“I am celebrating every step in this journey, and collecting success moments almost every week: our first prototype, pre-clinical trial, clinical trial kickoff, first American patient, fundraising, every time a new person is joining the team, every time we are presenting on stage, new office and many more, ” says Shani Toledano, Co-Founder & CEO at HT BioImaging. Success is a journey, not a destination and one can’t deny the Toledano has exactly got it right. As a leader, she believes that having a vision and being able to communicate her goals, persistence and responsibility are the most important factors that drove her personal and organizational success. She thinks that fostering creativity is a key trait to nurture innovation among the team. The passionate technologist has sports, communication and people in her list of interests outside of work.
The problem with the healthcare industry

According to Toledano, the biggest challenge that exists in the current healthcare RCM is that the patient is not being the center. The problem gets worse in the case of fatal diseases like cancer. Early cancer detection is instrumental in saving lives because the prognosis and prospects of successful treatment are significantly improved. Yet, for many cancers and other deadly diseases, there is no current early detection examination. Or if there is, it is not conducted as a routine test in the community or it is not affordable. Additionally, current screening methods are problematic due to relatively high erroneous results. Furthermore, The long-time patients need to wait for the tests and their results may cost lives.

HT BioImaging saves the day

HT BioImaging is committed to save lives and improve the quality of life of patients suffering from the deadliest diseases. In order to do so, the team has developed a platform that is highly noninvasive, safe, accessible, and highly accurate. “The system would make initial screening and cancer imaging more simple and affordable besides enabling easy access in the community. The platform also provides real-time results that would enable physicians to instantly decide if additional (or more expensive and high-risk) testing is necessary – early on,” says Toledano.

The journey

A Few years ago, Toledano’s father, a healthy, happy 56 years old, suddenly felt a pain in his chest and was diagnosed with a 5 cm tumor. Unfortunately, it was already late-stage and they couldn’t save him. He expired 9 months later. “At that time while I was working at IAI (Israeli Aerospace industry), focusing on R&D for flight simulators. I started to read, to learn about cancer, how it works, how it spreads, I was also completing my degree in mechanical engineering, where I specialized in heat transfer and thermodynamics.  This created the bridge between an unmet need I saw and my passion for technology. My next step was to look for the best people in this field to help me establishing HT BioImaging, ” says Toledano.

She started with her heat transfer lecturer Dr Moshe Tshuva, Thermodynamics Lecturer Dr.Sharon Gat, and her father’s oncologist Dr Amir Onn. Fortunately, she met Gidi Barak, co-founder and chairman at HT BioImaging while she was looking for an experienced partner. “Gidi is a serial entrepreneur with 10-exits record. He held leading positions in several companies including co-founder and CEO of DSP Communications (NASDAQ: DSPC), and Founder & Chairman of Envara and Butterfly VLSI, ” says Toledano. The team shared the same vision and as a result of their passion for saving lives, HT BioImaging was born.