In this exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Mustafa Alghali, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Amplifai Health, shares his journey from AI scientist to healthtech entrepreneur. Drawing on his background building large-scale AI solutions at Unity Technologies and collaborating with world-renowned researchers, Mustafa now leads Amplifai Health’s mission to make preventive healthcare more accessible and effective. At Amplifai, he works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, thermal imaging, and clinical practice—transforming early disease detection for chronic conditions like diabetes, and guiding his team in navigating global regulatory landscapes to bring groundbreaking diagnostic tools to patients worldwide.
Mustafa Alghali is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Amplifai Health, a healthtech company harnessing AI and thermal imaging to transform early diabetic foot screening and sports medicine. In 2023, he left the corporate world to cofound Amplifai, where he now leads product vision and strategy—working closely with clinicians and engineers to build solutions that navigate complex regulatory pathways and bring advanced AI into real-world healthcare.
What inspired the founding of AmplifAI Health, and how did you identify early disease detection—such as diabetic foot ulcers—as an area for innovation?
Amplifai Health was born out of both personal tragedy and a clear healthcare gap. I lost my father to diabetes complications, a reality faced by millions of families. Later, in a conversation with my co-founder, Meshari Alwashmi, I learned that someone loses a foot to diabetes every 20 seconds and that up to 80% of these amputations are preventable with early detection.
Thermography has long shown promise for diabetic foot screening, but adoption has been limited by a shortage of specialists and lack of scalable tools. We saw an opportunity to bridge that gap by combining AI with thermal imaging, effectively digitizing a thermographer’s expertise. The result is an accessible, standardized screening tool aligned with international diabetic foot care guidelines.
For us, this work goes beyond preventing amputations. It’s about saving lives, reducing suffering for families, and alleviating healthcare costs that can exceed those of many cancer treatments. That mission to make preventive healthcare scalable and accessible everywhere continues to drive us forward.
AmplifAI Health’s TFScan product uses advanced thermal imaging and AI for objective diabetic foot assessments. How does this technology improve the accuracy and efficiency of screenings compared to traditional methods?
AmplifAI Health’s TFScan product uses advanced thermal imaging and AI for objective diabetic foot assessments. How does this technology improve the accuracy and efficiency of screenings compared to traditional methods?
TFScan combines thermal imaging with AI to give clinicians a faster, more reliable way to assess diabetic foot health compared to traditional methods.
Accuracy: Subtle warning signs like reduced blood flow, inflammation, or early infection often go unnoticed in visual exams. TFScan captures these temperature changes and uses AI to analyze them in real time, providing an objective, data-driven risk profile. This reduces human error and helps clinicians detect complications long before they become critical.
Efficiency: With the growing diabetes burden, it isn’t practical for specialists to examine every patient annually. TFScan democratizes screening, allowing primary care providers—or even home-care teams to run quick, consistent assessments. This frees up specialists to focus on high-risk cases while ensuring patients are not left behind.
By making screening both more objective and more scalable, TFScan enables earlier intervention, lowers costs, and improves outcomes for the entire diabetic community.
You’ve secured key partnerships and regulatory approvals, including SFDA clearance for the world’s first software as a medical device for diabetic foot screening. Can you share how these milestones have shaped your scale-up strategy and credibility within the global healthcare community?
In healthcare, trust is everything. Our clearance from the Saudi FDA (SFDA) for software as a medical device for diabetic foot screening was a turning point. It signaled to clinicians and health systems that TFScan is safe, effective, and compliant, not another experimental tool. That validation opened doors to partnerships, strengthened investor confidence, and positioned us as credible players in global healthtech.
Equally important, regulatory approval shaped how we scale. Healthtech cannot succeed in silos. We’re building TFScan as part of a connected ecosystem, integrating it into patient workflows from frontline assessments to long-term management. Our collaborations reflect this approach, ensuring adoption is smooth and impact is measurable.
This blueprint grounded in credibility, integration, and collaboration is now guiding our expansion into the US and European markets. What began as a regional milestone is becoming a global model for proactive, AI-driven healthcare.
As you expand internationally and participate in initiatives like the Google AI for Health Academy, what unique challenges or opportunities have you encountered when implementing AI-driven health diagnostics across different markets?
Diabetes complications are universal, but healthcare systems are not. As we expand internationally, one of the biggest challenges has been adapting to the diversity of clinical workflows, regulatory rules, and reimbursement models. For example, integration with electronic health records may be seamless in one country but far more complex in another.
Participation in initiatives like the Google AI for Health Academy has connected us with global experts who’ve faced similar hurdles. Their insights have helped us refine TFScan to be interoperable, adaptable, and resilient across markets.
The process has taught us that scaling healthtech isn’t just about technology, it’s about cultural, regulatory, and clinical fit.
Finally, what advice or key message would you share with small- and medium-sized businesses aiming to drive innovation and impact in healthcare technology?
My biggest advice is that AI evolves quickly, but healthcare innovation succeeds only when it solves a real, urgent pain point. Fall in love with the problem and spend time with clinicians and patients, observe their workflows, listen to their frustrations, and design around their needs. That human insight is the most valuable research you can do.
Second, view regulation not as a hurdle but as a framework. Evidence, trials, and compliance take time, but they build trust and ensure your product is truly safe and effective. Persistence and patience here are non-negotiable.
Finally, leverage the agility of being a small company. Larger corporations move slowly; you can pivot faster, form closer relationships, and become an indispensable piece of the healthcare ecosystem. Don’t try to solve everything, focus on what you do best, then collaborate to complete the patient journey.
True healthcare innovation isn’t about moving fast, it’s about moving right.
