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Raphael Thys
Ghanaian startup Chestify AI Labs provides an artificial intelligence (AI)-based platform that gives a highly accurate algorithm for diagnosing pathologies on chest X-rays, CT-scans and MRI images.
Co-founded by Mustapha Zaidan and Michael Osei-Gyeabour in 2020, Chestify aims to aggressively tackle the health and socio-economic impacts of inadequate radiology infrastructure and the lack of radiologists in Africa and the Caribbean.
Its AI pinpoints the location information of detected lesions in the form of heatmaps and outlines, and generates an abnormality score which reflects the AI’s calculation of the actual presence of the detected lesion. It also provides a “case report” that summarises the overall analysis result, narrowed down to each finding.
“There is a huge radiology gap, and a report from WHO indicates that two-thirds of the world’s population of over five billion people do not have or have less access to a radiologist and radiologic diagnostic support tools,” Zaidan told Disrupt Africa.
The startup is in the process of implementing its solution in four countries in Africa and two in the Caribbean, a process it will have completed by the end of 2023 and which will make the business self-sufficient. To boost that ambition, Chestify AI was recently selected to take part in the ASIP accelerator run by Startupbootcamp AfriTech, securing access to funding and additional support.
Its second product, a B2C mobile platform, will be released into the market by the second quarter of 2024. Zaidan said the startup had had to overcome suspicion from regulators and professionals when it came to taking its radiology-focused solution to market.
“Chestify AI Labs has faced doom and gloom challenges from medical authorities and professionals, who do not seem to have a full comprehension of the abilities of the AI tool,” he ssid.
“We are not here to “disrupt” any market whatsoever. In fact, we do not believe in disruption, what we stand for is“collaboration. To help, on our team we have medical professionals, and we couldn’t have reached this far without their resolute commitment to support and guide our endeavours.”