Maryam Sadeghi, the CEO and Co-Founder of MetaOptima Technology Inc, completed her PhD in Computing Science at Simon Fraser University in the Medical Image Analysis lab while working closely with the BC Cancer Agency and Skin Care Center at UBC Dermatology. Her research is focused on e-Health and m-Health applications as innovative patient-centric digital health solutions.
In 2011, Dr. Sadeghi took home the Gold award at the World Congress of Dermatology in Seoul, Korea, for creating a computer program that uses images to detect signs of skin cancer. There were more than 2,400 submissions, and awards were selected by a scientific committee based on criteria such as excellence in research, novelty, results and presentation. She was awarded the Silver Medal of ACM Student Research Competition from Microsoft Research and Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) for her research. Her research on skin cancer prevention and detection has also received the Innovation Challenge Award 2012 (The Honorable Mention Award) from NSERC, and the CIPPRS Doctoral Dissertation award, 2012 (Honorable Mention) from the Canadian Image Processing and Pattern Recognition Society. She also received the Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal as one of SFU’s most outstanding graduate students from the Faculty of Applied Sciences in June 2013.
In 2012, she founded the company, MetaOptima Technology Inc. in Vancouver, Canada, for developing intelligent technologies for health-related real life problems. In 2015, the company
released the digital dermoscopic attachment, MoleScope. The device is smaller and more affordable than any other digital dermoscopic product available, is user friendly, and is medical grade quality. Then in 2016 the company released the smart skin analytics software, DermEngine. Its revolutionary design provides the tools specialists need to give first-class care to their patients while simultaneously improving workflow, efficiency and communication. The company was one of 10 companies shortlisted (out of 146 entrants) for the 2013 BCIC New Ventures Competition. It won a
$40,000 Wavefront Wireless prize package. Maryam was also selected as the SFU Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013 and the winner of the Venture Prize from Coast Capital Savings in 2014.
Dr. Sadeghi collaborated closely with the Gerontology Research Center (GRC) at SFU on innovative health solutions for senior care and independent living to transfer the knowledge and research results achieved and developed in the past years in GRC.
From 2013-2015, Dr. Sadeghi was the director of The Digital Health Hub, where she was actively involved in R&D activities and commercializing technologies in digital health. The Digital Health Hub represents an initiative to accelerate health innovations through SFU’s partnership with Fraser Health, City of Surrey, and many others within Innovation Boulevard, a partnership of academic and health industry players in B.C.
In 2016, Maryam made the Business In Vancouver’s Forty Under 40 Awards List for her innovative work on MetaOptima’s smart phone dermoscopic device, MoleScope. She was also a nominee for the 2016 YWCA Women of Distinction Award in the category of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Since the company’s development, MetaOptima has become one of the fastest growing digital health technology companies in B.C., and will continue to strive to empower physicians to provide a better care and support patients to live a better life.
