Mihir Shah's iBreastExam takes breast cancer screening to the masses

Indo-American health-tech innovator Mihir Shah's iBreastExam is an affordable and mobile solution to combat the killer disease

Last Sunday when Mihir Shah, founder of UE LifeSciences, was delivering a talk (lecture) to a packed audience at the 10th edition of TEDxGateway in Mumbai’s NSCI indoor stadium, his health-tech invention iBreastExam had already tested more than 175,000 women across 12 countries. It’s no small an achievement for Shah, a computer engineering graduate from Drexel University, Philadelphia, who decided to take a plunge into the world of entrepreneurship in 2009 after a brief stint with the medical device maker, InfraScan.   

He never had a reason to even think about the prevalence of breast cancer in India until 2007 when a close family member was diagnosed with the disease. While this family member survived the scare due to a timely diagnosis and treatment, Shah discovered that not everyone was as lucky as her.

Shah, who is around 40 now, believes that he still has a long way to before he takes the invention to many more countries globally as well as India where mortality rate is quite high owing to a low awareness level and lack of an affordable diagnosis mechanism.

At present, Indian women diagnosed with breast cancer have a 50 per cent survival chance, which is further lowered by poor awareness as well as a lack of accessible diagnostic services. The standard test for breast cancer and a mammogram, cost anywhere between $20 (Rs 1400) to $50 (Rs 3500) in India, and require trained radiologists to perform them.

According to statistics, India has one radiologist for every 100,000 population. Add to that, the absolute challenge for ensuring diagnostic services reach the remotest corners or the country braving inhospitable infrastructural challenges like bad roads and absence of electricity.

In 2009, when still a software developer, Shah started building a portable, easy-to-use device with colleague Mathew Campisi to tackle these issues and iBreastExam came into being after a few successful prototypes. The first iteration of his device wasn't as portable but was good enough to be appreciated by the healthcare community globally and was noticed by investors, for simplifying a long existing process.

“There’s a huge opportunity and need in India for technology led accessible healthcare services. With an infrastructure for convenient telemedicine consultancy already in place now, iBreastExam can effectively touch millions of people here," said Shah.

The hand-held device uses patented ceramic sensors developed at Shah’s alma mater Drexel University, to detect minute inconsistencies in breast tissues. Healthcare workers perform painless and radiation free breast examinations using a mobile app and get results within a few minutes. The app also records the patients’ data. Every healthcare worker undergoes a standard certified evaluation to be capable of using the device, which is US FDA and WHO GMP (Good manufacturing practice) certified.

 While this test can cost between Rs 500 to Rs 1000 in private hospitals, by tying up with governments and leveraging CSR sponsorship, Shah’s company has been able to bring down the cost to $1 (Rs 70) to $4 (Rs 280).

The scan is currently used in leading private hospital groups in India like Narayan Healthcare, Manipal Hospitals, Apollo Healthcare as well as smaller clinics across 80 cities spanning 10 states.

In October 2016, the Maharashtra government launched a first-of-its-kind breast cancer campaign with iBreastExam to screen over 250,000 women. Several other non-profit and CSR initiatives across the country are also taking the test free of cost to rural areas.

The device is in use in countries like Mexico, Nepal, Myanmar, Indonesia, Oman and Botswana. The Pfizer Foundation is supporting a pilot programme to screen women in Myanmar while the Bayer Cares Foundation is supporting screening in Brazil.

How difficult is it to take smart healthcare solutions across the country though? "India is not a country with a preventive healthcare mindset, so creating awareness itself remains a top challenge. Then, of course, there is the hurdle of engaging with healthcare practitioners to bring them on board," says Shah with a smile.

In September 2015, UE LifeSciences raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Aarin Capital and Unitus Seed Fund followed by an additional round of $1.2 million from Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw in 2016.

"From the point of view of investors, we understand that heath-tech takes much longer to reach the scale, and thus we are looking at rapid expansion across South-East Asia, West Asia and Latin America among others even as India continues to be the largest long-term opportunity," said Shah.