MagnePath targets medical imaging

TWO Perth-based scientists-turned-entrepreneurs are in the midst of commercialising a new technology they hope will vastly expand the ability of Magnetic Resonance Imagery to detect disease and other health issues.

Paul Clark and his partner Wanida Chua-anusorn, who both have backgrounds in researching medical technology, have established a company called MagnePath to commercialise their product called Dive-In.

They believe their web-based product can both enhance the ability of practitioners to use the results of MRI and other types of scanning imagery, and extend the technology’s reach beyond its current use.

In effect, MagnePath’s technology uses algorithms to analyse imagery at pixel level to highlight differences in the body that might not otherwise be detectable.

This widens the application of MRI beyond that of providing views that are largely only useful to practitioners with an experienced eye.

“At the moment the variation in detecting someone’s health is done by eyeballs, experience and judgement,” Ms Chua-anusorn said.

“We are getting away from anatomical judgement; this is fundamentally mathematical analysis.”

Mr Clark, MagnePath’s managing director, believes one of the first areas where the technology will be commercially viable is in research, notably pharmaceutical testing, due to its ability to test results without directly affecting the subject’s body via the taking of tissue samples or even the requirement to ingest a detectable material.

“Compare the cost savings in clinical practice and general healthcare by using a non-invasive approach against invasive processes or even image-based using contrast agents,” Mr Clark said.

He said Dive-In’s ability to accurately measure fat was a significant advantage, both in medical research and other more everyday applications, such as health checks for fat-related issues, including obesity.

“That is hurting a large part of the Western world,” Mr Clark said. “There is a very great need to look at the percentage of fat in the human body.

“We think there is a potential retail angle for the fat-measuring application.”

The company has received a $250,000 grant from Commercialisation Australia to fund proof of concept. Dive-In is currently in a beta form, with several trial users. The company hopes to commercialise it by the end of the year.

The company is planning to seek additional government funding and expand private investment late in calendar 2012. 

Mr Clark developed the original technology while doing a PhD in magnetic resonance imaging at the University of Western Australia.

Ms Chua-anusorn has a PhD in clinical chemistry from Murdoch University, where she also a research fellow, and MBA from UWA.

Both Mr Clark and Ms Chua-anusorn have professional backgrounds in the MRI field, having worked until 2006 at Claremont-based Resonance Health which specialises in the development and commercialisation of MRI technology for the diagnosis and management of human disease.

Prior to that, they both worked at technology development, clinical study administration and project management group Inner Vision Biometric Pty Ltd.

Corporate relations adviser Peter Kermode is also a director of the company.