AIRS Medical vs Subtle Medical (2026)
Both enhance images after acquisition rather than detecting disease, both run on scanners a department already owns, and they overlap directly on MRI. AIRS Medical's SwiftMR removes noise and sharpens MRI of all body parts, validated on scans up to 50 percent shorter, and its latest clearance (K253775, 2026) was validated on images already processed by the scanner makers' own deep learning reconstruction. Subtle Medical enhances MRI, PET and CT. SubtleHD for MRI was cleared in February 2025 with a Predetermined Change Control Plan, SubtleHD for PET in May 2026, and its first CT product followed, for 11 FDA cleared products by the company's count. An MRI fleet that already runs the scanner makers' reconstruction looks at AIRS. A department that wants one vendor across MRI, PET and CT looks at Subtle.
- It runs beside the scanner makers' own reconstruction: the latest clearance was validated on images those pipelines had already processed.
- Cleared for all body parts and vendor neutral across manufacturers, at field strengths from 0.25 to 3.0 tesla.
- Identity removed before images leave: in the cloud path identifiers are removed inside the hospital, and an on premises option is offered.
- MRI, PET and CT from one vendor, with SubtleHD for PET supporting all FDA approved radiotracers.
- Prospective multicenter evidence for 60 percent faster brain MRI (AJNR, 2021), and an independent PET validation in which quality held at a 50 percent count reduction and degraded at 66 percent.
- Outside checks named: SOC 2 Type II audited annually, and ISO/IEC 42001 certification for its AI management system.
This comparison is published by AI Health Index, an independent research platform that compares healthcare AI vendors objectively. AIRS Medical and Subtle Medical are each graded against the same capability taxonomy, from each vendor's own public materials and the regulatory record, under the AI Health Index verification standard. No vendor pays for placement, and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Plain facts
| Fact | AIRS Medical | Subtle Medical |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | Radiology & Imaging AI | Radiology & Imaging AI |
| Founded | 2018 | Not recorded |
| Headquarters | Seoul, South Korea | Menlo Park, California |
| Website | airsmed.com | subtlemedical.com |
Side by Side
Select any grade to read the note behind it.
Product updates
The latest logged changes from each vendor, newest first, each linked to its source.
AIRS Medical
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Regulatory / FDA
AIRS Medical received FDA 510(k) clearance for SwiftSight Body Composition, which measures visceral and subcutaneous fat, abdominal and thigh muscle, muscle quality and balance, and liver fat from an MRI scan of under five minutes.
Source
Subtle Medical
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Regulatory / FDA
Subtle Medical received FDA clearance for SubtleHD (PET), a next generation AI PET image enhancement product for PET/CT and PET/MR systems.
Source
Each vendor in one paragraph
Written to be quoted whole. Each paragraph opens the AI Health Index profile of the vendor: what the product is, who buys it and what it does.
Seoul based MRI AI company with US operations. SwiftMR is a deep learning enhancement tool that reduces noise and sharpens MRI images after acquisition, so sites can scan faster or get better images from the same scan. It works across scanners from the major manufacturers and field strengths from 0.25 to 3.0 tesla, and now alongside scanner makers' own deep learning reconstruction.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Deep learning software that enhances and accelerates image acquisition on existing scanners rather than detecting disease. SubtleHD denoises and sharpens MRI (cleared February 2025, K243250, with a Predetermined Change Control Plan), PET (cleared May 2026, supporting all FDA approved radiotracers) and CT (the company's first CT clearance and its eleventh FDA cleared product), succeeding SubtlePET (2018) and SubtleMR.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Questions buyers ask
How do AIRS Medical and Subtle Medical work with the EHR?
AIRS Medical says SwiftMR is compatible with MRI scanners from Siemens Healthineers, GE HealthCare, Philips and Canon Medical. The K253775 validation also covered Esaote, Fonar and Fujifilm scanners.
With Subtle Medical, the image processing stops at the archive, with no bidirectional integration into a record system named. Nor does Subtle say whether the output records which model version processed the study, or how enhanced or synthetic series are labeled for the reader. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 27, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How are AIRS Medical and Subtle Medical priced and sold?
In AIRS Medical's case, the site has an ROI calculator and case studies framed on throughput: shorter scans, appointment slots moving from 30 to 20 minutes, and capacity from scanners a site already owns instead of a new purchase. SwiftMR and SwiftSight are separate products, and access starts with a demo request.
For Subtle Medical, no rate card, no pricing basis, no statement of whether the model is per scanner, per site, per study or subscription, no term, no minimum and no volume banding. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 27, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How do AIRS Medical and Subtle Medical handle patient data?
With AIRS Medical, the cloud service is designed not to store, transmit or display PHI or personal information. Data is encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit, and an on premises deployment keeps images inside the hospital altogether.
The SubtleEDGE gateway removes identifiers before images leave the facility, and the cloud environment is encrypted and run as if it held PHI. Under SubtleShare, customers share de-identified images with Subtle after processing, study by study, and the DICOM conformance statement says the program is part of the contract unless the customer opts out. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 27, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Which settings and specialties do AIRS Medical and Subtle Medical cover?
For AIRS Medical, the validation data included some pediatric scans (8.9 percent). It is sold to imaging centers and hospitals in more than 40 countries.
With Subtle Medical, the products cover MRI of all body parts, PET across tracers, CT, synthetic STIR for the spine and brain alignment, on scanners of any make, in hospitals and imaging centers, including pediatric examples. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 27, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Related comparisons
Other published head to head assessments involving these vendors or their closest peers.
These models alter the image the diagnosis is made from, and a model that degrades produces cleaner images that may have lost a small lesion, with no sign to the reader. AIRS's clearance was tested on signal to noise and sharpness rather than diagnostic accuracy, so ask it for a reader study at shorter scans. Subtle's larger speed claims, up to 80 percent for MRI and 75 percent for PET, rest on company examples.
Subtle shares images stripped of identifiers back to itself by default unless the customer opts out. AIRS states no business associate status, so a US buyer should settle those terms. Neither publishes pricing.