The SHI is a 24-week long interdisciplinary business accelerator program for young & early stage startups building innovative solutions in healthcare. On 7th June, the program officially launched with an event at CoWrks Residency Road to commemorate the partnership, by announcing the startups selected for the prestigious program.
In attendance from Yale were Sten H. Vermund, M.D., Ph.D., [Dean, Yale School of Public Health] and Michael Skonieczny [Deputy Director, Yale Institute for Global Health]. The event was an exclusive gathering of healthcare entrepreneurs, experts in policy and seasoned practitioners. The objective of the event was to inspire and align and connect founders, investors and coaches. The event aimed at creating a community, with a shared focus on ushering innovative and scalable solutions to the Indian healthcare sector.
A keynote speech was delivered by Yale School of Public Health’s Dean Sten Vermund on the important role of social entrepreneurship in healthcare. Vermund’s speech was followed by a fireside chat between Vikram Damodaran, [Founder of five.eight], Anand Anandkumar [Founder of Bugworks] and Dr. Charit Bhograj [Founder of Tricog Health].
Moderated by Sten Vermund, the panel discussion was centered around the key challenges, opportunities and strategies in healthcare sectors in both rural and urban India. The event came to a close with all the shortlisted startups delivering immersive product pitches to the audience. The inaugural cohort of the Sustainable Health Initiative [SHI] program comprised innovative startups building new age solutions across maternal health, infectious diseases, and healthcare accessibility and affordability.
The SHI program has been designed to power ‘Innovation’ for long-term social, health and environmental impact in emerging economies. With the ecosystem ripe for innovation, healthcare companies in India are effectively poised to impact billions in the country as well as globally.
The cohort that we’ve assembled today is the culmination of a highly selective global application process. After a tough and intensive review that included multiple rounds of interviews and diligence, we’ve shortlisted companies from both the Indian ecosystem and Yale that are solving a diverse set of complex problems with a mission to impact the life and health of millions across the world. We find this class to consist of humble founders, passionate missions and resilient business models and look forward to arm these companies with the expertise, frameworks and network required to succeed at scale.
As part of this program, each startup will receive up to USD $70,000 in seed funding, mentorship from Yale’s faculty and alumni, as well as benefits from a network of Indian industry experts. In addition, the program includes structured sessions to help startups evolve into a sustainable and scalable business model, refine their go-to-market strategy and build a global network.
Sten Vermund, Dean, Yale School of Public Health, said
Around the world, we face growing health and economic disparities. The public sector cannot fully address the scope and scale of these challenges without private sector ingenuity and creativity. We are enthusiastic about the launch today of the Sustainable Health Initiative to further find innovate solutions that will have a significant impact on the health of communities in India, the U.S., and around the world.
About The CoWrks Foundry
The CoWrks Foundry, based out of Bengaluru, is a premiere acceleration program for early stage businesses in the fields of urban tech, enterprise tech, and social enterprise. The CoWrks Foundry was built to inspire and enable entrepreneurs to build innovative, scalable solutions in tough industries through a challenging curriculum, developed with global experts and strong post-program support. The CoWrks Foundry provides entrepreneurs with frameworks, tailored mentorship, intelligent capital and a deep network to build resilient technology companies out of India.
Nutanix, a leader in enterprise cloud computing, announced the healthcare industry findings of its Enterprise Cloud Index Report, measuring healthcare companies’ plans for adopting private, hybrid and public clouds. The report revealed the healthcare industry is increasingly leaning toward adopting hybrid clouds that combine private and public cloud services, and their respective benefits – with healthcare ranking third in the number of hybrid cloud deployments currently running, by industry. According to respondents, in just two years, healthcare providers’ hybrid cloud deployment will jump from 19% penetration to 37%.
Today, healthcare organizations need to address a variety of critical IT needs, including a need for increased security, protection of sensitive patient data and meeting regulatory compliance. Over 28% of healthcare respondents named security and compliance as their number one decision criterion in choosing where to run workloads.
With hackers targeting medical records containing sought-after personal details like patient healthcare and insurance information, hospitals and providers require technology solutions that can handle the movement of sensitive data without risk. And, as healthcare providers also have to meet necessary security and HIPAA compliance for patient data, they seek out a solution that fits those specific needs.
To address ongoing security and compliance concerns, results showed the healthcare industry turning to hybrid cloud for optimum flexibility and the ability to move applications between private and public clouds. More than half of survey respondents from the healthcare industry noted inter-cloud application mobility as ‘essential’, further demonstrating this need for seamless movement of applications and associated data, networking services, and security policies between different types of clouds.
