Agatsa’s pocket-sized monitor SanketLife gives early warning of heart trouble
Noida-based healthtech startup Agatsa aims to make cardiac care accessible in India with SanketLife, a handy heart monitor that can take a full ECG and share reports with doctors instantly.
Heart disease is India’s top killer. A recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report revealed that India has the highest rate of cardiac arrests in the world, with growing numbers of young people falling prey. But heart diseases are preventable with timely interventions. However, for that, it’s imperative to monitor heart function regularly.
Noida-based Agatsa aims to provide a warning signal with SanketLife, a pocket-sized ECG monitor that helps people measure their heart function.
Agatsa was established in 2010 by Neha and Rahul Rastogi, engineers from Aligarh Muslim University. However, the startup’s flagship product — SanketLife — was born out of a personal crisis in 2013 when Rahul’s father was diagnosed with a heart problem.
To keep a check on his heart condition, the couple started searching for a handy, efficient and easy-to-use heart monitor. But they couldn’t find what they were looking for. They soon realised that a gadget that would help people monitor heart function on their own, at home, would help provide an early warning signal of a crisis. Having identified a gap in cardiac care delivery, Agatsa launched SanketLife.
Working on the prototype
The co-founders began by analysing the essentials and functioning of the ECG machine, how it captured information on the heart function and started developing a miniature prototype that would deliver the same efficiency. The main challenge they faced was in developing sensors to replace the leads connected to different points on the chest. They also consulted a lot of doctors and medical experts for their inputs on what such a device should offer.
The device, first showcased at an event organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), comprises a micro-circuit in a plastic casing marginally larger than a standard credit card. The two thumb sensors transmit captured data to a basic smartphone.
Neha Rastogi, Co-founder, Agatsa, says, “Sanket can be carried anywhere and connects to a smartphone wirelessly. It notes full ECG/heart activity just by touching the sensors and shares the report with a doctor for quick review and advice, ensuring a healthy heart.”
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Today, SanketLife is available across all major e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Flipkart as well on the Agatsa website. The end consumers include doctors, patients and general users (people who have not been diagnosed with a heart disease).
How is SanketLife disrupting cardiac healthcare?
The world's only leadless ECG monitor fits in the palm of your hand measures your fitness level in one minute and shares health trends with doctors and loved ones. The device is integrated with the SanketLife app, which is necessary for using the device.
With SanketLife, users can take their ECG and share it with doctors, who use a different app — Sanket Doc — to get notifications. The doctor can review results and ensure that the patient knows if s/he is heart-healthy or needs medical intervention. The doctor can also chat with the patient in-app and offer a consultation.
Doctors are using the innovative product to perform quick ECGs, screening patients for any possible cardiac problem.
The product uses highly advanced algorithms, which not only display the right ECG, but also calculate accurate heart rate and stress levels along with other heart parameters like P, Q, R, ST values. None of these are offered by other mobile/tablet-based ECGs.
Users can also use the app single-handedly to keep a check on their vitals, including BP, blood sugar, cholesterol and share the trends with a doctor or with friends and family.
The brand faces competition from Indian healthtech startups such as Acculi labs, Cardiac Design Labs, Tricog, Uber Diagnostics, among others, which offer low-cost wearable or device for monitoring ECG. Globally, SanketLife is competing with San Fransisco-based AliveCor, whose Kardia Mobile ECG recorder is available in India through Apollo Group, and Kito+ developed by California-based Azoi.
SanketLife’s USP is that it can be used without any leads or support of a technician, Neha says.
Plans for the future
Currently run by an 18-member team, the healthtech startup has raised some angel funding and got a few government grants. It is soon looking to raise pre-Series A funding.
Going ahead, the brand plans to approach hospitals, cardiac rehab organisations and online healthcare startups to integrate the SanketLife platform in their services to provide better cardiac care till the last mile.
Most ECG devices available in the market today are priced at around Rs 20,000, but often can’t be used at home since they involve complex functioning. However, SanketLife claims to be a user-friendly affordable innovation priced at Rs 12,000. The brand is now working on its next-generation device, aimed at bringing down the cost by almost 50 percent.
Available on Android and iOS platforms, SanketLife app has a rating of 4+ on Google Appstore and has been downloaded more than 15,000 times so far.
“We already have sold a few hundred devices and have around 15,000 ECGs on our cloud, which is a huge number and shows repeatability of our customers. We are now eyeing 1 million ECGs through different partnerships and also aim to increase sales of the SanketLife platform,” Neha says.