This year’s SFU Entrepreneur of the Year award was presented on Nov. 16 to Dr. Maryam Sadeghi, an SFU alumna who recently received her PhD in computing sciences.
Sadeghi was recognized for her venture in health technology, called MetaOptima Technology Inc., and its development of the app, MoleScope, which will allow patients to detect skin cancer in its early stages at home.
Each year, the SFU Entrepreneur of the Year (SEY) program gives student innovators a chance to pitch their ideas to professionals and to compete for first place and the title of Student Entrepreneur of the year. Presented by Enactus SFU, SEY is a program that, as described on its website, “inspires business ideas and recognizes the future innovative leaders of tomorrow.”
“It’s a huge problem,” Sadeghi said of skin cancer, “70 per cent of patients identify it themselves or by family members who have never had access to any imaging device to look at moles closely and find cancer early.” In it’s early stages, skin cancer is highly treatable and catching it early on can mean a world of difference.
Above all, Sadeghi believes the product will bring its users peace of mind.
Sadeghi’s technology includes an advanced imaging device to capture potentially cancerous moles, to be used in conjunction with the smartphone app. The app will help patients keep track of their moles over time and learn how to spot the suspicious ones, as well as connecting patients with nearby specialists to whom they may send high quality images of their moles for consultation.
“It’s all about health solutions and having access to digital and mobile health,” said Sadeghi. MoleScope is just one of the tools MetaOptima hopes to develop that advances towards this ideal.
The MoleScope app will prove particularly useful for those patients that must travel lengthy distances to see a doctor about their suspicious moles. Sadeghi, mentioned that she’s observed patients coming to Vancouver from Victoria and even Kelowna, just to have their moles inspected.
“They could be doing this from their homes,” Sadeghi said she realized. “There’s not a lot of tests involved in the first visit, so it’s just looking at moles and saying, ‘oh, this is nothing,’ or ‘I need to biopsy this.’”
Above all, Sadeghi believes the product will bring its users peace of mind. For those who are already living with skin cancer, they are faced with the challenge of tracking all the numerous moles typically accompanying the illness, something Sadeghi describes at “a huge problem.”
The app should render this task less daunting as it will keep track of each individual mole and organize them to show their progression, and all from the comfort of patients’ own homes. After various stages of testing, Sadeghi is hoping to have the app on the market by summer of 2014.
SEY applicants were vetted through two preliminary rounds conducted online. The ten semi-finalists then presented their businesses to a panel of judges and the pool for the final round was reduced to four. The four finalists presented to a new panel and an audience in order to determine the ultimate winner for 2013.
On her experience as a contestant, Sadhegi commented “it was great!” She also remarked on how good it was to see the passion in all her fellow contestants and that she was happy to be a part of the competition.
