Montreal April 8, 2026
An 85 year old cancer survivor has just launched a voice enabled health app and he didn’t just invest his retirement savings to build it; he also took out a mortgage on his home.
Not for profit but to solve a gap in care: doctors and dietitians can’t be there in real time when decisions are made. The question remains: “Can I eat this?”
At 85, most retired executives are protecting what they’ve built. Raymond St-Maurice risked it. A cancer survivor and chronic disease patient, he had spent years managing the daily reality of medications, lab results, and constantly shifting dietary restrictions. Not in theory but in real life, where one wrong choice can have consequences.
What stayed with him wasn’t the complexity of the system. It was the timing. The decision always came in the moment and the answer never did.
Where It Started
As a volunteer Wayfinder at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), Ray spent hours helping patients and families navigate the hospital. And he noticed something.
Not in the charts. Not in the data. At the point of decision.
Standing in front of menus on the wall, handed over, or now accessed through a QR code on a phonepeople were forced to decide what to eat before they even ordered.
That’s where the uncertainty was. That’s where the question came:
“Can I eat this?” There was no system designed to answer that question in that moment before the choice was made, based on their ‘actual health condition’.
So, he decided to build one. Building Michelle with Everything on the Line Using his personal retirement savings and later taking on additional risk by mortgaging his home Ray funded the development of ONAHN MICHELLE®, now available on the Apple App Store.
At the outset, traditional financing wasn’t an option. Despite decades of business experience and a strong credit history, the project had no revenue yet. So, he moved forward anyway.
Not because it made financial sense but because the problem needed solving.
“Michelle” does something most health apps don’t:
It takes real-time health data from sources like Apple Health, wearables, and medical history and compares it instantly to the food a user is about to eat.
If something poses a risk too much sodium, sugar, potassium, or other critical factors it flags it immediatelyand suggests safer alternatives, explaining why.
No delay. No guesswork. No need to interpret complex data.
Just ask “Can I eat this?”
And Michelle answers.
The Intelligence Behind Michelle At the core of Michelle is the Medical Time Machine
An integrated intelligence layer that continuously learns from a user’s health history over time.
It builds a personalized baseline using longitudinal data labs, vitals, medications, and lifestyle patterns so that each recommendation reflects not just the present moment, but the broader health context. This capability continues to evolve through work with McGill Engineering Internship (Co-op) Program.
A Broader Impact Beyond the Individual While Michelle is designed to help individuals make better decisions in real time, its implications go further. By helping users avoid harmful food choices before they happen, the platform has the potential to reduce complications linked to chronic conditions such as diabetes, kidney disease, and cardiovascular issues.
Over time, this may translate into meaningful cost savings for healthcare systems and insurance providers, while improving quality of life for patients.
A Legacy, not a Business Plan For Ray, the motivation was never financial. A portion of future profits will be directed toward humanitarian efforts, including support for war affectedregions.
To ensure continuity, a Trust has been established. If he is no longer able to lead the company, control will pass to the team that helped build it ensuring the mission continues. This wasn’t built to sell. It was built to last. This isn’t just a story about technology, it’s about a moment that happens millions of times a day.
Someone trying to do the right thing for their health, without a clear answer.
Ask Michelle Before You Eat.
www.hnresearch.ai
contact@hnresearch.ai