From a patient and clinician perspective, adopting a cloud model, hybrid or otherwise, also allows for providers to undergo a digital transformation of healthcare delivery. Infrastructure innovations allow hospitals to manage different applications and data types, take advantage of automation and create new service lines such as tele-health or remote monitoring, thus leading to improved patient engagement.
Other key findings of the report include
Healthcare companies overspend on public cloud – Another motivation for deploying hybrid clouds is likely enterprises’ need to gain control over their IT spend. Organizations that use public cloud spend 26% of their annual IT budget on public cloud, with this percentage set to increase to 35% in two years’ time. The survey demonstrated healthcare companies report being about 40% over budget when it comes to public cloud spend, compared to 35% of cross-industry global companies.
Healthcare public cloud usage outpaces other industries for IoT – The healthcare industry is embracing public clouds at about the same pace as most sectors, reporting a 13% penetration compared to the 12% global average. However, healthcare companies outpace the averages for certain applications, such as ERP/CRM, data analytics, containers, and Internet of Things (IoT).
Hybrid IT skills are scarce in healthcare – While 88% of respondents said that they expect hybrid cloud to positively impact their businesses, hybrid cloud skills are scarce in today’s IT organizations. These skills ranked second in scarcity only to those in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Neville Vincent, Vice President ANZ, ASEAN and India, Nutanix, said
India has always looked to provide a premier healthcare system for its citizens. But an ageing population, a rise in chronic disease, increased health costs and a host of other technical and social factors are putting increased pressure on the country’s hospitals and healthcare professionals. There is no quick cure for these issues but investing in next generation IT infrastructure is the first step in preserving the current quality of care and bringing healthcare to the individual rather than the other way around.
About Nutanix
Nutanix is a global leader in cloud software and hyper-converged infrastructure solutions, making infrastructure invisible so that IT can focus on the applications and services that power their business. Companies around the world use Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS software to bring one-click application management and mobility across public, private and distributed edge clouds so they can run any application at any scale with a dramatically lower total cost of ownership. The result is organizations that can rapidly deliver a high-performance IT environment on demand, giving application owners a true cloud-like experience.
Organizations, irrespective of the scale and size are always on the lookout for smart people who have the urge to do ‘something different’ & ‘solve large-scale problems’. One way to achieve the same is via Hackathons where participants can collaborate & co-create to solve ‘real-life problems’ by deriving ‘usecases’ that would have a bigger impact. A couple of weeks back, we mentioned about the Mylan Hackathon where the pharmaceutical giant invited students, and professionals to collaborate with the in-house team of experts at Mylan to come up with solutions using technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, etc. The central theme of the Hackathon was #hackforacause in order to build products that promise ‘Better Health for a Better World’. The two-day hackathon on 13th & 14th October was organized at their Bengaluru office.
Though this was a first of its kind Hackathon by any pharmaceutical company, it received a very good response and the participants came up with very good solutions to the 5 challenges that were posted to them
Simplify Adverse Event reporting for a patient.
Speed up preliminary diagnosis & early cancer detection.
Leverage technology to capture patient treatment outcomes.
Ensure adherence of treatment by a Tuberculosis [TB] patient.
Track Antiretrovirals [ARV] product until it reaches the consumer.
Summary of the overall proceedings of the Mylan 2018 #hackforacause Hackathon
More than 550 individuals had registered for the event, from which 62 teams comprising of 252 members were shortlisted for the final challenge that was held on 13th and 14th October 2018.
The second and the final day had 45 teams finalizing their solutions and presenting them to the panel of judges. Teams were judged on unique parameters like uniqueness, radical thinking, market effectiveness, etc.
Only 10 teams were shortlisted for the final round after the first round of judging, and the 10 finalists had to present their idea to the judges.
The innovations and solutions focused on various aspects of technology to solve the five challenges – Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Imaging Science, etc.
Commenting on the initiative, Mylan spokesperson Mr. Rakesh Bamzai, President – India and Emerging Markets said
We are proud to be one of the few pharmaceutical companies in the world to host a hackathon for digital innovation. Initiatives such as these foster engagement and collaboration between students, professionals, and institutions, to develop innovative and cost-effective solutions for real-world health problems and enhance access to affordable medicines. At Mylan, the Hackathon initiative focuses not only on the current challenges in Healthcare but also on developing solutions for the future.
Winners of the Mylan 2018 #hackforacause Hackathon
In the Professional hackers’ category, team Smart from Atos won the prize money of Rs. 100,000 for their novel solution to adherence of treatment of Tuberculosis patients.
