High Tech on the Low hosted by Jordan Kastrinsky, is on a mission to make high tech accessible to the world. In my podcast, I explore the many different facets of the world of high tech from development to marketing, to sales, to entrepreneurship and more! With society turning ever more towards technological solutions to make processes more efficient and secure, it is important, now more than ever, that we unite the high-tech sector's collective resources under one roof to reap the benefits of this knowledge-sharing. There is so much opportunity out there to grow within the industry that we must provide the tools through which to do so.
Traditional medical care is in the midst of disruption from telehealth technology, a growing trend in the world since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. An industry that was already in growth was accelerated by the lockdowns and closures that forced many healthcare providers to adopt new methods of reaching and tracking their patients. Dr. Ziv Yekutieli, the founder of Mon4t, saw however a gap in telehealth technology that he hoped to address. “I saw that people suffering from neurological disorders were not receiving the proper follow-up they needed, the methods were archaic.”
Ziv comes from an extensive neuroscience and technological background. Before founding Mon4t, Ziv spent many years trying to deepen what he saw as a natural connection between neurology and technology. Some of his academic endeavours involved him dabbling in music, ex-vivo neural networks, brain signals from epileptic patients, and a PC-based model of the brain. Eventually, in between his day job at Intel and other leading tech firms, and hours of speaking with neurologists, he began to understand their pains as caregivers and those of their patients. “Today, caregivers follow up with patients once, twice a year, and only get a snapshot of the person at the specific day and time the person is seen. Neurologists are not seeing the full picture.”
Mon4t’s mission, as stated on its website, is to advance the delivery of highly personalized care by turning any standard smartphone into a sophisticated, personalized neurological medical testing device. The goal is to improve the health of patients with a wide spectrum of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Whether Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s or other motor and cognitive disorders, Mon4t aims to address the needs of anyone suffering from neurological disorders in an easy, non-invasive way. Yet, even with such a wholesome mission, it is not always easy to convince people of this need.
When approaching investors, Ziv said that it was hard at the start since the market and general population still need a ton of education when it comes to the causes and prevalence of neurological disorders. “There is still a stigma when it comes to these disorders. You get visibly sick, everyone understands, but you have a disorder, it’s not understood. We need to change this old way of thinking.” Ziv makes it clear that these disorders are nothing to be ashamed about and must be monitored and he has found the right backers who believe in his mission.
At the end of the day, Ziv is just happy to have taken his neuroscience passion forward in helping neurologists provide better patient care and giving patients the tools, they need for the proper management of their disorders. “We are really helping the field go through an evolution, becoming smarter, faster, and easier to navigate.”
