Each year, Sacramento Business Journal Inno reporter Mark Anderson identifies the top local startups set to make waves in the year ahead. BrainScanology is one of 11 that made the cut in 2024.
BrainScanology Inc.
BrainScanology Inc. offers a dementia-detection app that can analyze and track a person's cognitive function and then signal if there may be a problem.
The 2019 startup in 2023 released CDT Open, a free app on Apple and Android devices, which analyzes a standard medical clock-drawing test.
"Early detection is critical. You can't stop dementia, but you can take steps to slow it down," said BrainScanology CEO David Nguyen, a computational biologist with a doctorate in endocrinology. The company also released a subscription version of CDT to help identify potential early signs of dementia and Parkinson’s.
The company is clear that its app does not and cannot diagnose disease, but it can detect early warning signs that a person is struggling with reasoning.
CDT Open offers ongoing and monthly testing that can detect and measure small changes over time using artificial intelligence and software. The apps build off the work of ShapeGenie, a shape-analysis software for use in medicine and biology to analyze radiological, microscopy and other types of images in medicine and biology.
The Sacramento company works remotely and has four employees. It has raised about $1 million to get where it is, and it is planning to raise Small Business Innovation Research grants for its patented technology, Nguyen said. The company doesn't release revenue, he said.
