High School Health Tech Pioneer Advances Disease Detection and Patient Accessibility through Brain Health

Student founders working on a start-up the past 2 years have created a 30-second home based AI brain health evaluation utilizing advanced imaging and neural analysis for non-invasive early disease detection. Personalized and tailored, this new gaze tracking system is non-invasive, has remote capabilities, and costs less - bringing remote detection to more providers and more patients via tele-ophthalmology. Identifying ocular biomarkers can point to several serious conditions, including Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The discussion will include:

• A brief background on Vytal founders, journey and mission
• How founders developed the product and where funding comes from
• What and how eye tracking tests are used in medicine
• A status update on eye health technologies and AI that healthcare providers can offer to their patients through telehealth 
• How eye tracking technology can help healthcare providers identify ocular biomarkers that point to conditions such as Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases
• How the "gateway to brain health" is growing in adoption in tandem with telehealth
• What impact a Gen-Z student expects to achieve with their product in medicine

Speakers

Sai Mattapalli, Co-Founder and CEO, Vytal, was initially focused on behavioral neuroscience. Sai was a research intern at the Neurophysiology Lab at Georgetown University, where he built behavioral paradigms to test auditory learning in Zebrafish. Later pivoting to entrepreneurship and finance, Sai served as a business growth intern at Quantbase (YC W23) and was a part of DMV's Finest, the winners of the Wharton Investment Competition. The amalgamation of his experiences led him to where he is today, leading Vytal with Rohan Kalahasty, Co-Founder, with aspirations to be an entrepreneur in the medical space. He has a focus on interdisciplinary endeavors that have the potential to make an impact in the world. He is a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
 

Dr. Sweta Sneha is the Founder and Executive Director of Healthcare Management & Informatics and Professor of Information Systems & Security at Kennesaw State University. A globally recognized expert with a passion towards equity and diversity, Sneha is a strategic leader with two decades of experience in technology and informatics. She is a recipient of Distinguished Service Award, KSU Collaboration Award, NCWIT RISE-IT Award, and WIT Honoree, WIT Finalist (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022). Dr. Sneha has published over 100 peer-reviewed research; authored a book on revolutionizing healthcare; delivered panel sessions, workshops, and keynotes; in addition to serving on several boards. Dr. Sneha serves as editorial steward and university ambassador for Blockchain in Healthcare Today; editorial board for Health Systems Journal; co-chairs Health IT at AMCIS, and HICSS. Her leadership has led to enhancing KSU’s footprint on diversity and equity, STEAM education, and outreach. She has a PhD in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State University and a BS in Computer Science from University of Maryland. Prior to academia, she worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Management Consulting.

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