Q&A with MindTrace Founders

Tell me about the moment that sparked the idea for your product?

I don’t think we can point to a singular ‘aha’ moment because MindTrace really grew organically in a basic science context from Brad’s lab. In a research capacity, we were working with approximately 50 brain tumor and epilepsy patients a year to study how to protect their minds during neurosurgery. As we worked with more of our clinical colleagues, we started asking ourselves ‘how can we scale this technology and go from helping 50 neurosurgery patients a year to helping thousands of neurosurgery patients each year?’. Once we began asking that question, it sent us down the path to what has now become MindTrace.

How did you explore creating MindTrace?

In 2019, we were fortunate to be accepted into the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Teams Program and this allowed us to travel across the country to interview neurosurgical teams about how they manage these complex brain tumor and epilepsy cases. Since then, we have continued to conduct user and customer discovery and have spoken with ~300 clinicians across 25 hospital systems. This has allowed our team to understand how MindTrace’s product fits within clinical teams and provides them a tool that increases their ability to achieve their surgical objectives and to better manage patient expectations.

Why is MindTrace the best team to champion this product?

Collectively, our team is in this for the long-haul and for the right reason: to take 10 years of research experience and turn it into something that happens in peoples’ lives.

Brad received his PhD in Psychology from Harvard University and is currently an Associate Professor (with tenure) in the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. Brad is a cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in neuropsychological assessment and how state-of-the-art brain mapping technologies can be optimized to interface with clinical interventions and populations. Brad is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of a principal journal focused on this type of research (Cognitive Neuropsychology), has cumulatively been awarded ~$4M in NIH and NSF grants, and has 75+ peer reviewed publications on the topics and methods that are at the heart of MindTrace’s technology.

Hugo received his MS in Biotechnology Innovation and Computation from Carnegie Mellon University. As a software engineer, Hugo previously worked with medical imaging software, built non-relational databases and cloud-based storage systems, worked as an ethical hacker and cyber-security consultant for hospitals, coordinated computational needs for a large multi-site research laboratory, and has expertise with a variety of coding environments (C++, JAVA, Python, HTML, etc.) and tools (e.g., GitHub, MongoDB, etc.).

Max received a STEM-designated MBA with concentrations in entrepreneurship and marketing from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business. After completing his degree, Sims has successfully navigated MindTrace through six healthcare accelerator programs and led MindTrace’s pre-seed fundraising.

What were some aspects of the processes that surprised you?

We went into MindTrace knowing that America has a very complicated healthcare system. Now that we are 18 months into this journey, we were still surprised by just how complicated it is to build a sustainable company within America’s healthcare system. It might take a village to build a company, but it takes 10 villages to build a healthcare company. Ultimately, you have to make sure you have a strong network of advisors who can fill your blind spots and knowledge gaps.

How did you make sure your product was a reflection of your target audience’s needs?

After our I-Corps experience, we’ve made a concerted effort to build continuous user and customer discovery into MindTrace’s DNA. For example, we make it a priority to interview clinicians every week as a way to ensure we do not drift away from our current product-market fit. We have also built a medical advisory board of physician champions and engage them as a sounding board to help shape the direction of this technology.

How does AlphaLab Health help you reach your goals?

A big focus for us is finding the right business model that allows this technology to become part of a neurosurgery patients’ standard of care. AlphaLab Health is helping us de-risk this area by providing unparalleled insights into every step of a patient’s medical journey via its experienced mentor network and partnerships with Allegheny Health Network.

What is next?

In early 2022, we are launching ‘impact assessments’ at 5 high-volume epilepsy and brain tumor hospitals where we deploy early versions of the software platform (under an IRB). This will allow us to gather clinician feedback and continuously iterate and improve the platform to fit clinical workflows.

We are also closing our Pre-Seed Round before the end of 2021, but we are planning to raise our Seed Round in 2022. Those funds will go towards building out the software engineering team and expanding our clinician user-base.

Are there any FAQ’s that you would like to address now?

One question we get is usually ‘How is MindTrace going to compete against the well-established competitors in this space (e.g., BrainLab, Medtronic, and Strkyer)?’. Their systems help neurosurgeons know where they are physically (i.e., anatomically) located in a patient’s brain, but do not offer predictions about patients’ post-operative cognitive outcome.

We are not planning to directly compete or replace their neuro-navigation systems in the operating room. Instead, we are building an IP portfolio that shows the implications of removing brain anatomy. Put simply, MindTrace will show why some resection routes are better for certain patients than others — all to ensure that patients do not take a ‘hit’ to an important cognitive domain after surgery.

What is the most important thing for readers to know about what MindTrace does and how that’s beneficial to users?

Unfortunately, 4 in 5 neurosurgical patients self-report a cognitive deficit after surgery that negatively impacts their quality of life. This challenge is what motivated MindTrace’s team to develop software tools that can help 500,000 focal brain injury patients each year in the US.

The functional neuroanatomy of the brain — the precise anatomical locations in the brain where sensory, motor and cognitive functions are located– is roughly the same between individuals. However, there is substantial inter-individual variability in the precise (i.e., cm-to-cm, and mm-to-mm) location of all critical functions (e.g., language, planning, memory). Since neurosurgery proceeds mm-by-mm, it is critical to map each patient’s brain to understand which brain regions in that specific patient support specific mental functions.

MindTrace was established to develop innovations that predict how neurosurgical interventions will affect patients’ minds. This allows clinicians to simulate surgical resection plans and utilize machine learning to predict and optimize cognitive outcomes — all before the first incision, or in real-time during surgery. MindTrace will allow neurosurgical teams to more effectively evaluate and utilize brain imaging and neuropsychological data, both from a current patient and from prior case data, to develop an evidence-based surgical plan.

MindTrace will provide a more effective standard of care in patients requiring high risk neurosurgical resections to manage life-threatening diseases, because it will revolutionize the ability of a surgical team to plan the surgery with a higher resolution understanding of how the surgical plan will impact the patient’s outcome and provide the patient with more effective and meaningful expectations.

How can consumers follow you?

The easiest way would be to email us at info@MindTrace.com.

Outside of work, what do you like to do in your free time?

After spending time with family, you will find Brad fly fishing.

Hugo enjoys trail running and biking. He also loves reading, especially books about science and the future.

Max has a passion for raised-bed gardening (especially tomatoes and peppers), cooking, and hiking in the Adirondacks or Appalachian Mountains.