Dozee cofounder Gaurav Parchani is building the future of healthcare for the world from India

In this enlightening episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Sanjay Swamy delves into the transformative world of AI-powered healthcare monitoring with Gaurav Parchani, Co-founder & CTO of Dozee.

Sunday September 22, 2024 , 6 min Read

In recent years, the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare has been a growing frontier for innovation. One startup at the forefront of this movement is Dozee, a healthcare technology company co-founded by Gaurav Parchani and Mudit Dandwate, which is revolutionising patient monitoring with a contactless, AI-powered approach.

As India’s firstt AI-based contactless remote patient monitoring and early warning system, Dozee is FDA cleared and has monitored 250 billion+ heart beats and saved 14 million nursing hours.

Dozee tracks vital parameters such as heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, and skin temperature with clinical grade accuracy, and tracks sleep quality while flagging indicators of sleep apnea.

The origins: a desire to make real-world impact

Dozee’s story begins with Parchani’s engineering background and his desire to tackle real-life problems. Growing up in a household where his father worked in the Department of Atomic Energy, Parchani was surrounded by large-scale engineering projects that fuelled his curiosity for problem-solving. After graduating from IIT Indore with a degree in mechanical engineering, he started his career in the automotive sector, where he met Dandwate.

“We were interacting with companies like Ferrari, Mercedes, and Porsche, working on simulations to make cars faster and safer,” says Parchani.

“But while the problems we solved were complex and exciting, the impact wasn’t societal enough. That’s when Mudit and I started thinking about healthcare.”

The turning point came after an unfortunate event in Dandwate’s family that made the two co-founders realise the need for change in healthcare, particularly in patient monitoring. They noticed that, while industries like advertising and retail had undergone a data revolution, healthcare lagged behind.

“Healthcare follows the same protocols set up decades ago,” remarks Parchani. “This is an industry that’s overdue for a big tech revolution.”

Dozee’s breakthrough: contactless patient monitoring

At the heart of Dozee’s innovation is its contactless remote patient monitoring system, which aims to address the gaps in traditional patient care, especially outside of the ICU. Traditional patient monitoring systems are often invasive, uncomfortable, and limited by nurse availability, leading to suboptimal care in many hospitals.

“Today, patients in the ICU are wired to multiple probes for heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen levels,” explains Parchani. “But outside the ICU, patients are ambulatory. They move around, go for tests, and it’s impractical to attach wires every time. Plus, there’s a shortage of nurses to monitor them continuously.”

Dozee solves these issues by embedding sensors under the patient’s mattress to track vitals such as respiration rate, heart rate, and blood pressure without any physical contact.

“Our goal was to make monitoring as passive and seamless as possible,” says Parchani. “The patient just lies on the bed, and the system automatically tracks their vitals.”

This innovation not only simplifies the process for healthcare professionals but also ensures more consistent and accurate data.

“In India, about 90-95% of hospital beds are non-ICU beds, and most of them aren’t monitored continuously. Nurses typically take readings every 4-6 hours. We’re saying, why settle for four data points when you can get a full, high-definition stream of a patient’s vitals?” Parchani points out.

The power of AI: early warning systems for critical care

With continuous data collection comes a new challenge—overload. Dozee’s system generates a massive amount of data from multiple patients, and it’s impossible for nurses to manually process all this information in real time. This is where AI steps in.

“Imagine being a nurse overseeing 20 patients,” says Parchani. “It’s impossible to monitor all their data manually. But our AI processes that information, identifies abnormal trends, and generates alerts. This early warning system can predict deteriorating health conditions hours in advance, allowing healthcare professionals to intervene before it’s too late.”

Sanjay Swamy, the host, points out the paradigm shift this technology creates. “Earlier, nurses struggled to get enough data. Now they’re overwhelmed with it. AI helps in distilling that data into actionable insights.”

Parchani elaborates on the early warning system that Dozee’s AI supports, particularly in predicting Code Blues—emergency situations where a patient’s condition has deteriorated critically.

“Research shows that before a Code Blue is announced, there are early signs in cardiopulmonary function—like subtle changes in respiration or heart rate—that happen hours in advance,” he explains. “Our AI can pick up on these changes, giving doctors and nurses the opportunity to act earlier, saving lives.”

The AI doesn’t just mimic what humans do—it goes beyond. Parchani highlights that by analysing data in much finer detail, Dozee’s AI can detect patterns that the human eye might miss.

“Why limit ourselves to just a few vital signs? We’re capturing hundreds of data points per second, and AI helps us leverage this data to make more accurate predictions.”

A global first: non-contact blood pressure monitoring

One of Dozee’s most groundbreaking features is its non-contact blood pressure monitoring, a technological feat that doesn’t exist elsewhere. Traditionally, blood pressure is measured through invasive arterial lines or uncomfortable cuff-based methods, which are impractical for continuous monitoring.

“Blood pressure is the vital sign that doctors value the most, but it’s also the hardest to measure continuously,” Parchani notes. “We built an AI model that analyses the subtle vibrations from the heart to estimate changes in blood pressure without needing any contact.”

This innovation has the potential to revolutionise not just hospitals but home care settings as well. As Dozee continues to conduct clinical trials and regulatory approvals (including with the FDA), their non-contact blood pressure monitoring is a game changer for healthcare providers.

A vision for the future

Dozee’s innovations are not only transforming healthcare in India but also making waves globally. With a presence in the UAE, Africa, and now the United States, Dozee’s AI-powered solutions are helping hospitals provide better, more efficient care.

“We’re building for India, but our solutions are designed for the world,” Parchani concludes. “As we continue to collect data and refine our AI models, the potential to improve patient outcomes is limitless. The future of healthcare is not just about solving problems—it’s about creating new possibilities.”

Through their commitment to leveraging technology for real-world impact, Parchani and his team at Dozee are not just imagining the future of healthcare but also building it.