History | Diagnosoft - HARP - Cardiac MRI Tagging

History of Diagnosoft^®

Diagnosoft, Inc. was incorporated on June 11, 2002, but there was considerable history before this date and much has happened since then.

Nael Osman earned his Ph.D. in 1999 from Johns Hopkins University under the supervision of Jerry Prince. Together, they invented the HARP technology for cardiac motion estimation from tagged magnetic resonance images. Based on their invention, three patents were applied for and obtained by Johns Hopkins. Nael and Jerry, from 1999 to 2001, wrote conference and journal articles and gave several oral presentations on the HARP technology to introduce HARP and its potential application. Johns Hopkins University medical collaborators including Jerome Garot, David Bluemke, Carlos Rochitte, Elias Zerhouni, and Joao Lima immediately adopted the new technology and began publishing articles on its potential clinical use in 1999 and 2000.

Jerry and Nael knew that the HARP (and their latest invention SENC) technology could have a tremendous positive impact on the practice of clinical cardiology. But it was not entirely clear what was the best avenue to make the technology widely available. Cardiac MRI was a relatively new diagnosis imaging tool and not well established as a core business in either the major or minor existing players in medical imaging. As an Instructor and then Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins Radiology, Nael found himself trying to support many researchers around the world who were discovering the benefits of HARP using software code that he had written during his graduate studies. Discussions with staff members at Johns Hopkins University Technology Transfer Center led to the conclusion that starting a company would be the best avenue toward providing software and services for the growing community of users. In relatively short order, Amr Awadallah was identified as a seed investor as well as acting President and CEO, and Diagnosoft, Inc. was born.

Early on it became clear that connecting HARP and SENC technology and software to cardiologists and radiologists would be critical to the success of Diagnosoft. Matthias Stuber, with his cardiac magnetic resonance experience, became the fourth founder in 2003. Although funding from the founders maintained the early HARP software development, additional funding was sought and acquired through a technology loan from the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) to keep our development efforts on track. Our early customers began to use and pay for the initial “beta” HARP software for research. Meanwhile, Diagnosoft’s software development team located in both Baltimore, Maryland and Cairo, Egypt worked diligently on the development of Diagnosoft HARP 1.1.0, our first official release. In July of 2006, HARP 1.1.0 received FDA 510(k) clearance, and was officially introduced in January 2007.

Diagnosoft, Inc. became the first company to offer FDA cleared software for the analysis of tagged magnetic resonance images of the heart. Diagnosoft HARP generated a great deal of press attention and we added more customers worldwide. At the same time, the company began expanding our product offering for cardiac MR image processing and quantification. The expansion included the development of a suite of research products aimed at assisting in the analysis of cine, T2-star, delayed enhancement, perfusion, and strain-encoded (SENC) images (Diagnosoft PLUS and Diagnosoft SENC). The founders realized that additional funding would enable Diagnosoft to rapidly execute its new product and market expansion strategy. It was also as important to develop the services organization to support our growing user community. Through the efforts of the founders, $4M in Series B venture capital financing was secured in December of 2008 from Technology Development Fund, a venture capital company based in Cairo Egypt.

With funding in place, Diagnosoft board of directors officially appointed Firas BenAchour President and CEO of Diagnosoft and a member of the board in January of 2009. His principal focus was to establish and execute Diagnosoft’s growth strategy. The corporate headquarters (Sales, Marketing, Support, Finance, HR and Services) was formally established and relocated to the Research Triangle Park in Cary, North Carolina. Diagnosoft also expanded its Research and Development operation in Cairo and moved to a larger office. Diagnosoft current focus is to increase its market share by introducing Diagnosoft Cardiac MR Solutions to the clinical practice community while expanding ties and support for the numerous research customers that have been critical to Diagnosoft’s early success. The company is also focused on enhancing our technology and increasing its diagnostic capabilities as well as expanding the software tools available for the analysis and quantification of cardiac magnetic resonance images.

Diagnosoft - HARP - Cardiac MRI Tagging.