Geetha Manjunath’s cousin died at 42 after a late breast cancer diagnosis. Devastated, the scientist quit her job and worked towards finding a solution.
Since mammograms are unable to detect breast cancer in younger women, Geetha started working on a tech-based solution for early detection.
Her patented diagnostic solution ‘Thermalytix’ merges AI with thermal imaging to spot early-stage breast cancer. She introduced this via her venture ‘Niramai Health Analytix’ back in 2016.
The problem Geetha solved was accurately identifying abnormalities and interpreting the results of thermal imaging.
Thermalytix uses a high-resolution thermal sensing device and a cloud-hosted analytics solution for analysing thermal images. This test, she says, is radiation-free, non-invasive, portable, and privacy-aware.
“Our device measures the temperature variation in the chest with the help of thermal imaging. Our AI converts the temperature distribution to a cancer screening report. It predicts if there is an abnormality or not. After this, the patients can go for an ultrasound,” says Geetha.
So far, over 75,000 women have been screened using this device across 29 cities in India.
Niramai also conducts camps in rural areas, working with State Governments and non-profit organisations.
It charges patients Rs 100 in rural areas and Rs 1,500 in urban areas. A detailed report is provided after the test in urban areas only as it requires a hospital setting.
“We want to stop the deaths due to breast cancer. For that, every woman must be screened every year. I want to reach every woman on earth; that’s my goal,” says Geetha.