Working on It: This Canadian startup is decoding the health data revealed in our eyes

Engineer Colyn Munn is helping to pioneer an AI-powered software platform that provides doctors with early-warning signs of disease and a faster, simpler, more accessible solution for patients.

If you’ve had a fluorescein angiography (FA), chances are you remember it. The procedure requires that dye be injected into a vein in your eye so that a specialized camera can then map oxygen supply and potential leakage in your retina’s blood vessels.

For more than 60 years, FA has been the gold-standard test for diabetes-related retinopathy and macular degeneration — conditions that lead to vision loss — which affect 1 million and 2.5 million Canadians, respectively. While relatively safe, the procedure is expensive, time consuming and may cause patient discomfort and, in rare cases, allergic reaction.

In Halifax, healthtech startup Emagix is developing a non-invasive method using generative AI.  Using cameras already employed in routine eye exams, its GenFA model can produce a fluorescein angiography image without the need for dye injection. By making the test easy and affordable, the hope is that doctors will diagnose ailments early, improving patient outcomes with better preventative care and monitoring. The company is currently testing GenFA with ophthalmologists and retina specialists to understand how to best translate their novel data into insights doctors need.

We spoke with Emagix chief technology officer Colyn Munn about taking career inspiration from Star Wars, the future of preventative medicine, and what’s involved in developing AI that uses the eye as the window to cutting-edge diagnostics.

Why we need better eye exams

“Emagix is trying to reduce the uncertainty in doctors’ decisions, as well as their workflow complexity, by giving them solutions based on complex image data. It allows them to know whether a patient needs treatment or follow-up, or to measure treatment effectiveness.

“Our core product, GenFA, is non-invasive so you don’t need a dye injection. That means you don’t need a nurse on staff or a whole support system in case a patient goes into anaphylactic shock from the dye. So you could use this in more settings.”

How it works

“If you go to an optometrist to get your vision checked, they’ll take an image of the back of your retina. GenFA provides analysis based on those images and the data will be ready immediately.

“We’re studying different eye diseases — like diabetic eye disease and age-related macular degeneration — to understand how this tool can impact different scenarios.

“I love that we’re building something that is going to have a positive impact on people — not getting diseases or being treated for diseases earlier. There’s a myriad of benefits to that, not only for quality of life, but economic impact, too.”

What it’s like being CTO

“A lot of what I’m doing is solving technical puzzles. As a healthcare company, we’re analyzing complex image data and are looking to distill it. I have to figure out how to bridge the gap from the complex to the simple. It’s a bit like playing with Lego and figuring out what technical pieces I want to put in that gap.

“I’m doing a combination of researching and learning — reading scientific papers, understanding what the new engineering techniques are and what the new findings in the ophthalmology sphere are. Then, I’m building out those solutions and running experiments on the data.

“The most rewarding part is seeing that people are excited to use our technology. I love that. The feedback we’re getting from doctors is that they’re absolutely stoked to have this tool that they’ve never had in the 60 or so years they’ve been doing this imaging. This will reduce a lot of their burden.”

What drew him to the field

“I’ve always been interested in biomedical engineering. As a kid, it started with my interest in sci-fi movies, like Robocop and Star Wars, and the idea of using technology to augment a person or restore their capabilities. When I was 14 or 15, a gentleman at my mother’s workplace said, ‘If you love this stuff, you should do biomedical engineering. It’s a no-brainer.’

“I did a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering at the University of New Brunswick, with a specialty in biomedical engineering. And during that time I got to work on motion-capture systems for analyzing how people walk and then work on exoskeletons. I built training devices for kids with congenital limb loss that could allow them to train their muscles and eventually be able to wear a prosthetic.

“When I graduated, I was really interested in doing something with medical imaging. Not even a month later, the job came up at Emagix to do exactly that in retinal images. I submitted my application within the hour the job was posted.”

What’s next

“In our current paradigm of healthcare, we’re mostly reactive. We need more solutions that are preventative to be able to reduce the burden on the system. With patient data becoming aggregated and standardized, the solutions we’re developing are going to get much easier to implement. And doctors will be able to make more informed, personalized decisions.

“A lot of the work we’re doing is cutting-edge — there is no product that does this.. We’re pushing the current understanding of ophthalmology, but also the understanding of the outcome applications of AI. It’s really cool.”

Discover other ground-breaking solutions on MaRS Connect, a curated digital platform designed to accelerate real connections between Canada’s top startups and serious adopters, investors, and ecosystems leaders.

Photo courtesy of Emagix