Simon Yeung and his company Time Medical want to make medical imaging available for all
From MRI to ultrasound to tomography, medical imaging has changed the world, allowing us to diagnose and track the progression of diseases and leading to earlier and more effective interventions. For about half of the world’s population, however, medical imaging is either inaccessible or unaffordable. Time Medical—the company of which Simon Yeung is co-founder and COO—aims to bridge that gap with imaging devices that are affordable for all.
“Before I went to graduate school, my grandmother passed away,” Yeung tells Tatler. “I loved her so much, and I wanted to help people in the same situation. I want to provide affordable healthcare to the global community.”
The brains behind the business
In recent years, there has been a focus on—as Yeung puts it—the imaging of “baby, breast and brain”. The company has its origins in academia: all four of its founders are former researchers at institutions that include The University of Hong Kong, Columbia University and Harvard Medical School. Yeung himself, who describes his role within the company as “a user experience-enhancer ”, has 20 years of experience making medical imaging systems under his belt, after originally studying computer engineering before developing an interest in biomedicine. His real turning point, though, was during his graduate studies, when he first met his co-founder and the company’s CEO, Q Y Ma.
“In my first conversation with him, he asked me, ‘Are you interested in establishing a start-up company?’ Without thinking, I just answered yes. It was like a spark—I became determined to start a business in the medical field.”
“In 2007 to 2008, we met again, and decided to set up a company that can provide affordable, accessible, advanced medical system for the world. The gap we’d like to fill is that imaging equipment is super expensive. We want to promote digital medical devices as something that’s really affordable for screening for stroke, cancer, and kidney and liver failure.”
From humans to horses
In addition to Hong Kong—where it is based at HKSTP's Tai Po InnoPark—Time Medical has R&D and sales and marketing offices in California, Shanghai, Singapore and India. In mainland China, it has 20 per cent of the private hospital MRI market and over 40 per cent of the pet MRI market. The latter is a longstanding interest of Yeung’s; he focused on the development of equestrian MRI systems at HKU from 1998 to 2004. It’s a field that presents its own special challenges—mainly, the fact that it’s exceptionally difficult to get animals to remain still. To counter that, he says, the company is working on a system that can capture images ultra-speedily, meaning it can cope with a bit of movement.
It is also developing what he calls an “AI radiographer” to address a global shortage of professionals in the role, automating the process of scanning results and potentially improving both efficiency and diagnostic accuracy.
These days, the company’s most important product is Neona, the world’s first neonatal superconducting MRI, meaning one of high strength and sensitivity, which won the Prix de l’État de Genève award at the Geneva Invention Convention in 2016. Time Medical also makes Emma, an Abbreviated Breast MRI system that can screen for breast cancer without using radiation—unlike mammography, which uses X-rays—making it far safer for patients; and Nova, an ultra-high field MRI system offering early diagnosis of stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.