In the Students Category, the team from Sri Sairam Institute of Technology won the prize money of Rs. 100,000 for its solution for traceability of Mylan’s Antiretroviral [ARV] drugs to the end consumer.
In the Employees’ category, team Shamiroh won the prize money of Rs. 100,000 for its solution to speed up the preliminary diagnosis and early detection of cancer.
One of the members of the winning team Mr. Ganesh Mahadevan said
This event was an exceptional learning platform for me. It allowed me to interact and collaborate with brilliant like-minded innovators to develop solutions that could have a positive impact on patients and the industry. I believe that anyone who wants to find viable solutions for health problems should participate in the Mylan Hackathon.
From the year 2016, Mylan has been organizing Hackathons in India and globally. Since the inception of Mylan Hackathon, the company has been fueling the push for new creative and innovative solutions in the healthcare segment for patients, payers, providers and other healthcare professionals. This year’s hackathon received a very overwhelming response and the participants came up with innovative solutions that have social, as well as business impact.
#HackForaCause coverage on Social Media
The event was covered extensively on major social media platforms namely Facebook and Twitter under #2018MylanHackathon & #hackforacause. With live event updates, netizens & technology enthusiasts could get first-hand information about the Hackathon.
Machine Learning [ML], Artificial Learning [AL], Cognitive Computing, Deep Learning, Data Analytics, and other emerging technologies are revolutionizing the way businesses operate. These technologies are being used by organizations, across the world not only to solve business-critical problems but to make intelligent & informed decisions. It is ‘sector-agnostic’ and can be applied to any kind of data [structured or unstructured] to arrive at the results. ML and Big Data are being used in manufacturing, e-commerce, banking, traditional retail, etc., but ‘Healthcare’ is one sector where it is being used extensively for not only improving the organization’s products & services but also to improve the quality of diagnosis, predict future events in the patients, etc.
Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence in HealthCare
As per a report by ‘Frost and Sullivan’, as far as the healthcare industry is concerned, a huge market expansion is expected in the next couple of years since it has the potential to reduce the costs by half and technologies and platform solutions that promote innovation around care quality, outcomes, and chronic disease management will continue to rise [Source]. Healthcare, as well as traditional pharmaceutical companies, are now able to leverage the power of ‘Patient Data’ to achieve better, as well as quicker outcomes across different levels of the healthcare value chain.
Technology major Microsoft partnered with Apollo Hospitals introduced AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease risk score to predict the risk of Cardiovascular Disease in the Indian Population and many new-age startups are also trying to solve many lingering problems related to healthcare. In a nutshell, ‘healthcare’ is apt for application of ML, Deep Learning, etc. since, these algorithms can be used in understanding & recognizing patterns, which is the most critical factors as far as ‘Patient Diagnosis’ is concerned.
Mylan Hackathon – Opportunity to Collaborate, Innovate and Create
For global pharmaceutical companies, embracing these technologies requires technical, as well as cultural mind shift. ‘Hackathon’ is one mechanism which can be used in order to engage people that are passionate to collaborate, innovate, and co-create in order to provide answers for next-generation healthcare. Mylan, a global pharmaceutical company has an ambitious mission – To provide the world’s 7 billion people access to high-quality medicine and set new standards in healthcare and uses a platform like ‘Hackathon’ to come up innovative solutions. It is one of the few pharmaceutical companies to host Hackathons. For a company like Mylan, Hackathons are more about collaborating with the innovative & creative people [students, professionals, etc.] in order to arrive at solutions that are core to what Mylan does in the future.
Mylan Hackathon is an ideal platform for students, as well as professionals to connect & collaborate with people at Mylan to come up with innovative solutions that address real-world challenges. With events like Hackathons, Mylan wants to come up with new generations of solutions using ML, AI, etc. that are capable of delivering ‘Better Health for a Better World‘. The Hackathon is scheduled on 13th & 14th October in their Bengaluru office.
Mylan Hackathon – Challenges/Tracks for participants
Interested participants have to come up with solutions using can help Mylan unlock these challenges and #hackforacause
Simplify Adverse Event reporting for a patient.
Speed up preliminary diagnosis & early cancer detection.
Leverage technology to capture patient treatment outcomes.
Ensure adherence of treatment by a Tuberculosis [TB] patient.
Track Antiretrovirals [ARV] product until it reaches the consumer.
Interested participants can register online here; the last date for registrations is 7th October, 2018. Creation is always about Teams and the case is no different for Mylan Hackathon. Mylan recommends that you at least have 4 people in the team so that you have the necessary ‘diversification’ in terms of skills and competency. Below are the important deadlines to remember
Register for a challenge [registration open till 1900hrs [07:00 PM IST] 7th October, 2018].
