Venture Best Business Idea Award goes to ReflectUS

Congratulations to Sergio Sanabria and Orcun Goksel of the Computer Vision Lab at ETH Zurich for receiving the Venture Best Business Idea award with ReflectUS, among over 200 applicants around Switzerland. The award was announced at a ceremony with the federal Councilor and several company representatives.

ReflectUS is developing an ultrasound device for women of all ages to receive a reliable breast cancer diagnosis without radiation and discomfort. The aim is to provide a portable, low-cost and easy-to-use digital healthcare solution for gynaecological practice.

Detecting tumours with ultrasound

The novel ultrasonic measurement can be used to diagnose various tissue changes, in particular to detect tumours. Until now, many tumours could not be seen in an ultrasound. Instead of the standard practice of measuring the backscattering of sound, the new method measures the time taken by an ultrasound wave: the stiffer the tissue, which is the case with tumours, the faster the sound wave passes through the tissue. To do this, the researchers developed their own probe head together with an image processing programme. ReflectUS is currently conducting a clinical study and is testing their device on breast cancer patients at the university hospital Zurich.