According to WHO, nearly two-thirds of the world’s population has no access to diagnostic imaging due to which people are suffering needlessly from preventable diseases. Access to diagnostic imaging services has a great impact on public health with the creation of images of internal structures using X-rays or other physical waves, such as ultrasound and electromagnetic waves. Unfortunately, current shortages of human resources and obsolete or broken equipment are making it difficult for radiologists and biomedical engineers to provide adequate access in the creation of such images.
With a mission to transform radiology by providing better tools for radiologists worldwide, Robert Lauritzen teamed up with Akshay Pai, Mads Nielsen, Martin Lillholm and Erik Dam to form Cerebriu, a company that improves workflow efficiency, quality and patient outcomes in diagnostic imaging.
Robert is an international IT life sciences executive with 25+ years of management experience across high-tech MedTech start-ups and large corporations across pharma and IT service providers. He has held various leadership roles for different pharmaceutical companies.
Dedicated to the Development of Radiology
Cerebriu is an AI radiology company automating MRI workflows for faster and personalized diagnostic imaging. The company improves workflow efficiency and quality at the point of care. Its software solution, Cerebriu Apollo, achieves this by automating MR-image acquisition protocols and triage during examination providing decision support at key stages of the diagnostic process. Ultimately, this results in improved productivity, prioritizing the right patients at the right time, and less stress for clinicians. It aims to democratize radiology, by enabling more scanning and more patients, without burning out the incredible radiologists.
“I believe we must rethink radiology to help a vastly growing global need for medical imaging-based diagnostics, and we can make a significant difference transforming the workflow using advanced technologies of our era,” says Robert.
Bringing a Real Difference in People’s Lives
Apollo brings the innovation of smart protocol in real time enabling adopting scanning protocols based on the findings of initial sequences acquired or cut short the examination with no findings.
Talking about society, that includes reduced nonacute admissions, potentially improved health outcomes with the prospect of the smaller length of stay, reduced the chemical contrast gadolinium consumption and contrast waste management costs, complete scanning of stroke mimics, early detection of stroke chameleons, a higher degree of intervention and later any neurological disease.
Impact of Pandemic
Sharing his views on the impact of pandemic, Robert mentions that it showed him and his team two things. One is the need for providing the necessary tools for clinicians to deal with the increased demand for healthcare. As of now, radiology cannot keep up with the increase demand for neuroimaging. Robert and his team have seen that there is an increase in stroke patients due to the pandemic, yet not enough radiologists to cope with it, that’s a huge threat to its healthcare system and society.
The second thing he mentions is the need for unlocking the power of data in order to provide better care. The more hospital data is shared, the more it can capitalize on AI to reduce the bottleneck in the healthcare system and provide better healthcare.
Simplifying Radiology
In the opinion of Robert, the future of healthcare is medical professionals augmented by AI. He further states that every hospital generates around 50 petabytes of data, yet less than 3% is actionable, analysed and used. If it manages to better capitalize on that data, undoubtedly opportunities arise. AI will not replace the role of clinicians, but rather boost them, relieving them of more straightforward cognitive tasks, to let them focus on cases where their expertise is needed the most.
The teams at Cerebriu thrive with diversity and equal opportunities. Half of the company have foreign backgrounds, and more than a third are female, which is pretty good in a tech startup.
A True High-Performance Team
Cerebriu brings together the smartest brains in the field of AI/ML with a distinct purpose to impact healthcare in the world. Each one of the management team has a minimum of a decade of experience in their field of expertise. Moreover, Denmark has been ranked as one of the highest AI readiness countries by Oxford Insights and the International Research Development Centre (IDRC).
Best Advice for an early startup
In his advice to emerging business leaders aspiring to venture into the healthcare arena, Robert says, “Learn fast. Fail fast. Embrace the challenge and pivot instead of clinging to an idea, that just does not work. Ensure to surround yourself with talent who could go on this journey with you when it’s great, and when it’s challenging. You will hear many times the word NO, but with courage, dedication, and patience, your chances of hearing YES are much higher.”
Robert Lauritzen, CEO & Co founder, Cerebriu
