These Three Startups are Leading the AI Game in Diagnostics Industry Entrepreneur India elaborates on three companies that are going to lead the AI path in the Indian diagnostics space

Artificial Intelligence is one of the holy trinity of technology which is being explored globally along with blockchain and machine learning to solve complex problems. This technology is expected to create a larger stir than what was anticipated in the healthcare sector. It is believed that AI can bring down the time and cost of drug discovery, provide automated medication management, render customized treatment plans, aid in health and lifestyle management etc. But one of the key areas which is all set for disruption is the diagnostics industry.

Despite the copious amount of data being generated and stored in the healthcare, we did not have the necessary hardware and software to analyze and convert it into meaningful insights.

"Disease diagnosis is often complicated, involving factors such as the amount of sugar one consumers per day to the abnormality in a body part or fluid. For thousands of years, medicine is dependent on symptomatic detection –the disease is diagnosed based on the symptoms displayed.But often, detectable symptoms appear too late, especially in diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's," he added.

Owing to this, Entrepreneur India glances through three such companies that are going to lead the AI path in the Indian diagnostics space.

SigTuple

This is an early stage venture which was incorporated by Apurv Anand, Rohit Pandey, Tathagato Dastidar in 2015. SigTuple is believed to have raised the largest round of USD 5,8m in the AI-based healthcare space last year. The fundraising was led by Accel Partners with IDG Ventures India, Pi Ventures, Axilor Ventures, and Endiya Partners.

The healthcare startup is building an AI platform called Manthana which help professionals evaluate five major high-volume screening processes. One of the sub-products under Manthana is Shonit, a complete peripheral blood smear analyzer solution, which automates the routine tasks like differential counts. Additionally, it provides a screening solution for various parasitic infections like malaria and disorders like anaemia.

The second product is Shrava, a urinalysis solution that detects substances like crystals and casts, cellular material like epithelial cells, RBCs and WBCs, and also calculates related volumetric parameters. Aadi is AI driven semen analysis product which helps andrologist to correlate with clinical findings to predict the ability of the spermatozoa to fertilise the oocyte.

Presently, Shonit is in beta testing, while Shrava and Aadi are under clinical validation stage. The company is also researching on Dhrishti which will be useful for retinal scans analysis and Vaksha for chest X-Ray analysis.

Niramai Health Analytix

The company, which was formed in 2016, has used thermalytic to develop a breast cancer screening solution. Thermalytix is a mix of analytics with thermology, which is a technique used to capture heat radiated from the body surface.

Nirmai is led by Geetha Manjunath as the CEO and Nidhi Mathur as COO. In 2017, the company raised an unspecified amount as seed funding, which was led by Pi ventures and other investors include Flipkart's co-founder Binny Bansal and Ankur Capital among others.

According to Niramai website, its cancer screening solution SMILE has been tested on 300 patients. The company says Nirmai has been working with its partners to soon make the product commercially viable.

Qure.ai

The radiology based startup was incorporated in 2016 by Prashant Warier and Pooja Rao, both AI scientists by professions.

The startup uses deep learning algorithms accurately to detect and highlight abnormalities, which helps in reducing the chances of missing a diagnosis. Qure.Ai provides solutions for head CT scan, brain region quantification, chest X-Ray, lung nodules and knee cartilage segmentation, among others.

There is hardly any record of the startup's fundraising activities.