The App Store for Medical Devices Is Being Tested Right Now

There are relatively few biotech startups in Japan.

Few investors are willing to write the multi-million dollar checks and have the decades-long patience that is required to really succeed investing in this industry.

But startups find a way, and an innovative biotech ecosystem has started to develop in Japan despite the lack of traditional funding. In fact, we might be seeing a new, uniquely Japanese, model of innovation that we'll call "the innovation supply chain".

Today, we get a first-hand look at how this innovation supply chain functions, as we sit down with Yuki Shimahara the CEO and founder of LPixel.  LPixel uses AI image analysis to detect potential problems in patients MRI and CT scans.

The technology itself is fascinating, but Yuki and I also talk about how medical research and medical innovation might be taking a very different path in Japan than it is in the West.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll really enjoy it.


Show Notes

The real problem with using AI for medical diagnosis
AI's deep roots in medicine
How safe is medical AI, both in theory and in practice
Are we about to see an App Store for medical devices?
Why doctors have mixed feeling about AI in medicine
How to maintain a competitive advantage in a crowded AI marketplace




Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about LPixel
Connect with LPixel on LinkedIn
Friend Yuki on Facebook



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Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

You know, we’ve talked a lot about biotech in Japan on this show before and quite a bit, really. We have gone into the fact that the Japanese biotech venture ecosystem is really being held back by the lack of investors willing to write of the large checks required knowing that they won’t see any returns for over a decade. So, things are hard for life sciences in Japan.

However, in the words of Dr. Malcolm, "Life finds a way" or in our case today, "Life sciences find a way."

There’s a growing number of impressive life sciences startups emerging in Japan and they are adapting it and evolving so that they can innovate within the capital constraints they find themselves in. Today, we sit down with Yuki Shimahara, founder and CEO of LPixel.

Now, LPixel applies artificial intelligence to medical imaging and detects a wide variety of conditions from CT scans and MRIs. Yuki is still a PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo but he is running a company with more than 40 employees, so you can imagine, he is a pretty busy guy, but he took some time to sit down with Disrupting Japan and talk about how AI is being used in medicine, the challenges facing life sciences in Japan, and between the two of us, we sketch out a new way forward for Japanese innovation, an innovation model that is distinctly different from that in the US, but that might just be the way forward in Japan. Oh, and as you know, my goal here at Disrupting Japan is always to bring you amazing insights from Japanese entrepreneurs in their natural habitat.

This week, that habitat was a large concrete wall to conference room that makes it sound like we are talking at a vast underground cavern. It sounds a bit odd at first, but if you join us for the next 20 minutes in our underground layer, I guarantee you that you will leave thinking very differently about life sciences in Japan, but you know, Yuki tells us that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview.

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[Interview]

Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Yuki Shimahara of LPixel and things were sitting down with me today.

Yuki: Thank you.

Tim: So, LPixel is a cloud-based AI image analysis that you are using mostly for life sciences and related research,