Mediwhale: This Innovative AI-Powered Health Diagnostics Company Uses Non-Invasive Retina Scans To Prevent Diseases

Mediwhale is an AI-empowered health diagnostics company that uses non-invasive retina scans to help prevent heart and kidney diseases. And Mediwhale’s Reti-Intelligence suite of services uses deep learning algorithms to detect disease risks even before symptoms appear. The company has been dedicated to making preventative care more affordable, accessible, safe, and convenient since being founded in 2016 in South Korea. Mediwhale has product approvals in eight territories in Europe and Asia (including EU, UK, Australia, and Korea), and is undergoing the FDA approval process. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Mediwhale CEO, Kevin T. Choi.

Kevin Choi’s Background

At the age of 24, Choi was diagnosed with glaucoma, losing 40% of his vision. Choi said:

“I didn’t fully realize the extent of the symptoms I was experiencing, and once I received my diagnosis, the glaucoma had already advanced significantly. This personal experience motivated me to make it my mission to find diseases early and so I founded Mediwhale in 2016. By using deep learning algorithms in combination with a large data set of retina images, we can detect disease risk before symptoms start to appear.”

Formation Of Mediwhale

How did the idea for Mediwhale come together? Choi shared:

“I met Dr. Tyler Rim in a very casual setting, and he kindly offered me to do an eye check-up. This was the moment I was diagnosed with severe glaucoma, which is quite rare among young people. I realized the importance of early detection and now believe that it is more important than treatment.”