Tromsø resident, doctor and entrepreneur Eivind Antonsen Segtnan has developed the computer program, which he believes can make covid testing far more efficient and more environmentally friendly. He believes the solution can save huge summers and increase test quality.

Well he hopes investors think the test method is as ingenious as he does.

– People stand for several hours in test queues here in Denmark. Here, too, the health service is under severe pressure, says Antonsen Segtnan to Nordlys.

Doctor Eivind (38) from Tromsø has made a comet career in Denmark. His latest project, through his company Synaptic, has funds from the EU and he has been selected for Silicon Valley with the goal of aiming for a new level.

He himself is most proud of the choice he made as a new reality star in 2005.

In 2011 he moved from Norway to Denmark to play. Eivind Antonsen Segtnan has resigned from his job as a brain doctor in order to focus fully on the company Synaptic, which has been established. Now the goal is to develop the computer program that can optimal group testing. The computer program is based on complicated algorithms from brain research. The solution can provide major savings and streamline the test system.

Segtnan says he is motivated by what has been his driving force all his life: To make a positive difference in the world.

Nothing less.

Moved to study

Ten years after he moved from Tromsø, the Tromsø resident has made a name for himself far beyond Denmark. Since 2011, he has trained to play, taken a PhD, specialized in neuroscience, established his own company – and discovered a new brain disease.

In 2018, Segtnan founded the brain research company that owns the rights to a new brain AI that Segtnan has developed. Then, years later, came covid-19. Thus, he and others developed a software that can enable mass testing of populations.

It has reached part of a major EU project. I received Synaptic 100,000 euros from the EU-funded Covid-X program for the development of the program. Segtnan is now working hard to scale the mass test software for covid-19 to the rest of the world.

The project will save both time and resources at the test centers.

Segtnan explains that they group PCR tests, such as testing five people and pools in a test tube rather than separately. If it is negative, fire tests have been spared. And both thus time and money.

When Covid hit the world, he and students at Synaptic were working on blasting with the development of the computer program.

– We are in a big world crisis due to the pandemic and I immediately thought that I must contribute, if I can. For a long time I worked twice as a player and with developing the company. But I think I can help more if we succeed with the group testing project.

Thus, he resigned his position as a doctor at the Department of Neurology, Region Syddanmark’s psychiatric.

– I had to make a choice, because it was too much in the long run, says Antonsen Segtnan, who is also a father of two.

Driven by curiosity

– How have you managed to achieve so much in such a short time?

– It’s toad flat here in Odense. There are no mountains to best. You do not even see the sea. Then you have to set other goals, he chuckles, before elaborating:

– I do not know. I’m quite surprised by it myself, he smiles.

He says he is driven by curiosity.

– And then I’m been lucky. I have met talented people along the way, several of them by chance.

He thinks it also comes in handy that he always does his best when he is in favor of something.

– If I do not succeed, it is because I am not skilled enough, not because I do not prioritize it enough. It is easier to endure a defeat if you have given it everything you could, he believes.

In 2018, Segtnan founded a brain research company that owns the rights to a new brain AI that Segtnan has developed.

Then, years later, came covid-19. Then the employees in the company did not waste time.

Terminated medical position

Segtnan is now working fully to scale the mass test program for covid-19, to the rest of the world. He recently got office space at. Visti Unlimited, run by Thomas Visti, who is behind the robot company Universal Robots and MIR.

– I want to do something that can contribute to the pandemic going over, he says.

– It can help us reduce the number of testers that may be used. As of today, it is a plastic waste without equal.

It’s about using the technology properly. And save the environment.

– That’s why I quit as a doctor. For right now, this is more important in terms of saving lives. This is software that is not limited to covid, but which can also be used to detect HIV and chlamydia and malaria. We contribute to less consumption, test queuing becomes shorter. It will save the public health service.

Reality star

The solution is based on artificial intelligence and a questionnaire for the test subjects.

– I contacted charities and asked if they wanted 250,000, but that I had to remain anonymous. It was not known that I won so I could not say my name. Many did not answer me.

Eivind Antonsen Segtnan thinks back to 2005. He was 22 years old and had just fought for victory in 71 degrees North. Premiere: A Toyota Rav4. A prize he would not keep.

– I owned nothing at that time. Suddenly I had to be in charge of a big scrap heap of metal. There is a saying that if you own too many things, things own you. I had that feeling just by owning that car.

That was 2,500 applicants for the seventh season of the reality show. The last year with Elin Tvedt as host. And Eivind auctioned off the car. He gave the money to Plan Norway, to a school in Burkina Faso in Africa.

So far, 3,500 children have learned and write and read in school.

– That’s what I’m quite proud to have achieved, he says.