Bengaluru-based Prayagad uses AI, ML to capture clinical data and make it simpler
Currently bootstrapped, Prayagad is a clinical intelligence platform that offers natural language understanding to capture data in the form of speech and then transcribes it in a clinical structure.
From health monitoring devices to apps, technology has transformed the healthcare industry tremendously and has helped doctors treat their patients better. While medical records are a critical component for a patient’s treatment, the documentation part has always been a pain point.
It is to solve this problem that ex-Qikwell employees Ganesh Ramaswamy and Nitin Dubey started Prayagad in August 2016 in Bengaluru.
Prayagad is a speech-to-text health platform that collects clinical data and enhances the decision-making process of health practitioners.
The founders' previous experience of working in the healthcare industry made the duo realise the importance of creating a platform to record medical insights that would enable the doctors to have better offline interactions with their patients.
Not just a speech-to-text device
Prayagad’s software uses a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transcribe diction notes to text while understanding medical terminologies. This data is then used to process various kinds of insights.
The platform works in three ways – speech-to-text, text-to-structure and structure-to-insights.
- Speech-to-text: As the doctor speaks, the platform transcribes speech to text. Prayagad uses algorithms to personalise different accents and medical specialisations and convert it to text.
- Text-to-structure: A structure (data) is extracted from the text and is made available to the doctors and hospitals through the platform.
- Structure-to-insights: The structure that is extracted from the text helps doctors and hospitals function more efficiently. For example, if a patient visits a doctor after a gap of six months, and the doctor prescribes a medication that the patient is allergic to, the device sends an alert to the doctor that the patient is allergic to it, based on the patient’s history available.
The product is offered as a platform in the form of a JavaScript SDK, a programming language. The JavaScript integrates with a hospital’s existing EHR (electronic health recorder) and provides detailed records to the doctors. Nitin claims the platform also provides revenue insights to the hospital.
Prayagad, however, isn’t just a simple speech-to-text transcribing device and explaining the full scope of the platform to the client base was a challenge. Ganesh says, “Our prospective customers confuse us for ‘speech-to-text’ providers and it takes a bit of patience before they start seeing the power of our natural language understanding (NLU) algorithms.”
So what else does the platform do? “Some of the clinical insights we provide include drug-to-drug interactions, clinical profile of patients as well as contextualised risk factors, insights on follow up and healthcare plan. All of this helps the doctor understand and treat the patient better,” says Ganesh.
The startup’s biggest competitor right now is Practo. Practo’s Drive enables its user to record and store medical data in one place.
An experienced team
Ganesh Ramaswamy (41) worked as Vice President (Engineering) and Nitin Dubey (36) was Vice President (Operations) at Qikwell, a patient relationship management system acquired by Practo.
Before developing Prayagad, Ganesh worked as the Director of Engineering at Yahoo India and Nitin, an ISB alumni, was the vice president of operations at Ola Cabs. The company currently has six people on its rolls.
Market, funding and revenues
Healthcare has become one of India’s largest sectors both in terms of revenue and employment. The medical devices market in India, which was valued at $4 billion in 2016, is likely to cross the $11-billion mark by 2022.
Prayagad is currently being piloted at two hospitals - one in Bengaluru and one in Delhi - and also at multiple clinics in Bengaluru. The company has been generating nominal product revenue and it expects margins in the range of 30-40 percent at scale in the next six months.
Currently bootstrapped, the startup plans to raise venture investments once it enters the growth phase. While the team did not divulge revenue details and pricing, the founders say they use a SaaS revenue model for its NLU. Its primary costs are fixed and is being used in the research and development of the programme.
Prayagad has already entered the market and plans to expand to other cities in India in the near future. In the next 12 months, the company also plans to take its product to the Middle East and the US markets. Further, the company plans to enter the consumer space and provide personalised health insights to patients.
