In this exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Rubens Mendrone, Founder and CEO of LINDA Lifetech, discusses how his G20 award-winning company is revolutionizing breast cancer screening with AI-powered thermography. Named among Canada’s top entrepreneurs to watch, Rubens is combining innovation, accessibility, and ethical AI to make early detection faster, more affordable, and available to women everywhere. With a career spanning over 30 years in technology, he brings unmatched expertise and a global vision to tackling one of healthcare’s most pressing challenges.
With a 30-year career in technology, Rubens Mendrone is the Founder and CEO of LINDA Lifetech, a Canadian company with a Brazilian subsidiary that uses Artificial Intelligence for the early detection of breast cancer. In 2023, the company was recognized as the Best Healthtech in the G20.
Your mission emphasizes equity and inclusion in healthcare. What challenges do you see in bringing accessible breast cancer screening to underserved communities, and how is LINDA Lifetech addressing them?
Inclusion and equity are perhaps the two greatest challenges faced by any healthcare system. But when it comes to cancer, there are also logistical, economic, social, cultural, and political barriers. Moreover, the current standard is designed so that women typically only gain access to screening at the age of 40 or 50, and are often required to travel to major cities where mammography is available.
In response to these challenges LINDA was built: a portable technology that can be taken anywhere, requiring only an internet connection and a temperature-controlled environment. It can be used by women of any age, radiation-free, without physical contact, and at a per-exam cost 10 times lower than what Canadian provinces currently pay. This is a redefinition of how breast cancer screening can be truly universal.
This approach has already been proved in Brazil. This year alone, almost 60% of the women tested with our technology had never had access to a mammogram before. In July, in just two cities in Brazil, we performed more breast exams than several provinces in Canada combined.
This demonstrates that the same model that is transforming access to breast cancer tests in remote and underserved areas of Brazil can be rapidly deployed in Canada. In large urban centers we can significantly reduce long waiting lists for mammography, offering a safe, accessible, and low-cost alternative for the population.
LINDA’s AI-powered thermography technology offers a non-invasive, painless, and quick screening. How does your approach compare to conventional methods, and what feedback have you received from patients and healthcare providers so far?
Our AI was trained using mammography as the ground truth, but further refined with biopsy data, making strategic use of its ability to learn and re-learn over time. The most recent peer-reviewed study, published in the British Journal of Cancer Research, provides independent, scientific validation of our approach. In a breast cancer screening setting. The study concluded that LINDA matches mammography in accuracy, showing similar trends for both suspicious and non-suspicious cases.
From the perspective of Canada, our technology could be deployed, for example, in primary care settings, enabling family doctors to integrate breast cancer screening directly into their practice. This would support clinical decision-making, reduce unnecessary referrals, and allow for smarter allocation of resources.
The real breakthrough comes when we shift from the current “first come, first served” model to a “first need, first served” model. This change can dramatically reduce treatment costs, shorten diagnostic timelines, and improve survival rates.
Patient feedback has been overwhelmingly positive: the test takes only a few minutes, delivers immediate results, and involves no physical contact. Physicians, as expected, approach it with scientific rigor, wanting to test, evaluate, and compare. But once they do, they quickly recognize the value and often become strong advocates.
You’ve proven impact in Brazil and are launching major clinical trials in Canada. How do local regulatory environments and healthcare systems influence your expansion strategy and technology adaptation?
LINDA was born in Brazil, and became a Canadian company last year, transferring our patents here and making Canada our new home and the strategic base for our global expansion.
We made this decision because Canada is one of the most respected countries in the world. It is the birthplace of AI and a hub for innovations that have changed the world multiple times. This makes its regulatory environment both more rigorous and more mature, offering clear pathways to compliance. That rigor ensures our technology not only meets, but exceeds, the highest international standards, accelerating our readiness to scale globally. Likewise, the Canadian scientific community operates at the highest level of excellence.
These two factors directly influence how we build our product, from ensuring full compliance with Health Canada’s regulations to aligning our product design and validation processes with the expectations of leading healthcare providers.
Our AI development center collaborates with Mila in Montreal and the Vector Institute in Toronto. Together with the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, we are conducting the world’s largest study involving thermography, artificial intelligence, and breast cancer.
There could be no better environment for us: robust, mature, bold, and deeply supportive for our growth.
Data privacy is crucial for health tech. How does LINDA Lifetech ensure secure handling of sensitive patient thermal images, and what steps do you take to remain compliant with international health data regulations?
This is another key challenge for any company aiming to operate globally. While the challenge is significant, the rules of the game are clear, and our responsibility is to ensure full compliance.
At LINDA, all communication is encrypted end-to-end, ensuring that every piece of data transmitted to our servers is fully protected, mitigating the risk of leaks or interception. Within our databases and systems, we apply a rigorous identity management process, strict segregation of responsibilities, and periodic user revalidation. Only the right people access the right data at the right time. This is fundamental to protect patient privacy. Another important point is that our infrared images do not display an actual anatomical image of the patient’s breasts; they are purely thermal representations, making personal identification impossible.
We also partner with Google, operating on an infrastructure that meets the most stringent international security standards, giving us the confidence to operate at scale.
Finally, our devices are secured with embedded software that allows us to remotely control all functions, prevent unauthorized access, and ensure that no data is stored locally. This level of security and compliance not only protects patients, it also builds the trust necessary for our technology to be adopted worldwide.
Finally, what advice or inspiring thoughts would you share with fellow founders and leaders in the small and medium-sized business (SMB) community who are striving to make a difference in health technology?
Building in healthcare is not easy. There are no shortcuts, you can’t rush it, and you can’t do it without the support of the community. It’s essential to understand this from the start to avoid frustration and unnecessary financial loss. Processes must be respected, regulatory bodies should be seen as valuable partners in the journey, and choosing the right investors is absolutely critical.
Beyond that, there are two things I believe are equally fundamental. First, there are still many challenges in healthcare urgently in need of people who are both willing and capable of facing them, bringing high-impact, high-value solutions to the market. Second, I can’t think of anything more rewarding than dedicating your life to something that has the power to transform other people’s lives and stories.
For me, healthcare has been that space. And with LINDA, we are not just building a company, we are creating a legacy. A legacy that, I hope, will continue to touch lives and inspire others to believe that innovation, compassion, and profitability can work together to change the world.
