Founders Meesha Dogan, PhD: 10+ years bridging ML/AI, engineering and medicine.
Rob Philibert, MD PhD: 15+ years in epigenetics and clinical translation.
Why are you launching the business? What "problem" are you addressing? An estimated 80% of cardiovascular disease is preventable, yet, it remains the number one killer in the US. Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, estimated to be present in over 16M American adults. The high prevalence is a result of current approaches failing to effectively prevent heart disease due to:
1) the in-person patient journey to undergo risk screening that is not resilient as evidenced by the need to halt screening due to the ongoing pandemic, not convenient and not scalable,
2) their lack in sensitivity for early risk detection in both men and women, but especially women, and
3) one-size-fits-all prevention insights.
Furthermore, data suggests that those hospitalized for pneumonia have four times higher risk than their age-matched controls for heart disease in the year after their release, and about 1.5 times higher in the next 9 years. With pneumonia being one of the complications of COVID-19, now more than ever, there is an urgent need for a highly sensitive risk screening test that can be deployed remotely to prevent the spike in devastating acute cardiac events.
How do you address the problem? What solution do you provide? Cardio Diagnostics’ patent-pending, peer-reviewed published, evidence-based core technology combines artificial intelligence (AI) and testing of two types of DNA biomarkers, genetics and epigenetics. Genetic biomarkers represent an individual’s inherited risk for the disease, while their epigenetic biomarkers represent their acquired risk as a result of their lifestyle and environment. We aggregate this information with AI to empower an individual to better prevent heart disease. We achieve this through:
1) a more convenient remote patient journey via telemedicine that is resilient, accessible, and scalable,
2) more sensitive early risk detection by >10% for men and >30% for women than current risk calculators, and
3) actionable personalized insights.
Our approach does not require the use of any self-reported or medical data. The first product, EpiGen CHD, is directed towards 3-year coronary heart disease risk screening. Currently, this product is a blood-based DNA test, but we are also developing the saliva version.
What will be the benefit of your product? What will the world look like once it is launched? EpiGen CHD will be able to identify men and women at high risk of having a coronary heart disease related event such as a heart attack within the next three years with high sensitivity, allowing their physicians to tailor a prevention plan with confidence. Our product also bridges the current gender gap in risk screening. The launch of this and other products will reduce the enormous and unnecessary deaths associated with cardiovascular disease and set a new prevention standard for this number one killer.
Business Address 2500 Crosspark Road W245
Coralville, Iowa, 52241
