What exactly is SQINsight®?
Matthieu Jomier (Managing Director, QIMA Newtone): Basically, SQINsight® is an online image analysis platform for fast and autonomous evaluation of clinical performance of cosmetic products.
What inspired you to introduce this new type of tool?
MJ: Our clients! We’ve always valued our clients’ feedback, learning directly from them and understanding their challenges. Our conversations inspire us to brainstorm new ways we can help.
Recently, we identified a real need: formulation engineers and active ingredient developers would like a quicker, more accessible way to gather clinical efficacy data earlier that would support their decision-making. In addition to the time required from start to finish and for preparing reports, clinical studies can also be quite costly—which makes sense when you consider all the professionals involved in study design, protocol implementation, data analysis, reporting, and ongoing support.
That’s when we realized that for initial screening steps, an elaborate, expensive study isn’t always necessary—especially when experienced formulators are already performing routine analyses. What they really needed was something simple, quick, and cost-effective, which would help narrow down the most promising ingredients or formulations before moving on to more in-depth studies.
With that in mind, we set out to create a tool that our clients could use directly in their own labs. The idea would be that this tool can accelerate development while reducing costs but still delivering reliable results. We wanted to make QIMA Newtone’s advanced image analysis capabilities easily accessible, right in their lab. That’s how SQINsight® was born.
Can you tell us more about how SQINsight® works?
MJ: So, SQINsight® is an online platform designed to give our clients complete control and flexibility over image analysis—making the process easy, fast, and secure.
The primary function of the platform is to ensure the secure storage of images captured during clinical studies. With unlimited storage space, users can sync their imaging devices directly to the platform, allowing images to be uploaded instantly and data to be monitored in real time. There’s no limit to the number of users they can add. They can designate up to 10 account owners who are able to assign specific viewing and management rights for each study.
Once images are uploaded, users can independently perform a variety of analyses. Currently, we offer four basic options: color and evenness, texture, roughness, and gloss. Advanced or “premium” analyses such as pore evaluation, pigmented-spot detection, wrinkle analysis, redness, and porphyrin assessment are still under development and will be available in upcoming releases.
All analysis results can then be easily exported in Excel format, so they can review and interpret the data in-house.
What benefits does SQINsight® offer to its users?
MJ: We believe SQINsight® brings a lot of value to users for several reasons.
First, it’s easy to implement—there’s a dedicated plugin that makes setup simple and straightforward. Collaboration is also seamless, with features that let multiple users work together on the platform effortlessly.
But I would say that the biggest advantage is the autonomy it gives them. They can fully tailor their studies to meet their specific goals—customizing everything from study design and conditions to the number and type of participants and the timing of evaluations. This freedom allows them to work the way they want.
Another key benefit is cost savings. By managing everything independently on the platform, they avoid extra fees for project management, analysis execution, or report preparation. Plus, they save a significant amount of time. They can schedule studies to fit their timeline and access results instantly. This means no more waiting on other teams or dealing with project backlogs.
Finally, we guarantee data security. The platform conducts daily cloud backups to keep information safe and protected at all times. SQINsight® also provides compliance with international regulations, offering optional automatic facial image anonymization for privacy and ensuring data remains within designated geographic regions through multiple secure storage locations.
But does gaining more autonomy come at the expense of image analysis quality?
MJ: When we designed SQINsight®, our goal was to create an easy-to-use tool without compromising on quality. That’s why throughout development, we made sure to include features that ensure consistently high-quality image analysis.
For example, the platform offers automatic colorimetric calibration, so color-related results are accurate and comparable across images. There’s also a built-in quality check module that helps preselect images for each study, allowing to filter out any that don’t meet minimum quality standards—so low-quality images won’t affect results.
Plus, we’ve integrated AI-powered algorithms to deliver highly accurate and detailed analyses, especially when it comes to refining results for different skin phototypes. So SQINsight® brings both convenience and reliable analysis , without compromising on quality.
Will this new tool replace the traditional image analysis services offered by QIMA Newtone?
MJ: Actually, SQINsight® and our per-project services are designed to be complementary and meet different needs. SQINsight® was created to give cosmetic development teams full autonomy for fast, straightforward screenings—focusing on simplicity and speed.
However, there are many situations where teams require deeper support from us—whether it’s help with experimental design, selecting the right analyses, developing custom solutions for specific research goals, conducting statistical analysis, interpreting data, or preparing detailed reports. These types of professional guidance and scientific writing services aren’t included in the SQINsight® packages, but are still available as part of our project-based collaborations.
This is especially true for larger or more complex studies, where expert insight and hands-on support are essential.
