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Lifetrack Medical Systems, with its software providing radiology interpretation, fills a gap in countries where radiologists are lacking

Philippine medtech startup Lifetrack Medical Systems has secured an undisclosed sum of funding from “strategic investors” including Kickstart Ventures, according to an official release.

Lifetrack provides interpretation of radiology diagnostic images for hospitals and clinics via software that it touts “increase[s] efficiency in radiology reporting” and results in “more radiology knowledge workers trained”.

Commenting on the funding by Kickstart Ventures — a Philippine venture capital which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom — Founder and CEO of Lifetrack Eric Schulze said, “The people at Kickstart are wonderful mentors and can draw upon a wide range of experience and resources to help us find new clients, as well as build our infrastructure and human resource needs. We are always looking for referrals for new hospitals and clinics — clients who want to experience 24/7 coverage and high-quality fast reporting turnaround time.”

In countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia, which, according to the release, typically have a 10- to 30-fold deficit of radiologists per capita compared to developed countries, and where experienced radiologists make up only about one per cent of total practitioners, Lifetrack can be particularly useful.

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“Part of our advocacy is to reverse the brain drain, which we’ve seen far too long in the country’s healthcare industry. Through Lifetrack’s affordable software and professional services, we can bring in radiology studies from around the world to be read by Filipino radiologists based here,” said Schulze. Brain drain refers to the emigration of trained professionals.

On what it means in terms of job creation, Schulze said, “This, in turn, can lead to attracting high-income knowledge-based jobs from overseas to local radiologists. In fact, we have already brought in at least 50 medical jobs from abroad.”

Lifetrack’s use, however, is not limited to the Philippines and Indonesia.

The Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, a collaboration between Duke University and the National University of Singapore, is using Lifetrack to provide sub-specialty certification and training to radiologists in the region. Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School is also using Lifetrack to train medical students in interpreting pediatric chest X-rays.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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