SFU alumni company MetaOptima taps into Australian dermatology market

A company founded by SFU alumni Maryam Sadeghi and Majid Razmara after finishing their PhD studies is now on the world stage.

MetaOptima Technology, already established in the Canadian market, has raised more than $8 million to expand its advanced dermatology and skin cancer imaging and management software, DermEngineTM, into Australia’s dermatology market.

The pair established MetaOptima to better address how skin cancer is screened, detected and managed. The company’s proprietary products are the MoleScopeTM, a mobile ‘dermoscope’ that captures images of the skin to better track moles for any changes over time, and DermEngineTM, an intelligent dermatology platform that works with MoleScope. The products were created to assist healthcare professionals and patients throughout the screening process.

DermEngine combines artificial intelligence and mobile technologies to assist doctors in imaging, documenting, communicating, diagnosing and managing skin cancer and other dermatology conditions. It’s designed to improve diagnosis accuracy and the quality of care while reducing unnecessary referrals, visits and related costs—all within minutes.

“We wanted to modernize the way tracking and diagnosing skin cancer is conducted,” says Sadeghi, CEO of the Vancouver-based company, which since 2012 has grown to 30 employees. Many are graduates from SFU and other post-secondary institutions.

See the full story on SFU News. This story is featured in Business in Vancouver and the Financial Review.