TORONTO, July 14, 2016
Winterlight Labs has a language-based diagnostic system that can detect several cognitive conditions and is pleased to announce it has graduated from the Rotman Business School’s Creative Destruction Lab (CDL). The CDL works with startups that employ innovations in technology and business models that promise a chance of delivering massive improvements to economic productivity and human welfare. Co-Founder and CEO Liam Kaufman said, “We’re pleased to have received such great support from The CDL,” and added “The team there added immense value to our strategy, business plan and positioning that will undoubtedly contribute to our commercial success. And since my co-founders and myself were all U of T Grads, it was a natural fit with CDL”.
Winterlight Labs’ platform can analyze natural speech to detect and monitor dementia, Alzheimer’s, aphasia, and various cognitive conditions. Using short recorded samples of a person’s speech (of one to five minutes), the scalable platform analyzes hundreds of linguistic cues and can detect dementia and other conditions at a level of accuracy between 85% and 100%, which is better than current methods. The platform has applications in drug trials, long-term care facilities, and speech-language pathology – anywhere that a fast, simple speech-based tool is required for assessment or monitoring. Current pencil-and-paper tests are time-consuming, costly, and difficult to administer to clients with cognitive disorders.
Winterlight Labs is commercializing a proprietary language-based diagnostic system that analyzes natural speech to detect and monitor dementia, Alzheimer’s, aphasia, and various other cognitive conditions. Winterlight's scalable platform uses short recorded speech samples to analyze hundreds of linguistic cues, and can detect dementia and other conditions with a high level of accuracy. This is a major improvement over current pencil-and-paper tests which are time-consuming, costly, and difficult to administer. The platform has applications in drug trials, long-term and primary care, and speech-language pathology.
Since its founding, Winterlight Labs has seen strong interest from pharmaceutical companies and other potential partners who view the technology as a major improvement over current methods of detection or screening. The company has gained support from the pan-Canadian AGE-WELL Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE), the Ontario Brain Institute, Ontario Centres of Excellence, and the University of Toronto Banting and Best Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. For more information, visit www.winterlightlabs.com.
Media Inquiries:
Winterlight Labs
Liam Kaufman, CEO
liam [at] winterlightlabs.com