Belgian Start-Up PointCaré Raises €1.45 Million for AI in Critical Care
Critical care decision support software supports healthcare professionals in the operating room using real-time contextual data
Ghent, 18 June 2025 – PointCaré, a start-up based in Ghent’s Wintercircus and founded in 2022, has recently raised nearly €1.5 million from a group of private investors. The company is developing OnTarget, an innovative AI-driven platform that interprets the multitude of data from various sources in operating rooms and intensive care units in real time, providing caregivers with tailored advice based on the patient and the situation. With this technology, the young company aims to be a pioneer in the use of so-called explainable AI in healthcare, positioning its platform as the cornerstone of intelligent decision support when it matters most.
Graduating cum laude in astrophysics and medicine, later specializing in anesthesiology, and also pursuing civil engineering—alongside jazz drumming and business economics training—is the rather unconventional path of Henri Van Overmeire from Ronse. During his time in the operating room and intensive care unit, he realized that hospitals can sometimes function in surprisingly archaic ways. This insight drove him to think about how things could be improved.
Informed Decisions Based on the Full Picture
“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.”
“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. Existing equipment often fails to take the individual context of each patient into account—each case, situation, and person is different. 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.”
The OnTarget platform gathers and centralizes all available information in real time, with full contextual awareness, and supports doctors and nurses with AI to make accurate, informed decisions based on the complete picture—factoring in as many variables as possible.
“Beyond the clear benefits for the individual patient, by avoiding complications, we can also reduce costs in a healthcare system under immense pressure,” says CEO Veronique Pattyn.
Next-Generation AI
For OnTarget, PointCaré uses not only classical Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques and Large Language Models like those behind ChatGPT, but mainly their proprietary agentic AI methods, which offer full transparency in decision-making.
“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” expanded Dr. Van Overmeire.
Scalable and versatile
With the launch of OnTarget, PointCaré aims to become a benchmark in the future international healthcare landscape. A first patent application has already been submitted, and preparations for European MDR (Medical Device Regulation) approval are underway.
“The technology is scalable across many domains and can be expanded from our initial use cases in critical care to other areas of medicine,” Veronique Pattyn emphasised.
With the newly secured funding, Van Overmeire plans to further develop and clinically validate the platform. By 2028, PointCaré plans to commercialize the platform internationally.
About PointCaré
PointCaré is a Belgian medtech start-up founded in 2022 by astrophysicist, engineering student, and anesthesiology trainee Henri Van Overmeire. With its critical care decision support software OnTarget, an intelligent AI assistant, PointCaré aims to centralize the overwhelming flow of information in operating rooms to simplify and objectify critical care decision-making. The young company aspires to be a pioneer in applying explainable AI in the operating room, with its platform forming the foundation of intelligent decision support where it matters most.
www.pointcare.be
