Labfront: How the Innovative ‘No-Code’ Tool is Democratizing Access to Research and Helping People Use Data to Live Healthier Lives
Technological progress has always powered societal progress. From innovations in industry to innovations in art, technological advancements have enabled and inspired numerous industrial revolutions as well as creative movements. Of course, with the exponential growth of technology since the advent of the internet, technological progress is continuing to push society forward and create new opportunities for people.
Today, there is a plethora of exciting new technological advancements that are not only disrupting a multitude of markets, but are also challenging our collective understanding of humanity and our purpose in the world. With advancements in IoT technology and smart devices, people are connecting physical objects – from homeware to athletic devices to wearable items to medical equipment – to the internet to uncover a wealth of information and data never before captured. With advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence, software developers and data scientists are organizing and analyzing data in quicker and more creative ways than ever before; industry-leading companies in all markets are leveraging these data analytics tools to run their businesses more efficiently, increase the value and efficacy of their products and services, as well as better understand who they are serving.
Labfront is an inventive digital biomarker company helping research institutions and individuals capture and analyze meaningful data with simple, 'no-code' tools. With a focus on helping academic researchers analyze important biomarkers and physiological data to better decode the data generated by the human body and therefore provide more comprehensive clinical health solutions for those in need, Labfront is more than just a technology company. Labfront is intent on using machine learning and artificial intelligence to democratize access to research so that people without technical knowledge can utilize valuable data captured. With a moral modus operandi and industry-leading solutions, Labfront is trusted by the most respected academic and research institutions in the world, like Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, and many more.
Despite officially launching in 2021, Chris Peng, CEO and Co-Founder of Labfront, laid the foundation for the company over 7 years ago in Ethiopia. After dropping out of McGill in his fourth year and moving to Thailand, the Boston native found himself working at HTC in Taipei when his college track and field teammate Jordan Masys called him with an interesting proposition. Peng ended up joining Masys in Ethiopia where they helped launch a hospital as well as the country’s first 911 ambulance system. This would be the first of many startup ventures that Peng and Masys would pioneer together at the convergence of technology, data, and health
After their time building out emergency services in Ethiopia as well as a four-year stint running a design consultancy, Kiipo Design, where they served many large clients in mainland China and Taiwan for various projects, including Huawei, GBJM (LVMH), and more, Peng and Masys were inspired to start Labfront. In 2019, Peng started working on the foundations for a tool that aggregated valuable new data collected from wearable devices such as smartwatches and ECGs. Considering the increase in attention to wearable technology pre-COVID-19 as well as the even greater increase in attention to wearable technology to gain insights into health and wellness data post-COVID-19, the timing was impeccable.
Honoring this increased demand for easy-to-understand health and wellness data – as well as exhibiting their moral intent & entrepreneurial savvy – Peng and Masys created 'NEO,' a health data tracking tool, under their nonprofit organization PhysioQ, which promotes health research and STEM education. In 2020, they launched NEO and gave it away for free in order to give families the ability to track the health of their fellow family members during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Officially launching in 2021, Labfront's essential software provides researchers with an extremely malleable survey builder and CRM-like management system allowing them to create dynamic surveys to capture, aggregate, and analyze data in a centralized location. While Labfront's ‘no-code’ tool works for any type of data, Labfront’s value only increases as people continue to leverage more products utilizing wearable technology, remote technology, and IoT technology in this post-COVID world. Labfront specializes in digital biomarkers as the Labfront team believes that understanding digital biomarkers is one of the keys to truly personalized health solutions. Labfront’s no-code tool, geared at helping researchers utilize wearable technology to gain deeper insights into the health of their subjects, is the innovative company’s first product and the first step in its overall mission to normalize the use of biomarkers to decode the signals produced by the human body and therefore help improve the health of all individuals.
Despite the recent launch, Labfront is already trusted by the top research and academic institutions in the world. Traditionally, operating research projects are fairly expensive and one of the main reasons is that researchers often need to hire extra scientists to analyze data. Labfront’s no-code tools enable researchers to not only become self-sufficient and reduce the costs of their projects, but to analyze data more effectively and efficiently at the same time. Simply put, Labfront leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to make medical and research professionals’ lives easier by giving them an elegant tool so that they can focus on what they are trained to do.
As Peng and the Labfront team are intent on democratizing access to research, they are proud of the fact that Labfront is helping younger, untenured researchers pursue creative new research projects regardless of their access to funding. While providing this valuable resource for academic researchers, Labfront is honing its skills, machine learning algorithms, artificial intelligence software, and analytics engine to continue innovating at the intersection of health and technology.
Labfront has the perfect team to leverage technology to spearhead benevolent, market-disruptive solutions in the health industry, due to their collective experience. In addition to Peng and Masys, Labfront’s Chief Medical Science Officer is Dr. Andrew Ahn, a physician-scientist at Harvard who was the Co-Director of the Center for Dynamical Biomarkers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard Medical School). Splitting his time between Labfront and Harvard, Dr. Ahn provides invaluable insights into how Labfront’s tools can better help clinical researchers. Dr. Ahn and Peng were both part of the 2nd place team in the Tricorder XPRIZE competition (Dynamical Biomarker Group). Furthermore, Masys was named to the Top 50 Canadian Changemakers List in 2020.
Beyond working with the top academic and research institutions in the United States, Labfront is making waves across the globe for its entrepreneurial excellence, innovative technology, and moral mission. Labfront won Techstars Global Startup Weekend, chosen as the top 5 winner out of 18,681 competitors from 54 countries. Labfront was also named the Top Innovation Fighting Covid-19 by the World Economic Forum.
With exciting plans for the future, we will be closely following Peng’s and the Labfront team’s continual efforts to help people live healthier lives through research