Design and build [during the event] the project.
Document and present a 5-min lightning talk [on the final day of the Hackathon].
Yes, you read it right :). Once your hack is ready, you need to pitch the core USP of the idea to the panel who would be judging the Hackathon. If you are a coder with no customer facing experience, this is your chance to gain that skill by demoing your product using an ‘Elevator Pitch’! The detailed agenda is below
So, apart from hacking for 2 days, networking with other people; you also stand a chance to win prizes. The Winning team would win Rs. 1 Lakh and the Runner’s up team would win Rs. 50,000. There are some interesting giveaways and spot quizzes to keep the participants during the coding sessions. However, it is not always about the prizes; if your hack has path-breaking potential, there is a possibility that it would make way into one of Mylan’s products 🙂
You can find more details about the tools requirements, tips, etc. here. You can also follow social media updates of Mylan Hackathon 2018 here & here. So, what are you waiting for? Mylan Hackathon is an ideal platform where you can showcase your technical and business skills to #hackforacause
How many of us have faced a situation where we visited a doctor based on some symptoms and later on realized that the visit was not at all necessary. Also, there is a huge amount of difference in the healthcare services available in metros [tier-1 cities] vis-a-vis non-metros [tier-2, tier-3] cities vis-a-vis rural areas. However affordability of smartphones, increased mobile penetration, improved data speeds [with 4G]; are playing a critical role in improving the overall healthcare industry. Along with the advancements in the healthcare industry, Indian healthcare sector does face a plethora of challenges.
For entrepreneurs, with huge challenges comes ample opportunities to create business that could solve the problem at a ‘larger scale’. With technology, there has been an emergence of ‘frugal innovation’ in the healthcare sector where entrepreneurs have come up with business models that has made accessibility to ‘quality healthcare services’ available to all [irrespective of your city/town of residence]. This is where serial entrepreneur Ashutosh Lawania [Myntra Co-founder] and Prasad Kompalli [former business head at Myntra] came across an opportunity and came up with the idea of mfine – an end-to-end doctor consultation app which would make it convenient for patients to access high-quality healthcare services at the click of a button.
mfine brings in instant and continuous connectivity with top doctors of the best hospitals. The startup has partnered with leading hospitals and senior consultants are made available for online consultations always and anytime. mfine‘s app for doctors boosts the efficiency and effectiveness using standard medical protocols and AI. mfine‘s AI driven platform helps improve the quality of diagnosis and promotes better outcomes with better engagement.
The company helps people make informed choices about their health with patient needs as a top priority. mfine is effectively creating a ‘cloud clinic’ and follows an unique model of partnering with leading and trusted hospitals instead of aggregating individual doctors on the platform. It acts as a virtual centre for the hospitals, rather it is a new OPD center on the cloud bringing in more patients and offering premium services, long-term care programs, super specialties without any upfront investments. Today we have a chat with Prasad Kompalli, Co-founder & CEO – mfine about the app, healthcare in India, why cloud clinic, etc. So, lets get started with the Q&A…
[Note – ‘I’ in the Q&A refers to Prasad Kompalli]
Please walk us through the core team behind mfine ?
mfine was founded in February 2017 by myself and Ashutosh Lawania [Myntra co-founder]. We were later joined by Ajit Narayanan, ex-Myntra CTO, Arjun Choudhary, ex-Myntra head of growth marketing and Dr. Jagadish Prasad, an interventional neuroradiologist, and founder of Femiint Health, a hospital in Bengaluru.
Every idea is born out of a problem, what is the problem being solved by mfine and how did you come up with this solution ?
mfine comes from the idea to make access to quality healthcare easy and simple. We strongly believed that technology, in particular mobile internet and AI can transform healthcare delivery in India leading to better quality and experience for the consumers. When you look at Indian healthcare industry, it is characterized by very low doctor-patient ratio [1:1700] and more than 70% percent of medical bills are paid out-of-pocket by patients. Not much is being done at the primary and secondary care level to prevent further expensive and life threatening complications.
Tech is an inevitable solution to this problem. mfine leverages on the massive adoption of smartphones and mobile Internet to dramatically change the access and reach of specialists doctors. We envisioned and are building a one of its kind virtual hospital that brings the best care providers and state of the art tech together. We have built an AI powered diagnosis engine that can be infinitely scalable assistant to those top specialist doctors. The combination of mobile tech and AI solves for access and quality.
