Predicting Brain Health: The Power Of Retinal Scans with Eliav Shaked, co-founder of RetiSpec

[00:00:01] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth. Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.

[00:00:30] Hey everyone, Saul Marquez here at the JP Morgan Health Conference in San Francisco with the amazing Eliav Shaked. He is the co-founder of RetiSpec and look guys, we're doing insights and predictions here from San Francisco. So to kick things off, Eliav, tell everyone that's watching and listening to us who you are and about RetiSpec. What do you guys do?

[00:00:54] Well, first, thank you for the opportunity. Of course. So my name is Eliav Shaked, born and raised out of Israel. I'm a biomedical engineer by training. Started RetiSpec in order to really make an impact, meaningful impact for Alzheimer patients. The company is focused on enabling early and accurate detection of Alzheimer disease as our first indication. But in general, anything that relates to brain health and particularly neurodegenerative diseases.

[00:01:23] And the cool part is that we are doing so through retinal imaging and artificial intelligence. And that technology part is really interesting and very exciting. And that's most of our work. But the fact that we are enabling a more accessible and equitable access point to care, to Alzheimer care, especially now where you have disease modifying drugs that are available in the market, is really the most exciting part of our work.

[00:01:50] And that's what we do at RetiSpec. We're based out of Toronto, Canada, 25 team members, incredible team members. And I'm just having the time of my life building this company. And you guys are making a huge difference. Just identifying these diseases early on is very difficult. Yeah. And so help us understand some insights, particularly around this space and maybe anything else that's popping up to you here at the conference.

[00:02:19] So I think the most exciting part is not related to our work. It's actually related to what's been going on in the ecosystem. Alzheimer's disease is a significant burden on healthcare. It's such a terrible disease. And for the last 40 something years, there's been a lot of work, a lot of research, a lot of failures in attempts to develop drugs. But during that period, also, we learned a lot about the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease.

[00:02:49] And there was an integration of biomarkers and understanding more of the earlier stages before you get to a point that you have cognitive impairments. And that's really exciting because there was a lot of things that are quite challenging in this disease. But the ability to be able to slow down the onset of the disease is the main focus. And the sooner you know, the better. The sooner the better. And despite all the attempts, it's been really challenging.

[00:03:18] But last year, two main pharmaceutical companies were able to bring disease-modifying drugs to market. And that's a huge impact and game changer. And that's very exciting. And now it also blossomed more and more innovation in the therapeutic space. And so there is a lot more. There's going to be hope for Alzheimer's patients. And that's really what excites me the most.

[00:03:42] What we do and how it's connected to Retispec, it's the ability to be able to identify who should actually be prioritized to get access to those drugs or to be able to, you know, yeah, a lot of people are concerned about their brain health. Alzheimer's disease is the main goal, the main cause over there. So, looking into, you know, if you carry the pathology or not, or if you have some memory, if you are concerned about your memory as an indicator, you can alleviate that by going to your doctor.

[00:04:10] Unfortunately, primary care is backlogged. Neurologists are backlogged. There's about two years wait time right now for neurology in North America. So this is really challenging. What we do at Retispec is we're enabling early and accurate detection of the pathology of Alzheimer's disease. And we're doing so with a simple eye examination. And that is also part of your annual, it could be part of your annual eye examination. And that's really exciting.

[00:04:40] So we are predicting the core pathology, which is amyloid burden as our first indication. And this year we're going to, with the support of our new investors, Eli Lilly and Topcon Healthcare, we're going to accelerate. Congrats on those, by the way. Thank you. Thank you very much. This has been a major milestone that we did last year. And now our goal is to get our technology as soon as possible to market. So this is what we're doing right now, this year.

[00:05:05] And hopefully we'll be able to start working and share more of our insights into other indications that we're working on right now as well. So that's what's happening for this year. That's exciting. That's exciting, Eli. And as you think about, you know, a lot of people come to this conference to kind of get a feel for where things are going. Some people come for investors. What are the predictions for you that you'd like to share in 2025 as it relates to this space of Alzheimer's and dementia care?

[00:05:34] So it's already happening. So there are drugs that are available in the markets and the ability to really make it more accessible and provide access to care to general population is something that is going to be taking a lot more context this year.

[00:05:50] There's going to be more drugs that are going to be under development and more pharmaceutical companies are expanding their portfolio in order to really follow the success of Eli Lilly and ASI, both pharmaceutical companies that actually brought their drug to market, which is quite exciting. There's going to be more drugs that are for earlier stage under development. So earlier in the disease, pre-syptomatic.

[00:06:16] So I see a lot of innovation in the making, the ability to leverage accessible diagnostic tools, not only reti-spectors, also blood biomarkers that are developed. And this is going to be very exciting to see what technologies are going to make the healthcare system healthier, because right now it's sick. And I'm just thrilled to be part of this journey. That's awesome, Eliab. Well, thank you for sharing that.

[00:06:44] Certainly a space that we should all be watching as it's quickly evolving. As far as JPM goes, you know, everybody knows that this is my first one. We've been helping clients prepare for this meeting for years. But talk to us about what your perspective of the meeting is, what brings it here and any tips for people that want to make the most out of it. Well, I really not the person to recommend this because I don't like this conference.

[00:07:10] But I do want to actually make it work. This is a great opportunity to meet other companies in this field. This is a great opportunity to get acquainted with new investors, to get acquainted with current investors. But altogether, everybody's running all over the place. So the best way to do it is what we're doing here, which is camping in one lobby or one center and having a lot of the meetings centered around that. And another thing is hydration.

[00:07:40] Hydrate. And if you can have, you know, you register to one of those scooter accounts because that's going to help you get to meetings on time. I was late for this meeting. So that's why I'm saying that. I love that. Yeah. I mean, I literally did 15,000 steps yesterday. Yeah. The scooter is a great idea. I like that. So the meeting that I had in the ceremony, that was really like my heart rate was beeping. Oh, man. You came though. You came. So kudos for making the meeting.

[00:08:05] And by the way, thanks for the recommendation of this place because this has been a really nice place to really camp out, do some great interviews for all of our listeners and viewers. So there you have it, folks. We've got Eliav Chiquet. He is the co-founder of RetiSpec here with us at JPMorgan Health, San Francisco 2025. Appreciate y'all tuning in and Eliav, thanks for being with us. Thanks, man. Appreciate it.

[00:08:28] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth.

[00:08:54] Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.