DeepLook Medical, Ltd.

Marissa Fayer wears many hats in healthcare. Known as a champion for and of women's health, she is the founder and CEO of HerHealthEQ, a non-profit organization focused on improving women's health outcomes in developing regions by providing essential medical equipment, such as ultrasound machines. Fayer also serves as the CEO of DeepLook Medical , a company transforming how radiologists and healthcare professionals visualize and interpret medical imaging. Fayer joins us for this episode of Let's Talk Medtech to give updates on the companies she helms and trends in women's health. Below you can find the audio version of the episode: Here is a brief AI-generated transcript of the episode. Omar: Marissa, thanks for coming on to Let's Talk MedTech . I really appreciate you being here. You're always a friend of the show. I have to ask—how many times have you been on now? Marissa: A few. Quite a few. Omar: Yeah, yeah. Marissa: I think we talk a lot, and it’s fun. Why not? Omar: Absolutely. So, let’s talk a little bit about what’s going on in the world of Marissa Fayer. I understand you’re the CEO of Deep Look Medical, and I want to dive into that. I also want to discuss what you’re doing with Her Health EQ and how you manage to balance all of those roles. Every time I see you on Facebook—and spoiler alert, everyone—Marissa is one of the only friends I have in my profession on Facebook. I see you traveling all the time. You’re always busy. Marissa: [Laughs] Yeah. Omar: But let’s get into it. Let’s talk about it. Marissa: I didn’t even know Facebook was still a thing anymore! I think it’s just pulling from my Instagram, so that’s good. But from my perspective, I don’t believe in the traditional 40-hour workweek. I’ve been in this industry for 26 years, so I’ve developed certain efficiencies. If I can do something in two hours that might take someone else ten hours, I’ll do it. It’s all about managing and budgeting your time. With both Deep Look Medical and Her Health EQ, there’s a lot to do. But I’m driven by the fact that there’s still so much work to be done. I’m fortunate to have the flexibility in life to pursue these things. What am I going to do—sit and watch Netflix all day? Sure, that might be nice occasionally, but there are so many great things happening right now. There’s finally a big movement in women’s health, and I want to capitalize on that. There’s also a lot of work to be done globally. Honestly, I don’t think I do anything particularly well—I just like having my hands in everything. It’s exciting, and it allows me to connect the dots between my nonprofit work and my for-profit work. For example, something I’m working on with Her Health EQ might spark an idea for software access at Deep Look Medical. There’s a balance between the two, and they complement each other. I’ve found that I’m more productive when I have a lot going on. That’s just how my brain works—I like to multitask. Omar: That makes sense. Let’s talk about Deep Look Medical for a moment. For those in our audience who might not be familiar with it, can you give us a brief overview of the company? Marissa: Of course. Deep Look Medical is a software company focused on the imaging and radiology space. We’re FDA-cleared with our technology, DL Precise, which helps visualize, measure, and segment soft tumor lesions throughout the body across all imaging modalities. We focus primarily on breast imaging because it’s the largest individualized screening process worldwide. But we’re also working in areas like lung, liver, thyroid, PET scans, nuclear medicine, and potentially even the surgical space. Our software overlays existing technologies—both hardware and software—to enhance visualization. We’re not a decision-support tool. Radiologists still have full control over their decisions. What we do is help them see things more clearly, especially in dense tissue, where it’s like trying to find a cotton ball in a cloud. We make that cotton ball visible. Once you can see a mass, you can measure it, segment it, and track changes over time. That’s critical for radiologists, especially when monitoring conditions or assessing the effectiveness of treatments. Right now, a lot of these measurements are done manually. Our software automates that process and provides better visibility in dense tissue, which is where we spend most of our time. Omar: I think it’s important to emphasize what you said earlier—that radiologists still have control. This is just a tool to help them. There’s a lot of debate about AI taking over radiologists’ jobs, but this seems to be more of a supportive tool. Marissa: Exactly. This is a tool to make radiologists more efficient and confident. It’s not about replacing them. For example, a seasoned radiologist with 30 years of experience might not need this as much, but newer radiologists—who are used to using tools in their everyday lives—find it incredibly helpful. We also have to think about the patient. In healthcare, if a radiologist can’t see an area clearly, the patient often has to come back for additional imaging. That means more time, more anxiety, and more uncertainty. Dense breast tissue affects over 45% of women — though we believe it’s closer to 70% — and it disproportionately impacts Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Jewish women. There’s nothing you can do to change your breast density except live longer, which is obviously the goal. But dense tissue makes it harder to visualize abnormalities. Women who don’t have time to come back for additional imaging or who are juggling other responsibilities benefit from this technology because it helps radiologists make more confident decisions without unnecessary callbacks. We’re a commercial-stage company, and we’re already in the market. What we’re hearing from radiologists is that this tool gives them more confidence. It’s like having a second set of eyes. In Europe, having a second reader is standard practice, but in the U.S., it’s not. Our software acts like a sidekick, saying, “Yes, you’re on the right track.” It’s reassuring and efficient.

The Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC) today announced the 2023 cohort for its MedTech Ignite Program. MassMEDIC’s accelerator for medtech entrepreneurs features hybrid workshops, boot camps, conferences, networking opportunities and mentorships. The intensive three-month program runs from September to November 2023. The regional medtech association selected eight companies developing medical device, diagnostic and digital health technologies for its cohort: Aim Medical Robotics The company develops a portable, MRI-compatible surgical robot for use in the MRI suite and operating room. It aims to bring high levels of precision, automation and efficiency to neurosurgery. Brainbot According to MassMEDIC, the company developed the first gamified concussion recovery app. It facilitates rehabilitation through health optimization and at-home self-management. Craniosense The company aims to change the trajectory of care for traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. It seeks to enable all healthcare providers to identify those at risk of intracranial hypertension anytime, anywhere. Deeplook Medical This company partners with innovators in medical imaging with innovative image display technology, AI platforms and cloud-enabled image viewers. Its FDA-cleared DL Precise automates lesion segmentation and measurement in multiple imaging modalities with a single click. GuidewireRx The company develops the VascularAssist, an AI platform for radiologists and hospitals. It assists in the timely diagnosis of peripheral vascular disease to help prevent amputation. NED Medical Ned Medical hopes to transform oncology embolization therapy from a curative-intent treatment. It has a mission to improve outcomes for patients with unresectable tumors. PMD Solutions This company develops RespiraSense, which transforms the measurement of a patient’s respiratory rate. It offers continuous technology monitoring to help measure and identify deterioration in real-time. RhinUS This medical device was designed to treat the root cause of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). It combines the ease of in-office treatments with lasting symptom relief for CRS patients. More about the MassMEDIC MedTech Ignite Program Since MassMEDIC relaunched the Ignite Program in 2019, it’s featured 55 startups across Massachusetts, the U.S. and the world. Its alumni to date bring a cumulative fundraising total of over $150 million, plus FDA clearances, NIH funding and more. Sponsors include Alira Health, Boyd Technologies, Agile Search, Wilson Sonsini, Teijin Pharma and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC). The program offers founders mentorship from leaders of New England’s largest medtech organization, plus experiential training and investor introductions. “The Medtech Ignite Program accelerates the founder’s journey during the most vulnerable stage of their company’s lifecycle,” said MassMEDIC COO and President of Medtech Ignite, Rachel Robinson. “With the goal of attracting and nurturing the next generation of Boston-area medtech founders and entrepreneurs, Ignite creates a pipeline of medtech startups who will help fuel the future of the Commonwealth’s medtech ecosystem.”

I was scrolling through my LinkedIn newsfeed last week when my gaze landed on a colorful graphic titled, “What Type of Strategist Are You?” Never one to resist a personality quiz or the like, I stopped scrolling and took a closer look at Jeroen Kraaijenbrin’s post, which was based on his recent Forbes article with the same title. In it, the business strategy and leadership consultant breaks down what he considers to be the five types of strategists, along with a description of their strengths and weaknesses. It would have been a brilliant article if not for the glaring gender bias and hierarchical language. Nevertheless, I quickly identified myself as the fourth type, “The Prince Strategist.” Kraaijenbrin describes this type of strategist as one who embraces change and innovation and often are themselves the main source of new ideas. This type of strategist is full of creativity and enthusiasm and sees opportunities for change everywhere. Yep, that’s me, I thought – I’m a prince! My next thought was, wait a minute, why do I have to be a prince? The other strategist types, according to Kraaijenbrin’s article, are: The King, The Servant, The Elder, and The Joker. At last count, the strategy expert’s LinkedIn post had 14,757 reactions, 765 comments, and had been reposted 3,295 times. Posts like these are effective because so many of us want to learn something we didn’t know about ourselves, we want to be able to see ourselves in the presented categories, and it gives us simple terms to better understand others. Kraaijenbrin has been a strategy and leadership consultant and mentor at Do Strategy for nearly 15 years. He has been a strategy researcher for more than 20 years, and he is an experienced keynote speaker on the topic of strategy. Just recently he co-founded Strategy.Inc where he helps to educate other strategy consultants. Surely, someone with his extensive experience in business strategy realizes that women can also be fantastic strategists. I thought about some of the women strategists I know from the medtech world. Marie Thibault, a medtech analyst at BTIG and a former managing editor at MD+DI , is someone I would consider to be a valuable strategist. Marissa Fayer , founder and CEO at HERhealthEQ who also serves as CEO at DeepLook, is another medtech leader who excels at strategy. Medtronic CFO Karen Parkhill also comes to mind when I think about strategic leaders in the medical device industry. Ashley McEvoy, the leader of Johnson & Johnson’s medtech business is another. Brooke Story, president of BD’s surgery business is another industry leader who has proven to be strategy minded, as well as Boston Scientific’s Camille Chang Gilmore . And the list goes on. I wasn’t the first to notice the glaring gender bias in Kraaijenbrin’s article. When I went to his LinkedIn post to comment on it, I saw that many others had already called him out. “Fair point. No sexism intended at all,” he wrote in response to one of these commenters. “I felt using the female form would be just as sexist (at least to some, because why not use non-binary forms?), and I therefore doubt whether using Queen and Princess instead of King and Prince would truly resolve it. Any suggestions on how to avoid gender-related sensitivities? Because I’m kind of stuck in available vocabulary. He's right in that using Queen and Princess would not have been the answer. My suggestion would have been to ditch the royalty terms all together because as frustrating as the gendered terms are, his use of the label “The Servant” is just as problematic, if not more so. How is it that in 2023 a self-proclaimed strategist can’t describe different types of strategists based on their qualities and characteristics without resorting to gendered or hierarchical language? Why not simply use “The Leader” instead of “The King” and “The Explorer” instead of “The Prince.” It comes as no surprise that the commenters who pointed out this flaw faced backlash from other readers (primarily men) for bringing attention to the issue. “No need to deviate from the topic,” said Sokol Dema, a senior finance professional. “I don’t think there’s a gender issue here. The king mentioned here, or the prince is of course implying queen or princess according to the gender … we should focus on the content, I think, and not to ‘play with words’ … it shifts the focus of the article.” I couldn’t disagree more. The author’s chosen language shifts the focus of the article by creating an unconscious bias. The fact that a male business professional can’t see that is an illustration of the problem. It doesn’t matter how valuable the content itself is if the language automatically excludes half the population and unintentionally implies that those who do not identify as male have nothing to bring to the strategizing table.