on that data. And that’s exactly where we come in.”
The OnTarget platform aggregates all available patient data in real time, factoring in contextual information to assist healthcare professionals in making informed decisions. This centralized, AI-supported system addresses the challenge of disconnected high-tech devices and the lack of individualized insight. “While new Internet-of-Things technologies and communication protocols allow these devices to exchange information, without central interpretation they contribute little to the care process,” Dr. Van Overmeire noted. “This leads not only to diminished care quality and suboptimal treatments but also puts a heavy burden on healthcare workers, contributing to alarm fatigue and its consequences.” According to Pattyn, “Beyond the clear benefits for the individual patient, by avoiding complications, we can also reduce costs in a healthcare system under immense pressure.”
PointCaré’s proprietary agentic AI enables full transparency in the decision-making process, distinguishing it from typical black-box models. “Unlike many AI models today, the OnTarget platform is not a statistical ‘black box’ with hidden logic: every recommendation must be clearly traceable through a reasoning process expressed in understandable language,” said Van Overmeire. A first patent has been filed, and MDR certification preparations are in progress. With a scalable model, OnTarget is expected to expand beyond critical care into other medical fields. Commercialization on the international stage is targeted by 2028, with clinical validation and further platform development currently underway.