Before she became a health economist, an entrepreneur, and the founder of Oncoscope-AI, an oncology intelligence platform, Anna Forsythe was a pianist. In the early 1990s, she left the former Soviet Union with the intention of pursuing a life in music, having trained at one of Moscow’s top conservatories. But upon arriving in the United States, she encountered a reality that demanded something else. What began as a temporary detour from the world of performance ultimately became a lifelong journey through healthcare, business, and innovation—driven by the same discipline, precision, and depth that first defined her as a musician.
She landed in New York with hopes of attending a top conservatory, unaware that tuition alone would place that goal out of reach. She was young, determined, and completely unprepared for what came next. Instead of a piano bench, she found herself behind a pharmacy counter, speaking limited English, taking the first job she could find in order to afford her next meal. That pivot, born from necessity, would go on to define a life shaped by reinvention.
“I thought I could play piano during the evenings and work during the day,” Forsythe says. “I never imagined that work would take over and become something else entirely.”
What it became was a decades-long career in healthcare. Forsythe trained as a pharmacist and went on to earn multiple advanced degrees across business and health economics. Her curiosity always pushed her forward, from hands-on clinical work to pharmaceutical strategy to founding a consultancy that served dozens of global clients.
In 2020, after selling her company to a large multinational, she considered retiring and travelling the world. Then someone close to her was diagnosed with cancer. Then another. Each experience revealed the same painful truth: doctors are overwhelmed, guidelines are often outdated, and life-altering decisions are sometimes made with information that is months or even years behind the science.
“I realized I had spent most of my career working to justify the cost of treatments,” she says. “But the people I cared about were not getting access to those treatments. Not because of money. Because of information gaps.”
That realization became the first notes of Oncoscope, a platform designed to close those gaps. Built with a small team and enhanced by artificial intelligence, Oncoscope reviews the latest oncology studies, cross-checks them against regulatory approvals and clinical guidelines, and presents them in a way doctors can use immediately.
It is not another search engine. It is not a chatbot. It is a curated, evidence-based engine that lets oncologists find available treatment options for the patient sitting in front of them. Access to Oncoscope is free for verified clinicians, with subscription options available for unverified professionals who require access to the data.
“There are new studies released every week that could change a treatment plan,” she says. “Doctors do not need more data. They need insights they can trust, at the exact moment they need them.”
Today, Oncoscope supports several types of cancer and is expanding quickly. But Forsythe downplays the business side. She’s more passionate about the three people in her life who received the wrong therapies because their physicians had not seen the newest research. She sheds light on the guidelines that are hundreds of pages long, buried in PDFs. Ultimately, she amplifies the voices of patients who cannot afford to wait.
“Cancer does not wait,” she says. “And neither should the information that could save someone’s life.”
Beka Vinogradov is the Digital Communications Lead for Oncoscope-AI. She holds a Master’s in Health Administration and has extensive experience and education in business, marketing, and design.
