A Novel Breast Cancer Screening Solution: NIRAMAI

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women today. According to WHO, one in every 12 women has the risk of a breast abnormality. Indian women have only about 50% chance of survival. Early diagnosis is very critical to decrease mortality rates.

The Bangalore-based deep-tech startup, NIRAMAI Health Analytix addresses critical healthcare problems through automated solutions. NIRAMAI is developing novel software to detect breast cancer at a much earlier stage than traditional methods or self-examination. The company’s solution is a low cost, accurate, automated, portable cancer screening tool that can be operated by a simple clinician. Unlike mammography, NIRAMAI’s imaging method is radiation free, non-touch, not painful and works for women of all ages. The core technology of its solution is an artificial intelligence led diagnostic platform that uses patented thermal image processing and machine learning algorithms for reliable and accurate breast cancer screening. This unique solution can be used as a cancer diagnostic test in hospitals, used for regular preventive health checkups, and also for large-scale screening in rural and semi-urban areas.

NIRAMAI provides a complete hardware-software solution for breast cancer screening in three modes.

• Sturdy, compact screening device with cloud processing for specialty hospitals
• Low-cost, handheld device with real-time cloud-based diagnostics for independent medical practitioners
• A portable solution for large-scale screenings

Why NIRAMAI?

Breast Cancer is the leading type of cancer in women. According to WHO, one in every 8 women in the US is at the risk of developing a breast abnormality in her lifetime. It is well-established that early diagnosis is very critical in saving a life of a cancer patient.

NIRAMAI have developed new cancer screening software that uses machine intelligence over thermography images to enable a low cost, easy to use, portable solution and requires minimal human supervision. Its solution can detect cancer at a much earlier stage than traditional diagnostic methods and self-examination and can, therefore, improve survival rates.

The current gold standard for breast cancer screening, Mammography, requires a high capital cost for equipment and experienced radiographers. It is recommended once every 2 years and only to women above 45 years because it cannot identify tumors effectively for younger women, and uses of X-rays for scanning, which can make women more susceptible to cancer if screened multiple times. In addition, it is also very painful for the subject (about 20 pounds weight is applied to the breasts while screening). Another common method of the clinical exam can detect tumors only after they are large enough to be palpable.

Thermalytix

NIRAMAI solution uses a high-resolution thermal sensing device and a cloud-hosted analytics solution for analyzing the thermal images. NIRAMAI SaaS solution uses big data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning for reliable, early and accurate breast cancer screening. The innovative methods used in its solution have led to multiple US patents. Its novel algorithms have also been peer-reviewed in international scientific conferences.

The cancer screening tool, SMILE, has been tested on 300 patients’ data from 2 hospitals and one diagnostic center. Early results from these tests indicate very high accuracy that is comparable and sometimes better that Mammography. The company has started 2 clinical trials with established hospitals to perform large-scale, statistically significant clinical trials. It’s working with multiple partners to make its solution commercially available by mid-2017.

SMILE

SMILE is an interface for the user to upload the information about the patient and thermal images. The information is processed using patented technology, thermolytic, to analyze the breast health condition. NIRAMAI’s solution automatically generates a report listing the unique parameters obtained by technology. Optionally, its customers can choose an option for the certification of the report by a certified thermographer.

Functionalities of SMILE:

• A simple web-based link for the user to access the tool.
• A separate interface for thermographer to view the patient information.
• Automated report generation with unique parameters generated by thermolytic.
• Marking of potential abnormalities.
• Temperature display on hovering over the image.
• Certification from an experienced
• Automated cropping for breast region segmentation.

Testimonials

“Thermography can detect breast cancer in ways that are non-invasive, non-ionizing and non-traumatizing. In addition to detecting tumor growth earlier, this innovation can bring breast cancer screening to the doorsteps of women all over the world. I am happy to partner with Niramai on this journey.”

• H V Ram Prakash, Senior Radiologist, and Expert Thermographer

“I congratulate Team Niramai for developing an innovative thermal analytics based Breast Cancer Solution for early-stage breast cancer detection. This Non-Invasive Risk Assessment with Machine Intelligence, cancer screening solution is relevant for women of all ages and poses minimal health hazard since it is contact and radiation free. I believe Niramai will enable easy adoption of early cancer screening and will play a key role in improving outcomes in our ongoing battle against breast cancer. I am delighted to support this initiative.”

• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson & Managing Director, Biocon Limited

Meet the Elegant Lady behind the Success

Dr. Geetha Manjunath, CEO: Dr. Geetha Manjunath has over 25 years of experience in IT research and has led many innovative projects in Healthcare and Transportation, especially catering to Emerging Markets.

She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Science and management education from Kellogg’s School of Management Chicago.  

She was awarded the Computer Society of India Gold Medal in 1991 and TR Shamanna State Award from Karnataka in 1989. She was named as one of the top 50 NASSCOM IT Innovators in 2009.  She was also the winner of 2010 MIT Tech Review Grand Challenges for Technologists in Healthcare category. She has co-authored a book on Cloud Technologies called “Moving to the Cloud” which was published by Elsevier Syngress Publications. She is the inventor of 14 US patents with the more pending grant. She was recently awarded BIRAC WinER Award 2018 for her Entrepreneurial Research.

“Our method of breast cancer screening can detect tumors 5 times smaller than what clinical exam can detect, is non-contact, painless and free of any radiation, apart from being low-cost, and universally accessible. With our solution, women of all age groups can undergo frequent screening without any side-effects.”