Nura Revolutionizes Preventive Healthcare with AI-Powered Full Body Screening

"This is what I realized by myself." When Masaharu Morita, a 20-year Fujifilm veteran, moved to Dubai to establish healthcare business across the Middle East and Africa, he discovered a critical gap that would change his life's mission. While Japanese people benefited from mandatory annual health checkups that made cancer very much treatable and lifestyle diseases avoidable, his friends in developing countries had no access to preventive healthcare culture.

This realization led him to create Nura, a Fujifilm subsidiary and India's first AI-powered health screening center. Now expanding globally with ambitious plans to reach 100 centers by 2030, Nura is bringing Japanese preventive healthcare excellence to the developing world through cutting-edge AI imaging technology.

This isn't just about diagnostic imaging—it's about democratizing early detection and making preventive healthcare accessible, affordable, and available to everyone, everywhere.

From Tokyo to Dubai: A Global Healthcare Journey

Morita's journey with Fujifilm began in 2005 when he joined the company's healthcare division directly—unlike many colleagues who started in photography before transitioning to medical. Over 20 years, he witnessed Fujifilm's evolution from a camera film giant to a comprehensive healthcare powerhouse.

"I joined from the healthcare from the beginning. So 20 years I spent time," Morita recalls. His early career involved logistics, marketing, and international marketing before a pivotal assignment in 2010 took him to Dubai.

"So from that time I opened my eye not from Japan but also from developing countries to see all over the world," he explains. His experiences across the Middle East and Africa were transformative. "Especially in Africa, it was very, very dynamic and I learned a lot of things."

The Fujifilm Healthcare Legacy

Most people know Fujifilm as a camera and film company, but its healthcare legacy spans 80 years. "Fujifilm start medical business 80 years ago," Morita reveals. "How we start is X-ray film. You know Fujifilm is a photography film but medical film as well we started."

The company's medical evolution mirrors technological progress: from analog X-ray film to digital imaging in 1982, then comprehensive healthcare IT systems, and finally becoming a total healthcare company through strategic acquisitions including Hitachi Healthcare.

"Now we become one of the biggest medical equipment companies in Japan," Morita states proudly. Today, Fujifilm Healthcare offers CT, MRI, X-ray, mammography, endoscopy, ultrasound, and more—a complete medical imaging ecosystem.

The Nura Genesis: Bridging the Preventive Healthcare Gap

The inspiration for Nura came from Morita's personal experience living in Dubai. "When I was in Dubai, I have to take annual health checkup in Japan. This is obligation for all Japanese people," he explains.

These annual checkups for lifestyle diseases like heart attacks, diabetes, and cancers meant Japanese citizens could detect problems at very early stages—sometimes even before cancer developed. "That's why for Japanese people is cancer is very much treatable and diabetic and heart attack is avoidable," Morita emphasizes.

But he noticed something troubling: "Unfortunately for my friend everyone, they never take this kind of service and it's not existing this kind of preventive culture in developing countries."

The Bangalore Case Study

Nura began as a proof of concept in Bangalore. "We showed one case study in Bangalore, we created Nura so we invite normal healthy people, healthy individual to our center to identify like all health whole body by imaging basis and we could find many abnormality inside the body and we could solve it," Morita explains.

This concept resonated strongly in India. "This kind of concept was pretty much hit in India and now we are going all pan India and also UAE, Africa, Asian countries. So we are going everywhere in the world."

Importantly, Nura represents a collaboration: "Actually this concept is created by Japan society but newly created with Japan and India collaboration actually."

AI-Powered Full Body Screening: How It Works

Traditional health screenings in India typically involved only blood tests—checking cholesterol, triglycerides, and basic markers. But Nura's approach is fundamentally different.

"Before maybe health checkup health screening in India was only blood test," Morita notes. "But this kind of things cannot find like all disease."

Nura's unique advantage is comprehensive full-body scanning. "What is our unique point is we can scan your full body from head to toe and we can visualize your inside organ," Morita explains. "For example like you can see by 3D visualization your heart, your kidney, your liver, your pancreatic, everything you can see visible."

Early Detection in Action

The power of this comprehensive scanning becomes clear in Morita's examples: "We can identify oh your heart coronary artery is little blockage you don't know never you never know but we can identify you may have a heart attack risk you reduce it cholesterol you reduce triglyceride then you will be safe."

Or: "We can see oh you have some abnormality or damage of liver, this liver start from fatty liver but this become become cancer now better to remove it now then you'll be safe. We can say like that."

This preventive approach catches conditions years before they become life-threatening, enabling lifestyle interventions or early treatments that dramatically improve outcomes.

