Colombian innovator creates rapid breast cancer risk detector
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Valentina Agudelo, a 21-year-old Colombian entrepreneur, and her team developed Julieta, a device that assesses breast cancer risk quickly and affordably in areas lacking medical infrastructure.
Agudelo was inspired by the lack of healthcare access in her country and the stories of women like Juana, a family friend from a rural region of Colombia with limited medical facilities.
Traditional breast cancer screening relies on mammograms, which require specialized equipment, trained personnel, and are often inaccessible to women in remote or low-income communities. Julieta offers a non-invasive alternative. The device uses small electrical currents to examine breast tissue and identify potentially dangerous patterns, prioritizing women who need further testing with a mammogram. It connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone or tablet, requiring no internet or specialized expertise to operate.
The device aims to simplify the diagnostic process and make early detection more accessible, as early diagnosis dramatically improves survival rates, nearly 100% in early stages versus approximately 33.8% in advanced stages. Agudelo’s company, Salva Health, received regulatory approval from INVIMA, Colombia’s medical device authority, becoming only the second manufacturer of locally-made diagnostic devices. Currently, Julieta is being deployed in Colombia, Guatemala, and Venezuela, with plans for wider distribution throughout Latin America.
Agudelo envisions Salva Health creating similar accessible diagnostic tools for other prevalent diseases, positioning Colombia as a hub for medical technology innovation.
