Selected as one of 14 standout startups from across Canada, Luxsonic joined the 10-week accelerator program focused on AI-driven innovation. The program provided hands-on mentorship, technical support, and access to cutting-edge tools like Google Vertex AI and Gemini, helping Luxsonic further develop its advanced virtual radiology platforms.

At Demo Day, Luxsonic’s CEO, Dr. Mike Wesolowski, presented the company’s latest advancements in virtual imaging and immersive diagnostics to an audience of investors, partners, and tech leaders. The event marked a significant milestone in Luxsonic’s mission to revolutionize healthcare through extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence.

“Our participation in the Google for Startups Accelerator has been transformative,” said Dr. Wesolowski. “The mentorship and resources provided by Google have accelerated our growth and helped us refine our AI capabilities to better serve clinicians and patients worldwide.”

Luxsonic’s involvement in the accelerator highlights its commitment to pushing the boundaries of healthcare technology and reinforces its position as a trailblazer in the Canadian healthtech ecosystem.

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Centafore™ provides technology and services for image management, processing, and interpretation, empowering study sponsors with expert project management and facilitating advanced analyses of imaging data. Its extensive network includes experienced imaging professionals such as board-certified radiologists, enabling customers to effectively manage studies across more than 50 countries.

“Centafore™ represents a significant leap forward in our commitment to enhancing the landscape of clinical trial imaging and advancing the development of new medicines and healthcare solutions,” said Nelson Ambrogio, President of Radiology at Bayer.

“By leveraging our extensive experience and expertise, we are dedicated to providing our customers with high quality imaging services that meet their specific needs in clinical research. Through Centafore™, we aim to enhance the reliability of trial outcomes and support informed decision-making in the development of investigational medicines, ultimately benefiting patients and improving their quality of care.”

The services support a wide range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, cardiovascular, central nervous system (CNS), dermatology, women’s health, pediatrics, and digital health. It aims to help pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and digital health companies with early research through Phase IV trials and SaMD development, and adherence to regulatory and data privacy compliance standards.

As part of Bayer’s ongoing efforts to support global healthcare startups, the Imaging Core Lab Services of Bayer have been first presented at ECR 2024. Centafore™ is already collaborating with organizations such as OBIO^® and Luxsonic Technologies to leverage clinical imaging as a critical tool for improving decision-making in clinical trials and software as a medical device development.

About Centafore™
Centafore™ is an Imaging Contract Research Organization (iCRO) that supports early research through Phase IV trials and Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) development for pharma, biotech, medical device and digital health companies.

For over 25 years, it has been the primary, trusted iCRO for Bayer, playing a vital role in advancing the company’s drug pipeline – and now, extended its expertise to external customers under the brand name Centafore™, delivering high-quality support for imaging studies and research initiatives across the industry.

About Bayer in Radiology
Building on a century of expertise, Bayer is committed to innovative products and high-quality services in diagnostic imaging to enhance patient care. Its leading radiology portfolio features contrast agents and devices for precise administration across modalities including computed tomography (CT), X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET). Bayer’s comprehensive offerings also include informatics solutions and a medical imaging platform with digital and artificial intelligence (AI) powered applications. In 2024, Bayer’s radiology products generated €2.1 billion in global sales. Bayer continues to advance research and innovation in medical imaging, including the integration of AI.

About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. In line with its mission, “Health for all, Hunger for none,” the company’s products and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2024, the Group employed around 93,000 people and had sales of 46.6 billion euros. R&D expenses amounted to 6.2 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

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Virtual Reality in Radiology: Reimagining the Reading Room with Mike Wesolowski From fully immersive diagnostic PACS to collaborative virtual tumor boards, Mike walks us through what it takes to build a regulatory-approved VR platform for radiology—and why immersive environments could be the key to solving real-world workflow and access challenges.

Whether you’re interested in enterprise imaging, med ed, or AI, this conversation offers a bold look at the future of radiology—without the walls of a traditional reading room.