The Human-AI Collaboration

Processing full-body scans from head to toe presents challenges even for exceptional radiologists. "Sometimes it's from head to toe everybody is very difficult to define only eye of naked eye of human even super doctor," Morita acknowledges.

Nura's solution combines human expertise with AI capabilities. "So AI and doctor is collaborate to identify your body from head to toe, then like doctor it can focus its abnormal area and AI support him a lot."

This collaboration doesn't replace doctors—it augments their capabilities. "This kind of the human and the technology collaboration we are making as Nura," Morita emphasizes.

The 120-Minute Miracle: Speed Meets Quality

From a medical perspective, health screenings aren't urgent. "From medical specialist standpoint, our health checkup is not urgent," Morita acknowledges. Traditionally, patients would wait one week or two days for reports.

But consumers think differently. "From consumer standpoint you are consumer you want to know immediately always people immediately I want to know after the scan immediately," Morita observes. "This is a psychology."

Nura designed its process around consumer psychology while maintaining medical excellence. "So as I'm consumer I want to know immediately so that's why we utilize AI and the doctor immediately we can define."

The technological infrastructure enables this speed. Doctors don't need to be on-site continuously. "We can pick up any abnormality by AI and then we alert to the radiologist and specialist doctor on the cloud basis and they will do the report and immediately report will come back and our GP doctor in front of me she will explain everything in front," Morita explains.

Creating Awareness: The Challenge of Preventive Culture

Building acceptance for preventive healthcare in markets without existing screening culture presented significant challenges. "Yes, actually it was a trial and error," Morita admits candidly.

In Japan, annual health checkups are mandatory—everyone goes. "So that's why like we could take a customer directly," Morita notes. But in India, "it's not like obligation, it's a brand basis."

Nura's solution: harness customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth marketing. "What we could find a way is we will take a lot of good feedback from the customer for example like from yourself and then we distribute this kind of voice to the market."

This customer-centric approach—where word of mouth drives adoption—has proven effective. The emotional impact of seeing internal organs in 3D visualization motivates people to bring family members, creating organic growth cycles.

Nura Express: Taking Healthcare to the People

Recognizing accessibility challenges, Nura introduced Nura Express—a mobile screening center that travels to locations rather than requiring patients to visit fixed centers.

"Actually Nura Express is we considered to make more accessible service," Morita explains. Current fixed centers exist in "Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad" only, leaving vast populations underserved.

Nura Express addresses the core mission: "Why I start Nura because this is kind of unfairness Japan has but Indian doesn't have and not affordable, not difficult approach."

"Even Nura this service we have only like a metal now Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. So how we can access more rural area, how we can go not only like headquarter office but even like factory?" Morita asks rhetorically.

The answer: Nura Express buses that go to locations instead of requiring patients to travel. "So by this concept that we created Nura Express, okay we go, not they come."

This mobile approach also enables more affordable pricing. "And then also like a more reasonable fee and a more affordable service. So this is what we are trying to do that."

The B2B wellness focus makes perfect sense for employee health. "If for the company, company like head office people who is located in Bangalore everybody can come to Nura but like for the in the factory, okay we go by this bus and all employee we can manage from our service and then entire company is protected."

Data Security: On-Premise AI for Patient Privacy

In an era where patient data is frequently shared between diagnostic centers, pharmaceutical companies, and healthcare corporations, Nura takes a radically different approach to data privacy.

"Basically this like Fujifilm is a international company and Japanese company we have to follow the law in the world patient data," Morita states firmly. "So for example in Japan, the patient data to provide to some hospital or even some hospital or some pharma company, it's not allowed absolutely, against law actually."

India also has personal information protection laws, Morita notes, and violating them is illegal. "So if we do something like that it's a against law, it's not allowed so we don't do that."

Technically, Nura's AI architecture prioritizes on-premise processing. "Plus basically our AI technology is on premise basically is we don't utilize for example cloud-based at this moment," Morita explains.

The AI development happens in Japan, then the technology travels to each site where local AI servers process all data. "So we don't utilize for example cloud-based at this moment. So we develop this kind of AI imaging AI in Japan and we bring this medical IT technology to India and to each site and we develop server AI server in each site and then to do the process in each site."

This on-premise approach makes practical sense too. "Medical imaging is very, very big data, 1 giga, 2 giga we cannot afford to send etc. So actually on premise is more makes sense for me."

Global Expansion: 100 Centers by 2030

Nura's vision extends far beyond India. Morita's ambitious target: "100 centers by 2030."

"This is what I'm committing to my CEO and our CEO also supporting," Morita shares. "I don't know I can reach or not. It's up to our effort and society acceptance but it's a very enjoyable dream we are creating. So hopefully we can achieve it."

