CEO @PerimeterMed | Driven to transform cancer surgery and improve the standard of care with advanced imaging technology. $PINK.V $PYNKF ex-COO Groq
San Francisco, CA
Joined January 2013
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It's October which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month but this shouldn't only be about awareness, it should be about eliminating anything that make an already difficult diagnosis even harder.
For too many women, breast-conserving surgery ends with a call days later: we need to operate again. That is not a failure of effort. It's a limitation of what surgeons have historically been able to see in the operating room.
At @PerimeterMed, we are building technology to change that - using AI and OCT - to give surgeons more information at the moment a decision matters most.
#AI will never replace the expertise of #surgeons or the rigor of pathology but it can give clinicians better tools to reduce uncertainty, potentially reduce avoidable re-operations, and improve the experience for patients and their families.
That is the standard AI in healthcare should be held to: better decisions when they count.
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One in five lumpectomies ends with the same devastating sentence: “We didn’t get it all.”
That’s not an edge case. It’s a persistent problem in breast cancer surgery.
Positive margins can mean a second surgery, another round of anesthesia, delayed radiation or chemo, and another OR slot—for a patient who did everything right and a surgeon who used every tool available.
@klaidlaw's piece in @begiantca gets at the fundamental problem: surgeons have been operating with incomplete information, then waiting days for pathology to tell them whether they got it right.
That gap is where repeat surgeries—and repeat trauma—come from.
Claire is designed to work on that information gap in the OR.
In our pivotal study, Claire demonstrated 88.1% accuracy on margin status and flagged residual cancer in 40% of positive-margin cases before the patient left the operating room.
That has the potential to mean fewer re-excisions, less strain on OR capacity, and faster progression to radiation and chemotherapy.
With FDA approval, this is no longer just a patient-care conversation. It’s a hospital efficiency conversation too.
Katherine’s piece is worth the read:
begiant.ca/stories/ideas/bre…
Thanks for telling this story, Katherine and Be Giant.
#BreastCancer #SurgicalInnovation #MedTech
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Our team at @PerimeterMed has been working toward this moment for over a decade. It isn’t easy to explore new science, iteratively engineer a solution, run clinical trials and then navigate a very rigorous regulatory process. The reward is reaching this point where hard work results in a real benefit to a patient.
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I came out of the AI hardware world where most of what gets labeled a "breakthrough" is a benchmark. This is a U.S. industry first that’s changing the patient experience -- a surgeon can now use a model's output to change a decision before the patient leaves the OR.
I’m very proud of what the team at @PerimeterMed has been able to accomplish for cancer surgeons and their patients.
This is just the first step for us. Onward!
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Big Milestone: @PerimeterMed's Claire™ has received premarket approval (PMA) from FDA. This represents a massive leap forward in our mission to transform the standard of care for #BreastCancer patients.
Read more: bit.ly/4u7S4z2
#PerimeterAI #StrongerTogether
The data that trains an AI model matters, sometimes more than the model. At @PerimeterMed, we've built a library of more than two million proprietary breast tissue images. It wasn't easy to do, the necessary image quality requries it to be collected in the operating room at the time of surgery. It's not possible to collect the quality of image necessary if it's not immediate.
This kind of dataset can't be bought off the shelf or replicated by writing better code. But having a library specific to breast cancer surgery is critical for surgeons using Claire. Most aren't trained to interpret images, especially from novel imaging modalities like our OCT technology, which provides a level of resolution other modalities can't achieve.
As Claire rolls out, we're continuing to build that library to train our AI. It's a never-ending process.
techedgeai.com/what-an-ai-ha…
#AIhealthcare #breastcancer #medtech
At Perimeter Medical Imaging AI we focus our energy on our surgeon customers and their patients rather than on our competitors. This point came up in a recent conversation I had with Sergio Heiber and Lindsay Leeds of (microcapopportunities.substa…) about Claire's commercial rollout. Our attitude stems from working on a big problem that until now hasn't been solved.