Looking deeper at the Healthcare sector, we understood the complexities with the overall space being vast with many different players, different economic models, incentive structures and varied consumer behaviors. We zeroed in on high quality and on-demand access to be at the foundation of what we would build. To bring in the much needed trust and quality, we partnered with hospitals as providers and these hospitals are trusted and premium institutions such as CloudNine, Femiint Health and Aster CMI Hospitals. With technology we are able to take the high quality care beyond the walls of the hospitals.
The entire healthcare ecosystem is still broken [with some parts being organized and some being unorganized], how does a startup like mfine solve this problem and make the sector more organized ?
The healthcare sector is actually getting organized pretty fast. Several reputed institutions are setting up pretty high standard hospitals and existing ones are expanding. Mfine indirectly contributes to the acceleration of markets movement towards organized sector – as we work with branded, accredited hospitals and increase their reach beyond the physical boundaries of their hospitals. This will lead to more and more consumer spending towards organized sector that has senior high quality specialist doctors
Startups [as well as hospitals] are exploring newer avenues to engage with patients [even after they are done meeting the doctor at the hospital] e.g. Apollo Hospital has Ask Apollo app, Aegis has a similar app, etc. and other startups like Portea are looking into Home health care services, Practo acts more like an aggregator, how does an app like mfine solve lingering problems in the healthcare sector in India ?
We have a very unique take on the problem statement and solution approach as far as healthcare delivery in India are concerned. We are building the most sophisticated healthcare delivery channel for primary and secondary care – a category we call ‘cloud clinic’. The Cloud Clinic is designed to deliver high quality care from the biggest and the best in healthcare via an always-on, on-demand service. Our differentiation also comes from the fact that we are creating a digital assistant for the doctor and at the same time building a robust mobile health companion for the patient.
Firstly, we are focussed on bringing trusted, reputable and high-quality hospitals with top specialists into digital space and are not a marketplace of individual doctors. Secondly, our AI powered tech system can scale quality care and make it reach millions of people. Thirdly, hospitals look at mfine as a new centre they are opening without any upfront capital and marketing investment. They see mfine expanding their services to cloud so that they can serve more new customers and also retain existing customers better. These three aspects make us very unique in the way we build mfine as a tech-led and consumer experience focussed business.
Can you please list down the treatment areas currently being covered on mfine ?
mfine currently covers nine specialties: pediatrics, general medicine, fertility, gynecology, dietetics, orthopaedics, gastroenterology, and cardiology.
How many hospitals are there on-board on mfine and is there a provision where a patient can select a particular doctor on mfine ?
The patients can choose top doctors from more than 45 leading and reputed hospitals such as CloudNine, Aster, Rainbow and Ovum.
When it comes to medical treatment, most of us plan to visit the doctor first [irrespective of the symptom and the density of the problem], how is mfine building that trust in it’s customers [that they might not need/may never need to visit the doctor unless and until required] and how has been the overall response from the early adopters ?
We have done more than 30,000 consultations and aim to reach 100,000 consultations by the end of the year. We have partnered with 35 hospital brands in Bangalore and are expanding our network continuously.
There are some patients who have written to us about their experience with mfine. For example, We once had a user from Trichy, whose infant needed to consult with a pediatric endocrinologist. It was difficult to find one in such a small town and he used mfine to find a pediatric endocrinologist in Bengaluru, who treated the baby through the app.
There was another incident where a 70 year old woman was diagnosed with Dengue by mfine care team. From then on, the son used mfine exclusively for his mother’s treatment and with constant monitoring and help from our doctors, she was cured while being at home throughout.
Use cases are plenty and there are many more such examples. We believe that mobile can be a game change in the delivery of primary health care. From access, to diagnosis, to preventive healthcare, technology can disrupt the future of ‘visiting a doctor’..
mFine team with Prasad Kompalli [Center, Front Row – Blue T-shirt] & Ashutosh Lawania [Center,Front Row – Yellow T-Shirt]
How seamless is the overall process of registration, payment, consultation and doctor visit [if required] via mfine and can you comment on the O2O [Online-to-Offline] or vice-versa experience [i.e. Patient visits the doctor, reports gets uploaded and than again moves to mfine after the offline consultation] ?
With mfine app, one can easily reach the doctor that they select instantly, on demand. The process to get diagnosis and prescription online from a top doctor doesn’t take more than 30~40 mins. If the doctor decides that you need to a physical visit, mfine organizes the visit with the same doctor at the same hospital without charging extra and the appointment is pre-booked in the hospital system as well. When the patient is going for this physical visit, the experience is smooth no registration, no payment is needed to be done.
