As TIS Group developed an artificial intelligence solution for detecting signs of neurodevelopmental delay in infants, the company used AI4Health.Cro support to reach relevant clinicians and prepare for the regulatory demands surrounding medical AI.
Developing a medical technology is only part of the journey from research to use. A company must also introduce the solution to the clinicians working in the relevant field, explain how it operates and address the legal framework governing its deployment.
TIS Group encountered each of these needs while developing an artificial intelligence solution for detecting signs of neurodevelopmental delay in infants.
The project began as a research and development initiative and was developed with Sabol Children’s Polyclinic. It has since become a market-ready solution that is already available.
From the beginning, TIS Group worked with AI4Health.Cro and used several services offered through the European Digital Innovation Hub.
“From the start, we worked with the AI4Health.Cro hub,” says Tomislav Strgar, head of the AI department at TIS Group. “They supported us significantly through several of their services.”
Reaching the clinicians who needed to understand the solution
One of the main benefits for TIS Group was access to AI4Health.Cro’s networking support.
Through the hub, the company travelled across Croatia and presented the solution directly to doctors. These meetings allowed TIS Group to explain the purpose of the technology, how it works and the medical context in which it had been developed.
The presentations were particularly relevant for paediatricians and neuropediatricians who had not previously been familiar with the solution.
“We presented the solution to doctors so they could become familiar with it, understand why it matters and how the technology works, as well as its medical aspect,” Strgar says.
For TIS Group, the value of the networking service lay in reaching the targeted community connected with the problem the technology was designed to address.
A specialised medical AI solution cannot rely on general market visibility alone. It must be understood by the doctors whose work relates directly to its intended use.
AI4Health.Cro gave the company a structured route to those clinicians.
“We brought it especially closer to neuropediatricians and paediatricians who had not been familiar with it before,” Strgar says.
TIS Group could introduce the technology in a setting where both its technical operation and medical purpose could be discussed together.
Support for a changing regulatory environment
TIS Group also used the legal advisory services available through AI4Health.Cro. For a company developing an artificial intelligence solution in healthcare, regulation forms part of the development and market-readiness process. TIS Group sought legal support in connection with adaptation to the EU Artificial Intelligence Act.
“We also used legal advisory services, which are especially important today in the context of adapting to the AI Act,” Strgar says.
This support addressed a different need from the networking activities, but one that was equally relevant to the company’s progress. The networking service helped TIS Group reach doctors and build awareness of the solution. The legal service helped the company consider the regulatory requirements surrounding artificial intelligence.
This combination was valuable because market readiness in medical AI depends on more than completing the software.
The TIS Group experience shows how AI4Health.Cro as a European Digital Innovation Hub can support a health tech company after the initial research phase.
For Strgar, these were the AI4Health.Cro services that had the clearest practical value for TIS Group.
The result was support aligned with the company’s immediate needs: helping an AI-based medical solution become better known among relevant specialists and helping its developers prepare for the regulatory environment in which it would operate.