20–25% of breast cancer patients go back for a follow-up surgery because margins weren't clear. No existing product changes that statistic, and so it has just been accepted as a fact of life. Our competition isn't a product that is already out there; our competition is the mindset that this is an unsolvable problem. We're working to prove it isn't.
What's so exciting is we are creating a brand new market and this means our approach needs to be different. We need to build the case, with surgeons and with patients, that no one has to live with a 25% risk of re-operation. That world is possible and that is the world we're working to create.
microcapopportunities.substa…
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I chose to immigrate to California 27 years ago to chase the American dream with no money, an engineering degree, a job offer and a willingness to work my ass off. What attracted me was the culture that rewarded both hard work and risk taking. The risk was great, but the potential upside made the risk worth taking. I’ve built a life here since.
@PerimeterMed, which was founded in Canada, started hiring US employees a few years ago because the state of Texas supported our mission to help cancer patients and helped fund our research if we grew in Texas (h/t @CPRITTexas ). In that limited time we’ve begun to repay that support by creating many US jobs (most of our employees are now Americans) and helped over 4000 American women with breast cancer get better care.
Both are small examples of different ways the US attracts international talent (individual and corporate) to make our lives better and what has made this country so strong over the last 250 years.
Here’s to another 250 years of not forgetting the recipe.
Great to see long-time supporter @DrSommerGunia of @HonorHealth on @ABC15 Arizona talking breast cancer surgery and what OCT and AI are bringing to the operating room.
AI moving from pre-op evaluation directly into the surgeons' hands is a fundamental shift. It changes how surgeons navigate what they see in real time.
With Claire, we've added an AI layer to our OCT technology for intraoperative margin assessment, guiding surgeons to suspicious areas, reducing training burden, and working toward what should be the standard. Breast cancer patients going to the OR only once, not back for repeat surgeries to get cancer that couldn’t be seen.
abc15.com/marketplace/check-…
#HelloClaire #medtech #breastcancer $PINK.V $PYNKF
See you soon.
Tonight is opening night at the @ASBrS annual meeting and we're excited for you to join us!
Stop by Booth #325 to say hello to Claire™ and don't forget to snap a photo for our conference gallery. 📸
#ASBrS2026 #HelloClaire #MedTech #Innovation #PerimeterAI
Pleased to announce that @PerimeterMed CEO @adrianvmendes will be presenting a corp. update at the 2026 Bloom Burton & Co. Healthcare Investor Conference in Toronto on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.
ir.perimetermed.com/news-eve…
#BBHIC2026 #InvestorRelations #medtech $PINK.V $PYNKF
Adrian V. Mendes retweeted
Claire™ featured in @medpagetoday! 1st FDA-approved, AI-enabled imaging device for intraop #breastcancer margin assessment.
📌Adjunc. tool; not replacement for histopath/diagnosis.🔗 tinyurl.com/mr3b37ke @CBankheadMPT
Adrian V. Mendes retweeted
Claire featured in @TargetedOnc! 1st FDA-approved, AI-enabled imaging device for intraop #breastcancer margin assessment. In trials, it reduced residual diseased margins—potentially lowering re-ex.
📌Adjunc. tool; not replacement for histopath/diagnosis.🔗 tinyurl.com/42jxpt2e
Very important and very difficult to get this right in the first surgery.
During #BreastCancer surgery, surgeons remove the tumor along with surrounding tissue called the margin. A pathologist later checks if cancer cells remain.
Negative margins ➡️ no cancer at the edge.
Positive margins ➡️ cancer cells still present.
Margins matter.
Thanks @chamath. The problem we’re working to solve is huge and impactful to millions of women. With this approval we can now start bringing our product to those who need it most.
