WSK Medical

WSK Medical is an innovative software company that is focused exclusively on developing leading-edge artificial intelligence solutions for early cancer detection. The company aims to create the most advanced AI technologies to assist clinicians and doctors.

AI Solutions for Early Cancer Detection

WSK Medical’s mission is to bridge the gap between the medical field and AI by developing easy-to-use, workflow-integrated, clinically valuable AI solutions for early cancer detection. The company is passionate and believes that the time has come to move AI out of the research domain and hence aims to bring it into the clinical environment. WSK Medical does this by translating complex, medical problems into solutions that assist doctors and clinicians at their daily work.

WSK Medical is developing solutions for pathology, head and neck oncology (ear, nose, and throat). In the Netherlands, the company is collaborating with two renowned institutions on both medical specialists.

Zeno PathologyÒ, WSK Medical’s first CE-certified AI digital pathology solution, is now available in the Founda Health platform and is beginning to get traction in the market. In December 2022, WSK Medical will launch Zeno pathology version 2, which will have all the essential breast cancer grading functionalities and will integrate the workflow fully.

WSK Medical is working with the Radboudumc, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospitals and the Netherland Cancer Institution to develop best-in-class solutions in the Netherlands. All these organizations believe in the company from its early start and share the same mission as WSK Medical.

Double the Power = Double the Success

WSK Medical is founded by Derick Montaque (CEO/CTO) and Marius Wellenstein (COO). Derick manages the development team and oversees WSK Medical’s strategy while Marius is responsible for the business development and daily operations. They met in 2018 and decided to set up WSK Medical because they both saw a lot of opportunities to innovate the healthcare industry with the use of AI. Their joint goal was to develop AI solutions that assisted clinicians and doctors at their daily work without replacing them. Both Derick and Marius believe in human-machine collaboration to add value to cancer care and potentially save lives.

Leveraging AI to Introduce Practical, Innovative Solutions

AI has proven to be of utter value in the healthcare industry over the time, but it now needs to make the transition to being used in the daily, clinical setting. WSK Medical sees that this potential is well documented and proved, but this is done in isolated research settings without the real clinical impact. This reflects the current state in the Netherlands where AI is used locally rather than nationwide - small, isolated implementations. There are a lot of reasons why this is happening, so it is the mission of WSK Medical to translate those reasons into practical, innovative solutions.

Collaborations that Drive an Actual Impact

 WSK Medical works in close collaboration with key stakeholders from the healthcare institutions to develop its AI solutions. The company believes in building close collaborations with a bottom-up approach to develop meaningful, clinically valuable AI solutions that have an actual impact on cancer care. The company’s medical partnerships share its mission and together WSK Medical combines the technical and medical knowledge to develop solutions. WSK Medical also brings 40+ years of experience in technical and business development.

In 2019, WSK Medical partnered with Radboudumc which specializes in patient care, scientific research, teaching, and training in Nijmegen. Their mission is to have a significant impact on health care. They aim to be the pioneers in shaping the health care of the future. They do this in a person-centered and an innovative way.

It also partnered with Netherlands Cancer Institution/Antoni van Leeuwenhoek which is a comprehensive cancer center that is established with the mission of 'a cure for every cancer'. They do this through the combination of cancer care and research and the exchange of knowledge.

WSK Medical partners with such elite and transformative organizations to innovate AI solutions for the betterment of the patients.

Challenges that Came their Way

Apart from the technical challenges, WSK has faced several other challenges with getting enough data for training and development. Compliance and regulatory challenges had the most impact, as these are very complex and time-consuming for medical software implementation. The main challenge for the company’s CE certification was to conduct a comprehensive clinical performance evaluation that met all the specific elements for regulatory approval.

A Bouquet of Accolades and Laurels

From 2019 to 2021, WSK Medical got several government-funded grants (MIT R&D 2 times, TKI-PPS Health-Holland) and Angel investment. WSK Medical was ranked second in Fundsup’s top 10 health tech startups list 2020. In 2021, WSK Medical’s CE certified AI digital pathology solution Zeno PathologyÒ was available in the Founda Health platform and publication in Nature Breast Cancer with one of the company’s AI algorithms for digital pathology.

A Future that Creates Impact

WSK Medical is growing organically and is creating a big impact in the healthcare industry and in the coming years it aims to become an industry expert in building AI solutions for early cancer detection. “We are thrilled and honored to be part of this disruptive change in the healthcare industry and look forward to the (near) future ahead,” says Derick.