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We’re proud to share that Luxsonic has successfully completed the prestigious Endless Frontier Labs (EFL) program, hosted by the NYU Stern School of Business. This marks a significant step forward in our mission to revolutionize radiology through immersive, AI-powered technology.

Why Endless Frontier Labs Is a Big Deal

Endless Frontier Labs is one of the world’s most selective accelerators for science- and technology-based startups. With an acceptance rate below 5%, the program is designed to help early-stage companies scale through:

• Elite mentorship from global business leaders, investors, and scientists
• Access to top-tier venture capital and corporate partners
• Business development support from NYU Stern MBA students
• Zero equity participation, allowing startups to retain full ownership

The program is structured around performance-based milestones, ensuring that each company receives tailored, actionable guidance to accelerate growth.

A Canadian Standout in Digital Health

Luxsonic was honored to be one of only two Canadian companies accepted into the Digital Health track for the 2024–2025 cohort. This recognition highlights the global relevance of our work in transforming radiology workflows using virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

Mentorship That Made a Difference

Throughout the nine-month program, we had the privilege of working with world-class mentors who brought deep expertise in healthcare, venture capital, and scaling technology companies. Their insights helped us refine our go-to-market strategy, strengthen our value proposition, and prepare for our next phase of growth.

We also had the pleasure of collaborating with AJ Aziz, an MBA candidate at NYU Stern, who worked closely with our team. Reflecting on his experience, AJ shared:

“Working with Luxsonic through Endless Frontier Labs was an incredible experience. Their vision for transforming radiology with immersive technology is not only innovative but deeply impactful. I learned a lot from their team and was inspired by their commitment to solving real-world healthcare challenges.”
— AJ Aziz, MBA Candidate, NYU Stern

What This Means for Luxsonic

Graduating from EFL is more than a badge of honor, it’s a validation of our technology, our team, and our market potential. It has opened doors to new investor relationships, sharpened our strategic focus, and positioned us for continued success in the global digital health landscape.

We’re deeply grateful to the EFL team, our mentors, and our fellow cohort members for an unforgettable experience. As we continue to scale, we carry forward the insights, connections, and momentum gained through this transformative program.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to grow and innovate.

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All 14 of the startups participating in the sixth Canadian edition of the Google for Startups Accelerator focus in some way on artificial intelligence (AI).

“[The cohort] is pretty diverse, but it’s all in the realm of this new age of AI.”Iran Karimian

Last year’s Canadian accelerator cohort featured 10 AI-enabled startups out of 14. This cohort marks the first made up entirely of AI-native or AI-enabled startups. Iran Karimian, Google Canada’s head of accelerator and startup ecosystem, told BetaKit that Google looks for companies building with AI or machine learning, or have a “very clear case of how they plan to implement it in the near future.” 

The 14 startups cover a range of verticals, including workplace management, healthtech, and fintech. 

“[The cohort] is pretty diverse, but it’s all in the realm of this new age of AI,” Karimian said. “A lot of the startups that were admitted into the cohort this year are looking to adopt Gemini into their workflows from beginning to end.”

The 10-week hybrid program provides a mix of mentorship sessions and technical expertise from more than 500 Google volunteer mentors. Startups also gain access to Google Cloud credits as well as help in migrating their existing data to Google’s cloud. The program does not provide equity funding to the selected startups.

To be eligible for the program, startups should be generating revenue, sit between seed and Series A funding stages, and have a deeply technical focus that preferably uses AI or machine learning.

RELATED: Google Cloud Startups leader sees opportunity for startups building AI agents amid pressure to move quickly

“The biggest differentiator between selecting companies is a really clear, technical ask of how Google can help,” Karimian said. 

Companies that graduate from the program can still access support and mentorship from Google through monthly virtual events and an alumni network, Karimian said. 

The latest cohort included five Montréal-based startups, a record for the city, which boasts strong ties to the Canadian AI research community. Gym management software startup FLiiP will be participating, following a $4.4-million seed round raised earlier this year to expand into the US and incorporate AI. Chief growth officer Oss Ouahdi said that FLiiP plans to use the accelerator to add a suite of AI features to its platform for fitness businesses, with the goal of rolling them out when the program ends.

