These 4 healthtech startups are helping with their solutions to fight coronavirus

The world we have seen in the past two months hasn’t been one that we have been familiar with. The coronavirus pandemic has brought many lives to a halt and slowed the pace of the loop-like hustle that everybody was caught in. And many individuals, collectives, and organisations are doing their bit to contribute towards public comfort in these unprecedented times.

SocialStory brings to you four Indian healthtech startups supported by Social Alpha that have come forward to help the society in these trying times.

Docturnal

Established in April 2016 by Rahul Pathri, medtech startup Docturnal has proposed a solution-based product called the ‘COVID-19 Innovation’. The flagship product will help with the at-home screening of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Through a mobile app, the product screens the sound of a person’s cough from home. However, in a clinical setting, an external microphone array is provided. The test is processed without any fear of stigma and accurate collation of data.

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With the data collected, an existing screening tool, which works on a machine learning model, inputs acoustic cough and clinical data that identifies an entire spectrum of lung diseases like pneumonia, COPD, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema, among others. The product is ready for deployment post validation, and immediately after, it will be available for download on Google Play Store. 

Once released commercially, anyone can take the test from their own homes. Additionally, the app will also be available online on its partner portals, as well as at public health facilities, where tests will be conducted by medical practitioners.

Qure.ai

Founded in 2016 by Prashant Warrier and Pooja Rao, qure.ai provides an automated interpretation of radiology exams like X-rays, CTs, and MRI scans for time and resource-strapped medical imaging professionals. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with operations also in San Francisco and New York.

In lieu of the novel virus, Qure.ai has developed additional capabilities that allow detection of findings indicative of the coronavirus, and gives a score that helps categorise patients into high, medium, or low-risk. Healthcare workers can use this for patients who need to undergo testing, and also to monitor patient progression: perfect for sites that have limited supplies of testing kits and medical personnel. 

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Another app-based solution developed by Qure.ai is qSCOUT, which is impacting more than 10,000 lives in five countries. The app can be used for contact tracing and remote triaging of COVID-19 patients. It’s a smartphone-based registration of patients to remote-monitor using an integrated telehealth service.

qSCOUT also hosts an embedded AI to map hotspots for door-to-door contact tracing, thereby optimising supply chain and test kit distribution for government authorities and health workers.

AI Highway 

AI Health Highway India Pvt Ltd. is a Bengaluru-based startup founded by Dr. Satish S Jeevannavar, Dr. Radhakrishna S Jamadagni, and Anuj Pandit in September 2019. Currently, it is also a part of India’s leading DeepTech/DeepScience incubator in the Society for Innovation and Development (SID) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISC).

Its COVID-19 pre-screening and triage tool can be accessed on the startup’s website. The solution is based on risk-assessment scores for COVID-19, linked to clinical symptoms, comorbidities, contact history, and more. It captures rapidly emerging current scientific, evidence-based publications and acclaimed published guidelines. 

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The sequential triage on days zero, three, seven, and 14 helps further strengthen social distancing and monitoring the situation. The pin code-based contact tracing determines heat maps of low to high-risk categories. 

More than 1,000 people have been screened since its tool’s release on March 21. 

Biodesign Innovation Labs 

Biodesign Innovation Labs was founded by Gauthan Pasupuleti and Adithya Pasupuleti in July 2017. It is a medical device and healthtech startup, developing affordable innovations such as indigenous respiratory support devices for reducing infant mortality, and innovative mechanical ventilation devices to treat patients with respiratory illness during emergencies, mass casualties, as an alternative for prolonged manual ventilation. 

The startup has developed ‘RespirAID’, an automated respiratory assist device, which is an alternative for prolonged manual ventilation of AMBU bags or BVM used during hospital transit of patients or transit in ambulances, and operation theatres. 

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Various sensors are used to detect the working conditions of the system, and a feedback loop is introduced to update the working as per requirements. This can be used for the existing COVID-19 situations as it can stabilise the patients with respiratory arrest, pneumonia, and ARDS conditions. It can supply these devices to hospitals and ambulances across India which costs about Rs 70,000. 

The startup aims to mass-manufacture more than 50,000 units of ventilators shortly, to help fight the pandemic across the country.