Detecting cancer with a mobile phone

‘We made a commitment that we were going to build a company that saves as many lives as quickly as possible...’ – CEO Ariel Beery

By NIV ELIS
Cancer patients share a bed in the female ward of Tanzania’s cancer institute in the capital Dar es Salaam in this photo from November 11, 2009. Many women worldwide who are diagnosed with cervical cancer live in the developing world and a high percentage in Africa (photo credit: REUTERS)
Cancer patients share a bed in the female ward of Tanzania’s cancer institute in the capital Dar es Salaam in this photo from November 11, 2009. Many women worldwide who are diagnosed with cervical cancer live in the developing world and a high percentage in Africa
(photo credit: REUTERS)
When Apple founder Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone’s mobile app store with a catchphrase promising that whatever need one might have, “there’s an app for that,” he probably wasn’t thinking about screening for cervical cancer.
Although it’s the leading cause of cancer death among women in low-resource settings, cervical cancer can be easily treated on the spot with freezing gas if it’s caught in the first five years. Often, however, the disease goes undetected. Most screenings rely on the naked eye to look for abnormalities when acetic acid is applied to the cervix.
A colposcope, which can be used to illuminate and magnify the image, can cost as much as $14,000.
That’s where MobileOCT, a Tel Aviv-based startup, comes in. David Levitz, a biomedical engineer and PhD, thought it would be possible to create a colposcope on a mobile phone. He pitched the idea to longtime friend Ariel Beery, who founded and ran social venture accelerator PresenTense, and they decided to put their plan in motion.
“We made a commitment that we were going to build a company that saves as many lives as quickly as possible, and that’s MobileOCT,” said Beery, the company’s CEO.
In Beery’s estimation, early detection could save 250,000 lives each year. The lack of cheap, efficient technology to help identify early-stage cancer means that many women are treated unnecessarily, at a cost quadruple that of proper screening. For every unnecessarily treated woman, funds that could have been used to screen four others are used up.
“When you’re wrong, not only do you cause pain and discomfort for the woman that you’re treating unnecessarily – and five out of six women are treated unnecessarily, 83 percent – but you’re also spending a lot of money.”
MobileOCT’s colposcope is comprised of a Moto G smartphone, an LED light, and a lens, all held together through a piece of 3D printed plastic. The device can shed light inside the woman being examined and take a high resolution photo. It costs $400, less than 3% of the cost of the existing device.
Not only does the device make the image clearer and easier to see, but the app can capture and share it with physicians around the world. A technician administering the examination can get a second medical opinion of a volunteer doctor working remotely.
Because the system creates and stores data, it can also be used to conduct large-scale analysis on the disease through bodies such as the World Health Organization.
But the technology is just one piece of the puzzle.
As with most health and human development issues, figuring out best practices is crucial.
“We need to bring this to as many hands as possible, and right now that is our main goal and our main challenge,” said Amit Safir, who runs MobileOCT’s strategy and operations. Toward that end, the company has partnered with Partners in Health and Massachusetts General Hospital Global Health Group, and is already running pilots in places as varied as Kenya, Botswana, Haiti and New York.
In May, MobileOCT won first place in the Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project. There, it highlighted a project it is running with the Scripps Clinic in Mexico.
“Our project there is focused on the use of our technology in the maquiladoras,” Safir said, referring to manufacturing plants in the free trade zone between Mexico and the US. “We have a lot of women working there who unfortunately do not have the money to come to the clinics and get checkups.”
The project sets up temporary clinics on-site to check, diagnose and treat the women.
But MobileOCT plans to make screening cheaper and easier further down the line. The company is developing polarization difference imaging and spectral imaging to allow the app to analyze the image and help give a more precise diagnosis. It also plans to adapt it for detecting anal cancer, as well as aural and skin abnormalities.
The company, which Beery describes as a “social business,” is part of a growing overlap between nonprofit and business. “We believe that we can do the most in terms of creating value for our investors and our staff by doing well for the world and helping people save lives,” he said.
By charging people at the bottom of the pyramid a small amount for a service that could save their lives, everybody wins. It also can help attract investors, whose funding can be used to improve the technology.
“If we’re able to screen 200 million women a year, charging them a dollar per procedure, which is one-hundredth or one-thousandth of what they’re paying in the United States or Europe, we can still earn $200 million, and that’s good business,” he said. “But it’s also good for the planet and it’s good for people’s lives.”