Ouahdi said the startup is looking to get “strategic support to align our go-to-market and product roadmap around adoption, not just AI for innovation’s sake.”

Kitchener–Waterloo-based ConeLabs, which offers AI-powered building and infrastructure inspections, plans to use Google’s AI and cloud expertise to boost its algorithm that detects structural defects.  

Anderson Petergeorge, co-founder and CEO of Toronto-based Quanto, said he hopes to focus on compliance and security during the program while scaling up his automated bookkeeping platform.

“A key challenge is balancing innovation with responsible AI implementation, ensuring our automation is both cutting-edge and reliable for our customers,” Petergeorge said in a statement.

The accelerator cohorts are not the only component of Google for Startups that has shifted focus towards AI. It even rebranded its popular “Founder Fridays” hybrid community meetups to “AI Gatherings,” Karimian confirmed.

Last year, Google for Startups made Founder Fridays a quarterly event, experimented with live editions in Toronto and Montréal, and centred the events around AI implementation. 

“In terms of our content and our thought leadership, everything took the lens of AI into consideration,” Karimian said.

According to Karimian, the event’s new focus was so well-received that Google decided to officially rename it. In particular, the October 2024 edition in Montréal saw its best attendance ever, both in person and online.

The full list of companies is below:

• 4Point (Toronto)
• Agentnoon (Richmond Hill)
• ConeLabs (Kitchener)
• ElephasCare (Waterloo)
• FLiiP (Montréal)
• Happly (Montréal)
• Luxsonic (Saskatoon)
• MarketMind Technologies (Toronto)
• Numr (Markham)
• Quanto (Toronto)
• Simmunome Inc. (Montréal)
• Singularity Health (Vancouver)
• Tedy (Montréal)
• Waveshaper AI (Montréal)

Karimian said the Canadian accelerator program has supported 120 Canadian companies since February 2020, which in turn have raised $480 million and created over 1,000 jobs.

Feature image courtesy Google.

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Luxsonic Technologies Inc, a leading Canadian software development company specializing in immersive radiology applications, is thrilled to announce the launch of Luxsonic Spatial^TM to coincide with the launch of the Apple Vision Pro in Canada.

Luxsonic Spatial is a lightweight DICOM viewer built from the ground up to leverage the unique spatial controls and interactions of the Apple Vision Pro.

The application works with all major DICOM formats including ultrasound, x-ray, computer tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Full resolution DICOMS can be loaded from local directories or from an online server and viewed in brilliant 4K resolution on the Apple Vision Pro. Users can naturally and intuitively interact with their imaging data using eye tracking and hand gestures to manipulate and annotate data like never before.

“We’ve worked with radiologists every step of the way to create an exceptional imaging experience,” said Mike Wesolowski, PhD – CEO of Luxsonic “and we’re very proud to say that Luxsonic Spatial is the first Canadian made radiology application for the Apple Vision Pro.”

While Luxsonic Spatial is not currently a medical device and therefore cannot be used for diagnostic purposes it can be used by students, medical residents, and physicians for image review, education and research as well as procedural planning.

This is just the beginning of the spatial radiology revolution. Luxsonic plans to continuously improve on its Spatial DICOM viewer, adding advanced features with the goal of bringing diagnostic radiology to the Apple Vision Pro.

For more information, visit Luxsonic’s website http://luxsonic.ca or follow Luxsonic on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/luxsonic-technologies-inc-/ .

Try Luxsonic Spatial for free by downloading it from the Apple Vision Pro App Store https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/luxsonic-spatial/id6504948674

About Luxsonic Technologies Inc.: Luxsonic Technologies Inc. is an award-winning software development company founded in 2017. Their innovative solutions are reshaping the global radiology workflow industry, making high-quality imaging expertise accessible to all. Luxsonic Spatial is the latest addition to Luxsonic’s Virtual Imaging Platform^TM, a larger ecosystem of immersive radiology software applications for spatial computing and extended reality devices.

