Austrian government backs cancer screening solution that taps blockchain

The facility will explore the market viability and roll-out of Lancor Scientific’s patented Tumour Trace OMIS (Opto-magnetic Imaging Spectroscopy) device and the utilisation of AI and blockchain technologies, with the aim of delivering accurate, low-cost and near real-time cancer screening at scale.

It will open in partnership with the Technical University of Graz, the Medical University of Graz and the Sigmund Freud University Vienna. Lancor Scientific will receive grants over the first five years from the Austrian government for facilities including office, research equipment, access to academic expertise and clinical trials management.

The device will go to market in 2019 and a minimum of 10,000 devices will be produced in the next five years.

Nine point plan

This year, Austria’s Ministry of Economy committed to a ‘nine point plan’ to support blockchain technology. It includes the creation of the Austria Blockchain Cluster (ABC) cluster and aims to provide sandboxes that will enable startups to test nascent technologies.

“Blockchain is definitely one of the new important technologies. In addition to artificial intelligence and speech recognition, it is one of the big issues we want to highlight in the coming period of the EU Presidency,” says the Austrian Minister of Economic Affairs, Margarete Schramböck.

Aamir Butt, CEO of Lancor Scientific, comments: “Finding cancer early is key to saving lives. Lancor Scientific has dedicated itself to making accurate and cost effective cancer detection technology available globally. The vote of confidence from the Austrian government as well the partnership with experts at Graz Technical University allows us to continue that journey and provide a minimum of 10,000 devices within the next five years free of capital charge, with the capability of conducting 500,000 cancer tests per day. This is what we mean by making cancer screening available for everyone, everywhere.”