Current expansion plans span multiple continents: "Now we are trying to open in for example African country as I said it's South Africa, Kenya, even Ghana. So it everywhere we try to open and make accessible."

This expansion aligns with Morita's personal mission. "So basically my aim is to make more affordable or accessible as fairness standpoint for all over the world."

The Healthcare Ecosystem: Partnerships for Continuum of Care

Nura operates as a screening partner, not a treatment facility. "We are Nura as a health screening partner. I mean health screening is we can say you are normal or abnormal."

The statistics tell the story: "For example 80%, 90% people is very normal nothing abnormal but some 10% people is some abnormality is there."

This creates critical partnership needs. "We can identify abnormal but abnormal mean is cancer or it's like a small abnormal we cannot identify everything. So basically we have to very strongly tie up with like each like specialist doctors and hospital group."

The focus on customer experience extends through treatment. "And our customer, guest we call the guest. Our guest should go well treated and in each hospital and then diagnosed then our customer our guest will be happy and the healthcare society also is linked."

Nura also partners with Indian medical equipment companies. "We are getting a lot of support from Indian medical equipment company, for example some IT test for example some company is providing quite great product."

This creates a virtuous cycle: "So for example they are providing this kind of equipment to Nura and Nura is using this kind of things so it's like a strong ecosystem also covering up so not only Fujifilm and the Nura we are managing but also as a society we are taking care of all our guests."

Entrepreneurial Wisdom: Advice for Healthcare Founders

Morita's journey from corporate executive to entrepreneur offers valuable insights for founders building healthcare solutions in developing markets.

"I think India has a lot of opportunity itself because of the so many missing parties there," he observes. The problems themselves represent opportunities.

He also highlights India's competitive advantages: "Also your people can speak English very well but for example other countries sometimes is not. So this is a great advantage."

His advice to entrepreneurs: "I think it's go out, go out more. I think this is more dynamic approach you can create."

Key Takeaways

Masaharu Morita's journey from Fujifilm executive to Nura founder offers crucial insights for healthcare entrepreneurs:

For Healthcare Founders: Look for gaps where developed markets have solutions that developing markets lack. Japan's preventive healthcare culture represents a massive opportunity in countries without annual screening traditions.

For Technology Entrepreneurs: AI augmentation doesn't replace human experts—it makes them more efficient. Nura's 120-minute report turnaround combines AI pre-processing with specialist review.

For Data Privacy: On-premise processing offers both security advantages and practical benefits for large medical imaging files. Compliance with strictest global regulations builds trust everywhere.

For Expansion Strategies: Mobile solutions (Nura Express) dramatically expand accessibility while maintaining affordability. B2B wellness programs provide scale and employer-sponsored access.

For Global Ambitions: Solving problems in developing markets creates exportable solutions. India's challenges represent opportunities that can benefit the entire developing world.

For Corporate Entrepreneurs: Corporate backing (Fujifilm) enables ambitious global expansion while entrepreneurial freedom drives innovation. The combination creates unique competitive advantages.

Nura represents the future of preventive healthcare—accessible, affordable, and powered by AI-human collaboration. As Morita works toward his 100-center dream, he's proving that bringing Japanese healthcare excellence to developing countries isn't just good business—it's a mission that can save millions of lives through early detection.

About the Guest

Masaharu Morita is the Program Director and Co-founder of Nura, a Fujifilm subsidiary pioneering AI-powered preventive health screening in India and globally. With 20 years at Fujifilm Healthcare, Morita brings deep expertise in medical imaging, international healthcare markets, and technology deployment across developing countries.

Born in Japan in 1982, Morita joined Fujifilm's healthcare division directly in 2005, bypassing the company's photography roots to focus entirely on medical innovation. His transformative experience establishing healthcare business across the Middle East and Africa from Dubai in 2010 revealed critical gaps in preventive healthcare access that would inspire Nura's creation.

Under his leadership, Nura has become India's first AI-powered full body screening center, combining Japanese preventive healthcare culture with cutting-edge imaging technology. The company's ambitious expansion targets 100 centers globally by 2030, currently operating in Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad while expanding to Dubai, South Africa, and multiple Asian countries.

Morita's vision extends beyond business success—he aims to democratize early detection and make preventive healthcare accessible to developing countries that lack Japan's mandatory screening culture. His approach combines Fujifilm's 80-year healthcare legacy with AI innovation, on-premise data security, and mobile screening solutions to reach populations traditionally underserved by healthcare systems.

As a corporate entrepreneur building within a global giant while maintaining startup agility, Morita represents a new generation of healthcare leaders leveraging multinational resources to solve local problems with globally scalable solutions. His commitment to "fairness" in healthcare access drives Nura's mission to bring Japanese preventive healthcare excellence to the developing world.