Similarly, when a patient chooses to follow up with the Doctor (s)he met at the hospital, (s)he can login to mfine and give the code of the Doctor/Hospital (s)he got along with the visit file and start follow up consultation with the doctor. (s)he can upload any information [test reports, etc.] and get the complete consultation done and get advised on the further treatment plan/actions.
How big is the overall healthcare market that mfine is trying to address ?
Healthcare sector in India is $280B dollar market. We are catering to a massive $50B market of primary healthcare and secondary healthcare in India. We see a huge opportunity to bring the much needed, tech-driven transformation in the $50B primary healthcare delivery. Coupled with the spread of mobile and smartphones in particular, along with dropping bandwidth costs, we expect services like mfine to take-off across the breadth of the country; starting with early adopters in metros and tier 1 cities. We see that solving for access is the most important first step in this journey.
Access to high quality care, access to super specialties and access 24*7 are going to be key levers of growth at this point. In parallel, we are also building the tech that can standardize and in turn scale the quality of healthcare delivery. This will help us reach millions of families and deliver better healthcare to all. We would like to be the trusted place for managing one’s own health be it preventive or curative. We believe we can scale this across the country and beyond and help people gain much more control over their health.
Many doctors might not be tech-savvy, what is overall learning curve involved in getting well-versed with the mfine Doctor app ? Also, please let us know if you have an in-house team of experienced doctors [for at least first level of consultation] ?
Doctors are very keen to adopt digital medium and they are excited to partner with mfine. The app is very simple to use and very structured for doctor to be very efficient. A new doctor gets comfortable with the app, typically in 1~2 days of using it. We have in-house team of experienced doctors that serve two purposes – a. They prepare the case sheet in detail for the Sr consultant and also follow up with the patients proactively and b. They define the triage protocols and implement medical standards in capturing data of the illnesses, suggesting treatment plan and also ensuring quality of communication.
Which are some of the best experiences [case studies] that customers have gained via mfine and how mfine has bridged the gap of bringing best level of healthcare for Indian citizens located outside metro cities?
Most people might have this notion that acute conditions always require a hospital visit. This isn’t the case for all medical conditions. Non-emergency health concerns can be addressed through digital space. One such medical condition that we treated on mfine was ‘Dengue’. The patient was 64 years old, female with a known history of hypothyroidism and arthritis. She had high fever, chills, loss of appetite, and complained about frequent, dark urine. Our team of doctors advised her to get a blood test done.
The results showed that she was dengue positive. Through mfine, doctors were able to monitor and manage her condition closely while she rested and recuperated at home. This was one example. There was another example where the patient [from a 2nd tier town in South India] needed Pediatric Endocrinologist and we could deliver the right care for the child with one of the doctors on our panel.
Which are some of the technologies being used in the development of mfine and how does your team leverage emerging technologies like AI, ML, Data Mining, etc. in enhancing customer experience and bridging the gap in the Healthcare market ?
We leverage AI/ML systems in combination with standard medical protocols, to make high quality care reach consumers across the country. We designed the system that can assist doctors in their diagnosis and treatment, not just business workflow automation. We are able to create a standard reference system for doctors in each specialty, that’s powered by a combination of well-established medical protocols and our AI system’s algorithms.
In a unique way, the same expert system is used to power the experience on the consumer app also, be it structured and effortless data collection, reminders for follow up based on signs/symptoms and execution of care protocols for chronic conditions.
So far mfine has tied-up with how many hospitals in India and it is currently operational [in terms of doctor engagement] in how many cities in India ? What are the future expansion plans, either in terms of offerings and cities in which it currently has doctor tie-ups ?
We are currently operational in Bengaluru with 35 hospitals. We will be expanding rapidly across India and will be having hospital network in 5 major cities by end of 2018. We will continually expand the specialties that we will offer and make mfine a comprehensive care platform for families and individuals. We will also be introducing long term care programs for consumers to be able get the required help in managing and recovering from chronic conditions
Can you comment on the overall funding of mfine and how has entrepreneurial experience of Ashutosh Lawania [w.r.t Myntra], your stint at Myntra and the experience of PrimeVp team helped in building & scaling mfine ?
Our seed round was closed in 2017 where we raised $1.5 million from Stellaris Venture Partners, healthcare entrepreneurs Mayur Abhaya and Rohit M.A. We recently closed our Series A, with $4.2 million led by Prime Venture Partners, and participation from our existing investors; Stellaris, and Mayur.
