He may not be flying airplanes like he imagined as a child, but Tom Kinyanjui is flying the flag of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, which promises to revolutionise disease diagnosis and treatment.
Mr Kinyanjui is the co-founder and CEO of Neural Labs Africa, a health tech company that is betting on the transformational power of AI to identify diseases early and save lives.
“Like many, I dreamed of becoming a pilot as a child, captivated by the idea of soaring through the skies and exploring the world,” says Mr Kinyanjui,
Instead, the St Paul’s University Business Administration graduate is now focused on helping others fulfill their dreams of good health through timely diagnosis of more than a dozen diseases using AI for effective treatment.
"By focusing on underserved communities, we envision AI bridging healthcare gaps through better diagnostics, faster interventions and personalised care."
Neural Labs, which he co-founded in 2021, has pioneered NeuralSight™, a trademarked AI-powered algorithm that uses deep learning and computer vision to identify more than 13 respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia in real time.
But this would not have been possible without his co-founder Paul Ndirangu Mwaura, he says. What makes the two a perfect fit, says Mr Kinyanjui, is their separate skill sets that complement each other.
“Our complementary skills – my background in strategic vision and innovation, paired with his expertise in software development and AI – created a strong foundation for collaboration,” he says.
The fitness enthusiast has steered the company to partnerships with US-based chips giant NVIDIA and attracted funding from the Unicef Innovation Fund. But there is more to come, says Mr Kinyanjui as he outlines the company’s future plans.
The company, which has five employees, has big dreams, with a targeted expansion into East Africa in the medium-term.
“By focusing on underserved communities, we envision AI bridging healthcare gaps through better diagnostics, faster interventions and personalised care.”
Mr Kinyanjui extols the capabilities of AI, exemplifying ChatGPT, the popular generative AI search released by OpenAI in 2022. He says its performance highlights the immense potential of AI applications.
“Similarly, in narrow intelligence domains such as healthcare, AI is poised to grow exponentially, solving complex challenges with precision.”
But running Neural Labs has not been all smooth sailing. Training AI models requires a lot of quality data, which has been hard to come by. Running an AI venture is also expensive, and access to sufficient funding remains a challenge.
“As a start-up, we face major challenges, especially inadequate access to quality data, limited healthcare infrastructure and securing sustainable funding to scale our operations,” says Mr Kinyanjui.
-Brian Ambani