Give Back Health Innovation Foundation Supports ScarDx to Advance Non-Invasive Kidney Care

Canadian-developed, AI-powered imaging technology aims to redefine kidney care - delivering better outcomes at lower costs while easing pressure on healthcare systems

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Give Back Health Innovation Foundation (Give Back), a Canadian philanthropic network advancing public health through innovation and technology, today announced its partnership with ScarDx, a newly formed Ontario health technology company developing a non-invasive way to measure kidney scarring, or fibrosis. Through this partnership, Give Back will provide philanthropic capital aligned with its mission and operating model to support the company as it advances its commercialization efforts.

Emerging from research at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science at St. Michael’s Hospital, a site of Unity Health Toronto, ScarDx leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze data from ultrasound images. Its goal is to give clinicians greater visibility into kidney scarring while reducing reliance on invasive kidney biopsies.

“At Give Back, we believe Canadian innovation can solve real-world health challenges and create lasting value for patients and our healthcare systems,” said Greg Wolfond, Co-founder at Give Back Health Innovation Foundation. “ScarDx is a powerful example of what’s possible when world-class research is supported and scaled in Canada. We’re proud to help accelerate this groundbreaking Canadian innovation in non-invasive kidney care through our funding model that puts health outcomes ahead of financial returns.”

Key highlights and opportunities of ScarDx for Canadian healthcare:

• AI-driven: Uses AI and existing ultrasound technology to help clinicians see and measure kidney fibrosis non-invasively.
• Global potential: Kidney disease affects approximately one in 10 people in Canada and around the world, creating a significant need for more accessible diagnostic tools.
• Growing Canadian health innovation: ScarDx is translating Ontario-based research into a scalable Canadian health technology with potential at home and globally.
• Powered by Give Back: A new model designed to help promising Canadian health innovations move from research toward commercialization while creating lasting value for Canada.

“We’re very excited to partner with Give Back, whose unique funding model leverages donor contributions to support Canadian health innovation ventures like ours,” said ScarDx co-founders Drs. Darren Yuen, nephrologist and Eno Hysi, physicist, both at St. Michael’s Hospital. “Doctors have limited ways to safely see the extent of kidney scarring and our goal is to close that diagnostic blind spot, giving clinicians important information to inform treatment decisions while reducing reliance on invasive and costly biopsies. This technology has the potential to improve the lives of people with kidney disease.”

The research behind ScarDx was recognized in 2024 when Yuen and Hysi won the Keenan Award for Medical Discovery through St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation’s research competition Angels Den for their project, No More Needles: A Non-Invasive Way to See Kidney Scarring. The recognition and funding helped fuel research that is now moving toward commercialization through ScarDx.

About Give Back Health Innovation Foundation

Give Back Health Innovation Foundation is a Canadian not-for-profit advancing public health through innovation and technology. Give Back connects philanthropy with promising Canadian health ventures, helping Canadian discoveries reach commercialization and scale while strengthening Canada’s healthcare and life-sciences ecosystem. For more information: givebackhealth.org

Visit our public directory of Canadian health-innovation ventures supported by, or seeking support from, the Give Back network here.