Tech billionaire fashioning ‘proactive, preventative’ primary care out of whole-body imaging
Swedish healthcare startup Neko Health confirmed speculation about its celebrated co-founder’s expected move into healthcare on Feb. 2. Since then the buzz has only grown in volume.
That’s largely because the famous co-founder is Daniel Ek, the CEO and driving force behind digital music giant Spotify.
Medical imaging industry players may want to take special note of the development: The centerpiece of Neko Health’s mission and vision is whole-body imaging in primary care settings.
“I have long believed that the future of efficient and affordable healthcare lies in proactive, preventative care,” Ek explains in the Feb. 2 announcement. “We service and inspect our cars like clockwork every year, but wait until our bodies crash before we act? That doesn’t make sense.”
Neko Health and Ek with it have been tightlipped about specifics on imaging modality. However, one outlet is reporting a collaboration between Neko Health and a company that makes a scanner combining sensors, ultra-wideband microwaves and artificial intelligence.
Neko Health says the whole-body, 360-degree scanner leverages dozens of sensors and has capacity to record, in just a few minutes, 50 million data points on skin, heart, vessels, respiration, microcirculation and other indicators of health status.
Quoting the tech entrepreneur behind the technology in December, European startup chronicler Sifted reported the system is “completely safe to use as many times as needed, making it a better alternative for CT or MRI scans when repeated imaging is necessary.”
Updating its coverage last week, Sifted reported Ek and other investors have sunk more than $32.2 million into Neko Health.
The article also says Neko Health is seeking volunteers to try out its services at a work-in-progress care suite in Stockholm.
The scans are to be routinely reviewed and communicated by a clinician, Neko Health says, and AI will assist with initial impressions and ongoing tracking with an app.
Meanwhile news analysis posted by TechCrunch Feb. 6 names some challenges Neko Health will face as it moves from concept to clinic.
Most pressing among these are patient privacy and data security, the outlet points out.
“On top of that, there is the broad and vital issue of patient safety — and the question of how incoming European Union AI regulation around potential harms might impact Neko,” TechCrunch reporter Natasha Lomas writes. “Since the startup is building (or applying) health data capture devices, and appears to be intending to develop AI for (at least) clinician support and/or medical diagnostics, a range of regulations are likely to apply, depending on where it wants to operate the service.”
Further, an editor at the startup news site Grit Daily observes Feb. 6 that time will tell whether Neko Health can deliver on Ek’s much-repeated vision for fixing “screwed-up healthcare.”
In any case, comments the editor, Spencer Hulse, “AI technology is promising, and full-body scans are incredibly valuable when it comes to detection and prevention. If the tech can be applied at scale and with a low price point, it will be quite exciting.”
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.