Overall we understand and feel deep passionate about ensuring high quality consumer experience. We also learnt how to set up operational processes, people processes to ensure we can scale the company and the product without breaking. Coming from successfully building a consumer internet firm earlier, we understand the importance of being data driven, developing deep domain expertise, creating systems and processes that can scale massively from the very beginning.
How has technologies like AR, VR, data generated from sensors in wearables, etc. helping in building a better healthcare experience, reducing stress & pain, remote surgery, etc.
Within our company’s focus most immediate relevance would be of wearables. Sometime during the next year we will be integrating with state of the art devices that can collect vital parameters of the patient and pass it on to the doctor he/she is consulting with. Heart rate monitors, pulse oximeters, glucose monitors are all relevant for us to integrate with.
If you can some insights into the DAU/MAU/other relevant details about mfine and how it plans to keep the customers more engaged [either with good content on healthcare/home remedies/etc.] on the platform ?
We will be focussed on providing personalized, clinically accurate information to the user. We will be building digital health tracking tools that consumers can use to track their various health parameters.
[mFine for Android can be downloaded fromhere& mfine for iOS can be downloaded fromhere]
We thank Prasad Kompalli for sharing his insights with our readers. If you have any questions for him about mfine, healthcare, etc. please email them here or share them via a comment to this article.
Microsoft India and SRL Diagnostics announced their partnership to expand the AI Network for Healthcare to pathology. This collaboration will help improve the quality of digital pathology for population screening by bringing together Microsoft’s Azure and AI innovations along with SRL’s world-class expertise in the study of cells and tissues [histology]. With this addition, Microsoft’s AI Network for Healthcare has now expanded to include pathology along with eye-care and cardiology, thus representing the continued efforts made by the organization to democratize healthcare.
Growing prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer is one of the key factors for the need for pathology to transform. Digital pathology is increasingly being preferred as it has helped bring improvement in service delivery, patient safety and communications while reducing errors and lowering costs. Histopathology is a specialized form of pathology for analyzing tissue biopsies [mounted on glass slides] and is used for detecting numerous diseases. Histopathologists require highly efficient tools to assist in diagnosis, thus augmenting the demand for automated and innovative implementation of cloud and AI.
Commenting on the partnership Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India [R&D] Private Limited, said,
Microsoft is committed to empower both the healthcare industry and patients by using AI to democratize healthcare for all. Our partnership with SRL Diagnostics will assist pathologists by equipping them with technology that will augment their capability. This is the third area where we have expanded our AI Network for Healthcare after eye-care and cardiology. We will continue to look for other areas where we can deploy technology to make healthcare more accessible.
Commenting on the partnership Arindam Haldar, Chief Executive Officer, SRL Diagnostics said
In line with SRL’s vision to help people on their path to better health, we are delighted to be partnering with Microsoft to co-create solutions and generate both social and business value. Diagnosis is the first step to disease management, as without accurate identification of the cause there is no possibility of a precise treatment.
With the growing number of samples of cancer, as well as of other diseases, there’s a need to quickly and accurately analyze the samples to help doctors arrive at a diagnosis faster. The AI platform that Microsoft will build in collaboration with SRL is expected to create a software environment infused with millions of data points and knowledge gained from SRL’s expert laboratory professionals.
Microsoft AI Network for Healthcare aims to maximize the ability of AI and cloud computing to accelerate innovation in the healthcare industry and improve the lives of people around the world. By working side-by-side with the healthcare industry’s pioneering players, Microsoft is bringing its capabilities and applying AI to devices for early detection of diabetic retinopathy to prevent blindness. Microsoft has also recently launched an AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk Score API for Indian population.
As the largest diagnostic laboratory in the country, SRL Diagnostics has a repository of more than a million histopathology slides which would be used for training an AI algorithm. By increasing efficiency in the initial steps in a biopsy tissue analysis through artificial neural networks, it will be possible for a histopathology laboratory to cut down on inadvertent manual errors and process more samples in a day with higher level of accuracy.
mfine, an AI powered, on-demand healthcare service, is redefining how millions of Indians access primary healthcare by laying more emphasis on preventive and holistic care. To enable this, mfine launched ‘mfine ONE‘, a unique subscription plan that includes a complementary baseline health checkup and unlimited access to best doctors for the entire family. The mfine app allows users to virtually connect with doctors from leading hospitals under 60 seconds.
More than 70 doctors from 30 hospitals are consulting users, under 12 specialties. The healthcare startup is aiming to acquire 25000 members through the subscription plan in Bengaluru in the next 6 months. mfine ONE is an annual/half-yearly subscription plan that allows unlimited doctor consultations for users and their immediate family members. The program will give users access to several digital tools to help them manage chronic conditions, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and aid in recovery from illnesses. Users with specific medical issues or chronic diseases will find this plan suitable for long-term care as they will have access to all their previous health records and will be able to continuously monitor and track their progress along with access to specialist doctors.
