International Team, Global Expertise
Axius SDC is led by an international team of semantic data experts with complementary expertise across three countries: 40+ years combined experience in semantic data modeling and health informatics.
A Letter from the Founders
Why we spent 25 years fixing the "Original Sin" of data.
We didn't start Axius SDC to build a startup. We started it because we were tired.
We were tired of watching multi-million dollar data migrations fail. We were tired of "data archaeology"—digging through 10-year-old databases trying to figure out what a column named val_2 actually meant.
Most of all, we were tired of the industry accepting this chaos as normal.
For 25 years, the tech world has committed what we call "The Original Sin" of Data Standards. We focused entirely on Structure (XML, JSON) and forgot about Meaning (Semantics).
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×
We built pipelines that transfer numbers like
5.5perfectly, but lose the context that tells you if it's mmol/L or mg/dL. - × In healthcare, that ambiguity isn't a bug—it's a patient safety risk.
- × In research, it's a waste of grant money.
- × In enterprise, it's a $1.5M migration project every five years.
We built SDC4 because we refused to accept that data has an expiration date.
Our team is unique in the SaaS world. We aren't fresh graduates looking for a quick exit. We are a retired US Marine Master Sergeant, a Brazilian Public Health Physician, and a Canadian Research Professor.
We spent 15+ years in R&D. We generated 2,200+ commits. We published 12+ peer-reviewed papers. We didn't write a line of commercial code until we were certain we had solved the underlying physics of the problem.
This is the Permanence Architecture. The promise that the data you create today will still be valid, queryable, and understood by AI in 2045.
We invite you to stop renting your data architecture from vendors who profit from your migrations. Start building on a foundation that lasts.
— Tim, Luciana, & Nikki
Founders, Axius SDC
"Our experience may be a matter of perception. But, the world we perceive is the context we must work within."
— Timothy W. Cook, Founder & CEO
Timothy W. Cook
Founder & CEO
Academic Credentials
MSc. Health Informatics | BSc. Engineering Technology
Industry Experience
- 25+ years developing semantic interoperability frameworks
- Created Multi-Level Health Information Model (MLHIM)
- Collaborator with W3C, ISO, IHTSDO, and ONCHIT on semantic data standards
- Published peer-reviewed work on semantic interoperability and knowledge management
Military Service
US Marine Corps (retired Master Sergeant, 20+ years) - Communications Engineering and Information Warfare
Role at Axius SDC
Full-time CEO, leads product development, architecture, and standards engagement. Primary contact for partnerships and business development.
The Motivation
"After 20 years in military comms, I learned that if the message isn't clear, the mission fails. I built SDC4 so the message never degrades."
Dr. Luciana Tricai Cavalini, PhD
Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer
Academic & Clinical Roles
- Associate Professor, Fluminense Federal University (Niterói, Brazil)
- Family Health Physician, SUS (Ilhota, SC, Brazil)
- Clinician at Child and Teenager's CAPS, SUS (Itajaí, SC, Brazil)
Educational Background
Medical degree (1994) | Master's in Public Health (1999) | PhD in Collective Health (2005) | Post-doctorate from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (2008)
17-Year Collaboration with Tim
- First met at OSHCA conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2008)
- KEY contributor to Multi-Level Health Information Model (MLHIM) development
- KEY contributor to generalization of MLHIM to S3Model framework
- Co-authored multiple publications on MLHIM and S3Model
Strategic Value for SDC4
Brazilian SUS Domain Expert with Active Clinical Practice: Direct, real-world knowledge of Sistema Único de Saúde (Brazil's public health system serving 200M+ citizens). Validates language-agnostic approach for Portuguese-speaking markets and Latin American expansion (650M+ population).
The Motivation
"I saw clinicians struggling with English-only tools. I built SDC4 so a doctor in Rio can query global medical data in Portuguese."
Dr. Nikki Shaw, BSc(Hons), PhD, FBCS
Co-Founder & Chief Research Officer
Health informatics specialist and the first research chair in health informatics in Western Canada. Originally from England, Nikki is deaf and uses a service dog. She is very open to collaboration and partnerships.
Academic & Leadership Roles
- Full professor of biology (health sciences), Algoma University
- Speaker of the Senate, Algoma University
- Senate representative, Governor, Board of Governors, Algoma University
- NOSM University tutor
- Member, International Joint Commission's Health Professionals Advisory Board
Research Expertise
Health services research | Disability studies | Medical ethics | Health informatics
25-Year Collaboration with Tim
- First met at AMIA Conference 2000 (invited workshop on open source in healthcare)
- Co-authored peer-reviewed publication: "Open source and international health informatics: Placebo or panacea?"
- International advisor for FreePM (Tim's open source healthcare project)
- Co-founded PATH Group (health informatics research collaborative in Canada)
Strategic Value for SDC4
Canadian Healthcare Systems Expert: 20 years experience across BC, Alberta, Ontario. Brings critical insight for language-agnostic data models in bilingual (English/French) environments and accessibility considerations.
The Motivation
"Research data is useless if it dies in a spreadsheet. I built SDC4 to ensure scientific knowledge outlives the grant cycle."
Why This Team Matters
International Perspective = Global Market Opportunity
Our team spans US (enterprise), Canada (bilingual systems), and Brazil (Latin America). This validates SDC4's language agnosticism—our primary differentiator for unlocking 75% of world's non-English markets.
Proven Collaboration History
Not a "team on paper" – decades of professional collaboration: 25-year partnership (Tim + Nikki), 17-year partnership (Tim + Luciana), joint publications, and real-world healthcare implementations.
Coming Soon: Case Studies
We're documenting real-world implementations across healthcare, government, and research. Be among the first to see how organizations are using SDC4 to eliminate data migrations.
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