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Honored to hear @chamath highlight @PerimeterMed
Claire recently cleared rigorous FDA PMA process, becoming the first AI-enabled imaging device for intraoperative breast cancer margin assessment.
bit.ly/4bj8T1s (24:48 to 26:28)
#HelloClaire $PINK $PYNKF
Adrian V. Mendes retweeted
Excited to see the interest in our recent FDA approval!
Claire OCT+AI underwent rigorous PMA process, is used as an adjunctive tool to help surgeons identify areas suspicious for cancer, with the goal of reducing residual disease in the operating room. bit.ly/4ru5Tp5
Adrian V. Mendes retweeted
Thrilled to see FDA approval for Claire featured in @DallasInnovates !
Check out the full story here: dallasinnovates.com/in-a-fir…
#DallasInnovation #MedTech #PerimeterAI #BreastCancerCare @SandraEngelland
Adrian V. Mendes retweeted
We had the privilege of hosting an intimate circle of breast surgeons and clinical leaders for an evening of conversation and to share the exciting news about the FDA Approval for Claire™.
Thank you to the surgeons who joined us and shared their insights!
#HelloClaire #Medtech
The CLAIRE™ OCT System represents an important regulatory milestone for @PerimeterMed .
What makes this technology unique?
- First AI-enabled imaging device cleared for use in breast cancer surgery in the United States
- Establishes a newly recognized FDA device type — “OCT imaging system with AI/ML [artificial intelligence/machine learning] software for adjunctive detection of breast cancer” (FDA product code SHH), which demonstrates novelty
- Approved through the FDA’s rigorous Premarket Approval (PMA) pathway, reflecting the highest standard of clinical evidence
- Among the first Class III AI-enabled medical devices approved with a Predetermined Change Control Plan (PCCP), enabling structured, FDA-pre-reviewed updates to the algorithm over time which ensures we can provide the latest AI updates to our customers quickly.
This milestone represents an important step forward for Perimeter and for the surgeons and patients we aim to support.
CLAIRE is the first commercialization of an AI-driven imaging platform designed with the potential to expand across multiple oncologic applications as we continue advancing our mission to improve cancer surgery.
We are proud to help pave the future path for AI-enabled medtech innovations that will improve the patient experience.
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A big thank you to @chamath and all our investors who have supported our vision over the years. It’s rare for a company like ours to be public but here we are and we’re so thankful for our investors.
The fact that 20% of women need to have a second breast cancer surgery because the first one failed is ridiculous. We are working to change that and this is a big step forward.
Go to perimetermed.com and tell me if you think we can help you. We’re small but we have a big job to do so we’re relentless.
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Four years ago, I invested ~$40M and got involved helping build a small publicly listed company in Canada called Perimeter Medical.
Why?
They were trying to build an AI enabled device to help doctors do cancer surgeries better: take a tumor out from a patient, analyze it with AI while still in the surgical theater and tell with precision if all the cancer was taken out. If yes, close the patient up. If not, go back and get all the cancer.
Well, we got FDA approval today!!
Our product, Claire, became the FIRST FDA-approved AI-enabled imaging device for breast cancer surgery. We also got Breakthrough Designation.
Currently, ~20% of women face repeat surgeries because surgeons "didn't get it all". What’s even worse is that they typically don’t find out for 10 days after the surgery until pathology has reviewed the resected tumor. That is 10 days of waiting and worrying for patients.
Claire’s real-time AI + OCT tech delivers 10x the resolution of standard X-rays, identifying suspicious tissue during a surgery so surgeons can act immediately.
Claire is now a regulated tool that sits in the workflow, in real time, while a surgeon is operating. It is just the start for what this platform can do for cancer care.
We will first focus on ~300,000 breast cancer surgeries per year in the U.S., and then grow into other solid tumors over time.
From a systems perspective, it’s also what “real AI” looks like: invisible to the patient, indispensable to the clinician, and measured in fewer surgeries and better treatment experience .
Congratulations to @adrianvmendes and the @perimetermed team.