As part of the subscription, consumers get a complete health assessment followed by a consultation with a physician on personal health goals and steps to achieve the same. The assessment is a comprehensive check-up to know all important health parameters of an individual including functioning of heart, kidneys and liver, complete blood count, composition of fat & muscle in the body and vitamin profile. This helps consumers to know how healthy they are and what specific health goals they should pursue.
Spread of chronic and lifestyle diseases is growing at an alarming pace and much of it will end up in tertiary care if not managed and intervened at appropriate time. mfine’s vision is to enable easy access to quality primary and secondary care in India so that expensive tertiary care can be avoided. The subscription program allows users to not only monitor their own health but also of their immediate family members at no additional cost.
Launched in December 2017, more than 30,000 consultations have been done on mfine by some of the top doctors of the city. The startup has raised over $6 million and has 60 employees. The company is planning to achieve over 100,000 consultations by the end of 2018 and will partner with more than 50 top hospitals across 5 cities in the country. The mfine app is currently available in English on Google Playstore and Appstore [mfine app Download Link]
At mfine, our aim is to change the way people perceive healthcare. Taking charge of one’s health doesn’t mean visiting the doctor when one falls sick. It should be a priority for everyone to ensure that they know why they fall sick, and what needs to be changed in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Our subscription model has been designed in a way that the entire family can avail the benefits of our services.
About mfine
mfine is an app-based, on-demand healthcare service that provides its users access to online consultations and care programmes from the country’s top hospitals. The AI-driven digital health platform partners with leading and trusted hospitals instead of aggregating individual doctors. mfine users can consult doctors from their preferred hospitals via chat or video to get prescriptions and/or routine care. mfine was launched in December 2017 by Ashutosh Lawania and Prasad Kompalli. The founders were later joined by Ajit Narayanan, Arjun Choudhary, and Dr. Jagadish Prasad, an interventional neuroradiologist, and founder of Femiint Health, a hospital in Bengaluru. For more details, please visit mfine.
India, as a country is undergoing a significant change and progressing at a very rapid pace. The GDP [Gross Domestic Product] is showing an upswing and there have been a lot of sectors where India has shown the world that we are no longer ‘just another progressing country’, but we can also be leaders in the fields of technology, sports, entertainment, etc. Though GDP is one way to look at a country’s progress, the other measure could be the amount of money being spent on healthcare.
Though the socio-economic conditions have improved, problems like obesity, anxiety, Diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. are very common even with Indians who are in their early 30’s. As per a report, India currently represents around 49% of the world’s diabetes burden, expected to almost double to 134 million by 2025. This is a serious matter of concern for a ‘Young India’ that is ready to take on the world with all guns blazing but it could be plagiarized with poor health/fitness.
It is primarily important to maintain a healthy diet which is a combination of nutrition & taste, but in case you are suffering from diabetes/high blood sugar levels, it is always recommended to have the best glucometer available in India. For a diabetic patient, self-testing your blood sugar is important in order to avoid further diabetes complications and this is where the ‘glucose meter’ [glucometer] can be handy to measure sugar level at the comfort of your home. There are a lot of brands that make glucometers, namely Omron, Bayer, Accu Check, One Touch, etc. but you have to make a conscious decision of buying the best glucometer in India that suits your requirements. To use the meter, use the lancet to draw a small amount of blood from your finger, put it onto the strip and then insert the strip in the meter. The results are accurate and the strips are also available at affordable prices.
Though health is considered the real wealth, most of us seem to have forgotten it and tend to follow a laid-back or sedentary lifestyle. There are many who start their day by playing games on their smart-devices whereas the ideal way should be to do some exercise so that it enriches the body and mind. Due to this, many men & women gain weight, which might also negatively impact their confidence & personality.
Physical fitness has become much more important than before; else the cases of obesity, risk to deadly diseases, etc. could plagiarize our generation and the forthcoming generation. If you are someone who is focused on fitness, having a weighing scale always helps as you can also keep a track of your weight while you follow your daily fitness regime. Depending on your budget and requirements, you can opt to purchase a weighing scale online so that you can track weight, along with other important parameters like steps taken, calories burnt, hydration levels, etc. and experience a holistic ‘fitness experience’.
To summarize, let’s make a conscious effort to make the slogan ‘Hum Fit to India Fit‘ a reality!
