About Us

History

Ariel Assaf, Yariv Adan and Nirmish Shah, the three Lab 39 founders all became exceptionally interested in pain management at the same time. Ariel has just sold his second analytics company (this time to HP) and was exploring the potential of offering an analytics solution to the healthcare industry. Yariv, while leading product for Google assistant, was in a motorcycle accident which lost him the use of his right arm and started a severe chronic pain condition he has learned to live with. Together they decided to see what emerging technologies could do to improve pain care.

To their delight, they came across Dr. Nirmish Shah’s research and found that they had uncannily similar visions. They all envisioned a near future where pain physicians make decisions based on credible data that is collected in real time, data that furthermore enriched by the use of bio-sensors and mobile devices. After months of research and endless conversations with leaders in the field, a plan was hatched and put into action.

Lab 39 began developing it’s proprietary technology in 2017 and launched the physician dashboard and patient band and mobile app in Q1 2018.

The Founders

Ariel Assaf

Ariel left a PhD in economics to join the CEO’s strategic planning department of Future Electronics, the largest privately health semiconductor distributor in the world. He then went on to lead product development for Zwirl, one of the first group buying platforms. Since then, Ariel has been founding companies most related to the analytics space.

Education

McGill University PhD (abd), Economics, 1995
University of Western Ontario B.A., Economics, 1994

Previous Roles
  • Cloudoscope Inc. Founder/CEO
  • Lucidel Inc. Founder/CEO
  • QED Creations Inc. Founder/CEO

Nirmish Shah

Nirmish is currently involved in three main areas of research: 1) novel therapeutic options for patients with sickle cell disease; 2) the transition from pediatric to adult care for sickle cell disease; and 3) the use of mobile technology to advance patient care for sickle cell disease. He has been most excited by his work on developing mobile apps that improve patient-provider communication, develop predictive algorithms and improve the medication adherence through the use of patient ‘selfies’.

Academic position

Duke University Physician
Adult Hematologist Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist Director of the Sickle Cell Transition Program

Yariv Adan

Yariv has been building the future his entire career. From leading R&D at Mercury (now HP), to leading the product team responsible for many of the differentiating “intelligence” capabilities of the Google Assistant. 50 shades of pain, tells the story of how his personal injury and chronic pain inspired the founding of Lab39.

Education

Insead Executive education, 2011
HEBREW UNIVERSITY BSC., Computer Science, 1997

Previous Roles
  • Product lead on the YouTube monetization team at Google
  • Emerging Markets Product Lead at Google

Our scientific advisory board

Lorimer Moseley

Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and Inaugural Chair in Physiotherapy at the University of South Australia. Chair of PainAdelaide Stakeholders’ Consortium. Leads the Body in Mind Research Group, based here at the University of South Australia and at Neuroscience Research Australia. Co-author of Explain Pain, which is now in six languages.

Thomas D’aunno

Thomas D’Aunno is Professor of Management at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and Professor of Public Health at the NYU College of Global Public Health. D’Aunno’s research and teaching focus on the organization and management of healthcare services: he has a particular interest in the diffusion and adoption of evidence-based practices and leadership and organizational change.
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We know that adopting new technology is all too frequently a source of friction and frustration. That is why our prime focus is to offer decision support tools that naturally integrate into your workflow.