- Scanning tech developer MyFiziq (MYQ) is set to expand into the world of cancer care
- The ASX-lister is teaming up with oncology researcher, Dr Kate Barrett, to bring its body composition technology into the cancer treatment sphere
- MyFiziq wants to create a module which can accurately measure body surface area (BSA) from a mobile phone
- If successful, a handheld, mobile-based BSA measurement tool can replace “outdated” manual calculations, which are far less accurate
- BSA calculations can help clinicians provide customised treatment doses to patients, improving a drug’s efficacy while reducing its toxicity
- Now that MYQ has locked in on a prospective target market, it’s begun developing a BSA measurement module
- The company plans to begin testing this technology on real subjects in the next 60 days
- Despite the news, MYQ shares have slumped 8.77 per cent to trade for 26 cents each in midday trade
Scanning tech developer MyFiziq (MYQ) is set to expand into the world of cancer care.
The ASX-lister is teaming up with oncology researcher, Dr Kate Barrett, to bring its body composition technology into the cancer treatment sphere.
Under this new expansion, MYQ will extend the capabilities of its scanning technology so it can be used to calculate body surface area (BSA) and other critical measurements.
“Improving the analytics of body measurements … allows for an opportunity to optimize ‘virtually deployable anywhere’ technology to further understand physiological changes for that individual cancer patient, and ultimately the predictive and preventative power in therapeutics.”
Dr Kate Barrett
What is BSA?
When prescribing medications to treat cancers, oncologists will often use body surface area calculations.
This BSA calculation can figure out a patient’s total surface area, which can be used to measure drug dosage. On the other hand, the BMI index measurement can determine whether someone’s weight lies within a healthy range.
In a clinical setting, knowing a patient’s BSA ensures the right treatment dose is prescribed, customised to their measurements. Accordingly, a dosage prescribed using BSA can improve a treatment’s efficacy and reduce its toxicity.
However, calculating a patient’s BSA accurately can be tricky.
Making the calculations
When it comes to BSA measurements, 3D scanning technologies have been deemed the most accurate.
The kicker? This kind of equipment can be costly, inconvenient and inaccessible in a clinical setting.
This is where MYQ comes in; its mission is to create a “cost-effective, convenient and personalized mobile device measurement capturing system” for the cancer care space.
If successful, a handheld, mobile-based BSA measurement tool can replace “outdated” manual calculations, which are far less accurate.
In fact, MyFiziq says the two most widely used manual formulas for determining BSA — known as Mosteller and DuBois — have an approximate error rate of 10 per cent. Additionally, these can carry a hefty deviation weighting of up to 35 per cent.
“The MyFiziq technology has the potential to change the way these calculations are implemented and furthermore bring a higher level of efficiency and safety in patient care.”
MyFiziq market announcment, June 22
If MYQ finds success in this space, it could also expand into other areas where BSA measurements are critical. These include the cancer chemotherapy, transplantology, burn treatment and toxicology sectors.
MYQ’s exposure to the health sector
While today’s announcement marks the beginning of MYQ’s foray into cancer care, it isn’t the company’s first venture into the healthcare sector.
MyFiziq is working closely with the fitness app, Bearn, to provide body tracking technology to the platform’s users. More recently, MYQ partnered with NuraLogix to create a “never before seen” health app that can determine health information from a 30-second selfie.
In fact, it’s MYQ’s experience in creating digital compositions for healthcare that Chief Scientific Officer Dr Amar El-Sallam says sets it up for success.
“MyFiziq has collected one of the world’s largest human shape and medical body composition image libraries, with over 7000 human subjects from Australia and around the world. I have used this deep and diverse data set to train and validate our accuracy in readiness for external review,” he explained.
Now that MYQ has locked in on a prospective target market, it’s begun developing a BSA measurement module. There’s also an extension of this which will be specific to the oncology department.
As a result, MyFiziq plans to begin testing this technology on real subjects in the next 60 days.
“The ability to make accurate and consistent evaluations through a handheld device will simplify the process on several levels in clinical and preventative medicine,” says Dr Kate Barrett.
“Not only will it be easier to track and document BSA calculations for chemotherapies, pain medications, and other supportive drugs across the healthcare team, it will enable an improved visualization of individual trends such that we can prevent and support concerning changes readily,” Kate continued.
Despite the news, MYQ shares have dipped on the ASX in midday trade. Stock has slumped 8.77 per cent to trade for 26 cents each at 12:26 pm AEST.