Press Contact: [email protected]

For more information please visit http://luxsonic.ca or follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/luxsonic-

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Bayer’s Imaging Core Lab Services team is a digitally driven, key evidence-generating imaging solution provider for global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to facilitate the increasing role of imaging in drug and digital health product development. Luxsonic is dedicated to improving access to radiology services and creating better workflows through the use of augmented reality solutions. Luxsonic’s VIP™ software leverages ethical AI for image analysis and workflow optimization. The LSCTC Centre of Excellence accelerates the health science industry’s use of critical technologies such as ethical AI and fosters the evaluation and adoption of new health technologies across Ontario. This collaboration with Bayer will evaluate and further improve Luxsonic’s virtual reality technology platform to standardize practices, enhance quality, and increase efficiency in the expert radiology clinical trials workflows for diverse assessment criteria.

“Through further enhancement of an intelligent, collaborative, virtual reality-enabled radiology reading platform, Bayer Imaging Core Lab Services, Luxsonic and OBIO’s LSCTC Centre of Excellence aim to reduce product development cycle-time and increase quality and efficiency while reducing costs in clinical trials and Software as Medical Device development,” said Subrata Bose, Head of Bayer’s Imaging Core Lab Services.

“The partnership with Bayer and OBIO’s LSCTC Centre of Excellence represents an important milestone for our company. It’s a great opportunity to expand the use case of our VIP™ software into clinical trials imaging workflow with the goals of standardizing clinical trials practices, improving quality, and efficiency,” said Mike Wesolowski, Founder and CEO of Luxsonic.

“We are thrilled to welcome Bayer as a delivery partner for OBIO’s LSCTC Centre of Excellence to strengthen our shared commitment to advance health tech solutions from early-stage companies in Ontario,” said Dr. Maura Campbell, President and CEO of OBIO®. “This project with Luxsonic is a great example of how ethical AI can be implemented to improve clinical trial workflows and further support wider adoption of the technology in the global market.”

originally published here

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that’s especially true in the world of radiology. But the images can only speak when a professional reads them with expert analysis to help diagnose and treat patients. This knowledge comes from years of education and training and by embracing technological advances to further see inside patients to better understand their condition, prognosis, and treatment options.

A novel partnership between Queen’s University and University of Nairobi, Kenya is creating a new image for global health education.

In 2019, the Department of Radiology partnered with the University of Nairobi to help educate and mentor radiology residents and build capacity in medical education and professional development. It started with the basics: installing better IT equipment and ensuring a more robust Internet connection and bandwidth to facilitate online education and collaboration. From there, the program moved into an online educational exchange and has grown to add a visiting professorship, scholarship opportunities, and a new virtual reality (VR) component to classroom teaching.

“In Africa, most of the radiology programs are still immature and the ratio of learners to teachers is quite high with limited time in the classroom,” says Dr. Omar Islam, Department Head and Assistant Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology. “COVID highlighted some of the big disparities in health systems around the globe in terms of vaccines and social determinants of health, but when we looked more deeply, we saw there was a discrepancy at the physician training and health education level in residency programs. We saw this as an excellent opportunity to help bridge that gap, while also recognizing that there are things we can learn from each other.”

Bringing virtual reality to education

This past fall, a new innovation was introduced to the teaching program using VR technology that connects Queen’s faculty in Kingston with resident learners at the Nairobi hospital—the first program of its kind in the world, according to Dr. Islam. The VR headsets are worn by both students and teachers and allows for a richer, in-depth educational experience to give students a better opportunity to engage with the teacher and with the images they are studying. For participants, the experience is more dynamic than a Zoom lecture and similar to being in the same room together with more interaction.

“We find the students are participating more, they’re asking more questions, pointing and zooming in to the images to ask if we see what they see. It feels like we are with the students in person. It’s completely changed our teaching program,” says Dr. Denise Castro, Assistant Professor and Global Health Lead for the department.

