There are around 130 million X-ray examinations every year – but too few radiologists. One of them wants to change that and has founded her own startup.
Believes in the power of AI: Raya Diagnostics founder Nora Sommer Raya Diagnostics
Doctors in Germany face major challenges. Due to demographic change, the proportion of older people in Germany is increasing – and with it the number of those who need medical care. Dem Center for Cancer Registry Data According to this, more people in Germany are living with a cancer diagnosis than ever before. At the same time, many clinics are struggling with the problems of a shortage of skilled workers. Also in radiology, which plays a particularly important role in detecting diseases such as cancer. This is exactly where the radiologist Nora Sommer wants to start with her telemedicine startup Raya Diagnostics – also with the help of AI. What sets you apart from most other startups? “For us, it’s always about patient lives,” says Sommer.
Why a radiologist founded a startup
“On the one hand, we have a great need for radiological diagnostics and at the same time a rapidly decreasing number of radiologists,” says the founder in an interview with Gründerszene. That’s why she founded Raya Diagnostics in 2021 together with co-managing director Christoph Commes of Bits & Pretzels and the computer scientist Tobias Höfler. Sommer previously worked as a radiologist at the University Hospital of the LMU Munich for ten years, so she knows the everyday problems of a radiologist very well.
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“It’s difficult for us to keep medical expertise in the system,” explains the founder. What is meant is the loss of well-trained specialists. Due to poor working conditions, many of them no longer want to work in medical care, according to Sommer. The Radiologist Group 2020 – a Germany-wide association of owner-managed radiological practices – held one last year Position letter warned about the bottlenecks in the health system. For example, since 2023, the school costs of MTR (medical technologist for radiology) trainees in outpatient radiology will no longer be reimbursed.
We find it difficult to keep medical expertise in the system.
Nora Sommer
(Radiologist and founder of Raya Diagnostics)
Radiologists play an important role in diagnosing diseases. According to Sommer, the widespread assumption that they only take the X-ray image is not true. Instead, the radiologists analyze and interpret digital image data sets, which they use to create a report that enables the doctor to make a final diagnosis for the patient. Every year around 130 million X-ray examinations are carried out in Germany alone – with around 10,000 radiologists in Germany.
Founder on digitalization: “Sometimes a CD is even sent or faxed from A to B”
Raya Diagnostics offers relief for the clinics. The idea: A team of radiologists prepares the findings for the radiology departments in the hospitals. The radiologists in the Raya team – around 25 permanent employees in total – work from home. “Radiology is digital. It doesn’t matter whether you are diagnosed in the clinic or at home,” explains Sommer. The team promises care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
This should make the work more attractive for radiologists. Travel distances can be saved by working from home. And the specialists can “design their own, perfect workplace” at home, as the founder emphasizes. At Raya, the majority of radiologists work part-time. Nevertheless, the startup promises all-day coverage and diagnostic results within 20 minutes. How is that supposed to work?
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First you have to look at the old workflow, says Sommer. As a rule, patients are examined in a clinic. The surgeon in charge forwards the case to the radiologist – if the radiologist is not in the clinic, the fax is often faxed, according to Sommer. The tele-radiologist receives the fax and gives his consent. The examination takes place and the radiologist receives the image data. After evaluating this, he creates the report and sends it back to the clinic by fax. The findings are scanned by the clinic and uploaded to the digital patient file. “Sometimes a CD is even sent or faxed from A to B,” says Sommer. It sounds complicated, and it is.
Anyone who works with Raya Diagnostics has the following process: If the clinic that Raya works with does not have a radiologist on site, the responsible doctor can use the system to forward the information to the radiologists at Raya. They review the case and give their consent for further investigation. An assistant creates the images in the clinic and sends them to the radiologists at Raya. The findings are created and forwarded to the clinic – everything digitally and in one system.
It is not difficult for the clinics to integrate Raya Diagnostics. The startup works with HL7 – a standard in the healthcare sector for exchanging data. This theoretically covers 70 percent of the market for Raya. According to the startup, they are already working with 40 clinic locations in Germany. It is said that around 80,000 examinations are carried out every year.
Support from AI, but what are the limits?
An evaluation of the thousands of data sets would hardly be possible without AI algorithms. “The AI is an additional pair of digital eyes that never gets tired,” explains Sommer. Radiology is one of the areas of medicine in which technology was used very early on. The founder is certain: “Without AI, we cannot close the gap caused by demographic change and a shortage of skilled workers.”
Without AI, we cannot close the gap caused by demographic change and a shortage of skilled workers.
Nora Sommer
(Radiologist and founder of Raya Diagnostics)
But teleradiology also has its limits. There is no direct exchange between patient and radiologist. This could lead to errors during ultrasound examinations. Here it is better if the radiologist is on site, says Sommer. “The lack of presence of radiological specialists on site could lead to an undesirable increase in CT examinations from a radiation protection perspective,” says an article in the Austrian healthcare system from 2022.
However, it will not work in the future without teleradiology. Nora Sommer and experts agree on this. So the startup wants to continue to grow. At Raya, they have so far received financing from a personal network and from business angels, says the founder. The radiologist does not want to provide precise information about the financing volume and sales. The startup should be in the black by the end of the year.
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