“It was exciting to put them on and find yourself in a different room, where the images are large, and you can scroll through them. It was almost an out-of-body experience on my part,” says Dr. Gladys Mwango, a senior lecturer and former chair of the Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiation Medicine at the University of Nairobi who helped start the partnership with Dr. Islam four years ago. To engage more students in the learning activity, some of the views inside the goggles can be projected on a large screen to the rest of the class. “It’s awesome. I found it really exciting and offers a very different experience that is more interactive,” says Ruth Mulwa, the outgoing chief resident who was a student in a number of VR-led sessions.

The VR goggles come from Luxsonic, a company based out of Saskatoon, which trained users in Kingston and Nairobi on site prior to classes starting last September. Two headsets were purchased for $36,000 with the help of the Kingston Rotary Club and a grant from the Department of Diagnostic Radiology Academic Fund, and they are actively seeking ways to add additional headsets to help grow the program. Dr. Islam and his team are currently engaged in a research project funded by an Association of Commonwealth Universities grant

to evaluate the educational exchange program and will conduct a similar four-year educational research project for the VR goggles initiative.

The Department of Radiology at Queen’s has a long history of innovation. In fact, some of the first x-rays in Canada were taken at Kingston General Hospital just two months after x-rays were introduced to the world by inventor Wilhelm Conrad Röentgen in Germany.

Building relationships through education and collaboration

The team in Nairobi are very much a part of the Queen’s faculty and the partnership has created bi-directional learning opportunities. Faculty from Nairobi are included in Grand Rounds for the department and present regularly, sharing information about cases involving conditions and diseases that are not as prevalent in Canada. “There is a very large population in Kenya with chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, hepatic cancers, and tropical diseases that we don’t see as often. So, this is an opportunity to enrich our own learning as much as we are helping them,” adds Dr. Islam.

Dr. Islam visited Nairobi in the fall as the inaugural visiting professor in Radiology’s global health program and will be sending another professor there annually to build on the relationship. The collaboration includes teaching, and growing capacity to support and deliver evaluations, exams, and assessments. Radiology exams in Kenya are still university-based. Developing radiology- board-based exams to bring more evaluation expertise to the partnership would be another step forward.

“This is our first foray into global health as a department. We have taken it slow, but it has matured and has been really rewarding,” says Dr. Islam, adding that the overall goal is to build a long-lasting bond that will allow for further mentorship as residents build their careers, years after their time in the classroom.

“There are diseases that can sometimes be diagnosed with just a simple x-ray or ultrasound and they may not have the equipment or knowledge that we have here to do that. Or, they may have the images, but not someone to read it. So, it’s important we transfer these skills and knowledge so they can improve the radiology education and overall level of health care for patients,” says Dr. Castro.

Original article from Queen’s University Health Sciences.

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It hasn’t been easy to be a startup lately. Global funding for startup companies hit a five-year low at the end of 2023, according to an analysis by Crunchbase. And the Canadian startup ecosystem was no exception. A report from Tracxn, a research platform, found that as of early December 2023, funding for Canadian tech startups for the year totaled $4.4 billion, a 45% drop from the $8 billion raised in the same period in 2022, and a 67% drop from the $13.5 billion in 2021.

There are, however, some Canadian startups that show no signs of slowing down—which Forbes has now captured in our first-ever ranking of Canada’s Best Startup Employers.

To determine the list, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to identify a shortlist of 1,500 companies based in Canada. Qualifying startups were required to have at least 10 employees, to have been founded between 2014 and 2021 and to not be publicly traded.

The startups were then evaluated based on three main criteria: employer reputation, employee satisfaction and growth. To assess employer reputation, Statista searched articles, blogs and social media posts about each company, and used text analysis to categorize them as positive, negative or neutral. Employee satisfaction was measured by researching employee retention and online reviews, as well as exploring the companies’ websites to gather information on employee offerings. Growth was evaluated by examining the organizations’ website traffic, head counts and job listings. Ultimately, all of these data points were tallied into a scoring model, and the 200 companies with the highest total scores made our final list.

Original article edited by Rachel Rabkin Peachman, Forbes.

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