Recently launched Nigeria-based startup, 54gene is considered to be the most exciting and innovative start-ups to come out of Africa. The basic aim of 54gene is to address the significant gap in the global Genomics market where the pharmaceutical researches use almost 90% of the genetic material from Caucasian region and less than 3% from Africa. This statistic is prevalent despite research saying that Africans and people of African ancestry are genetically more diverse than all other world populations combined and also less than 1% of global drug recovery happens in Africa. 54gene seeks to solve this problem by including the underrepresented Africans in Global Genomics research.

Presently the company has operations in Nigeria, Africa and United States of America. When African population is not included proportionately in research, then we see potentially sub-optimal treatment outcomes as a result of which one cannot expect good health outcomes for them. It has been proven that when Africa is properly included and made to participate in research it produces better treatment and diagnostic outcomes in the long run. 

54gene is a health technology company which is deriving insights from the world’s most diverse populations i.e African to solve some of the biggest challenges in the healthcare sector. It is more than just a Biobank wherein it wants to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to advance basic research and not just sell anything and everything in the market. Since there are no pharmaceutical companies located on the continent, 54gene intends to facilitate these companies working in various locations of Africa. 54gene also runs clinical programs that help to test drugs and treatments that ensure that they have optimal medicines for their population.

The spread of COVID-19 pandemic is proving that research needs to be carried out inclusively leaving no population unrepresented proportionately as we have witnessed that covid has shown disparities on how it affected different populations. By getting diverse participants into research a broader picture of treatment and diagnostics can be developed to help get better health outcomes.

In 2021, 54gene has also launched its first whole genome sequencing laboratory with the help of American Biotech company, Illumina. The facility will now enable them to sequence and generate the data which informs whether or not any variance is noticed and then such observations can lead to well-regarded publications. 54gene seems to be a very promising endeavour which will represent what true Africa is to the world in the healthcare domain with the aim of improving lives of many Africans witnessing better health outcomes.

SOURCE: www.techcrunch.com

California-based company, Evidation has recently raised funds worth $153 million to expand its virtual health programs on Acheivement Platform which is America’s largest digital health network.  Evidation via its virtual health programs make it easier for individuals to manage their health. Alongwith the expansion of its virtual health programs, the company will also invest on building on its trust relationships with individuals and analysing person-generated health data for its stakeholders across healthcare. New programs to be launched by Evidation intend to transform how individuals interact with the ecosystem of care by providing personal insights and tools to empower and motivate people to take evidence-supported actions to understand, manage and improve their health in a better way. 

With these steps, Evidation becomes the first company that can help digital health and Biopharma companies generate evidence about their treatments and then empower and enable individuals to use that evidence to take their own health-related actions. As a company, Evidation measures health in everyday life and enables anyone to participate in ground-breaking research and health programs. Privacy of its user and control over permissioned health data form the foundation of Evidation. It partners with leading healthcare companies to understand health and disease outside the walls of a hospital or clinics. Its mission is to include, enable and empower every individual to participate in better health outcomes. Evidation works with various public health organisations, medical speciality societies and academic instituitions and has till date since its inception conducted more than 100 real-world studies across different therapeutic areas. In 2020, the firm touched the milestone of more than 1 million individuals participating in different researches and health programs.

The company has been able to make rapid, virtual research at scale possible and it is believed that company’s innovative platform can be leveraged to guide patients on their journey to a healthy living. In 2020, the company launched its first virtual health initiatives including Achievement for Heart Health- a first of its kind health program to help people monitor and improve their cardiovascular health outside clinical settings with the initial focus on heart failure. This program was launched in collaboration with the American College of Cardiology. LumiHealth, another personalised program that  partnership with Apple and the Government of Singapore. These privacy-safe health programs seamlessly connect care and research, fastening the discovery and dissemination of evidence-supported practices which improve health outcomes.

SOURCE: www.businesswire.com

Connecticut-based company, Butterfly Network has launched an ultrasound system which has recently won the CE mark and so is going to release its Butterfly iQ portable ultrasound system in Europe. The device is already available in the US at a price of $2000 per unit and the company has recently opened to take orders for the Europian market and some other qualifying countries..

The product has a transducer that plugs into an ipad or iphone via the lightning port, by using a matching application to display live images, change settings and review previously obtained scans. There is an ultrasound-on-chip ultra wide band matrix within the transducer which lets the product as if it has three different transducers built in. The microelectromechanical sensors(MEMS) are fixed in the matrix of the transducer system and are a part of an integrated circuit that contains all the necessary electronics. It is this tight integration which leads to a fast, high-resolution device that can perform tasks that only full-sized ultrasound machines were capable of just a few years ago.

This product can be now be used by a clinician anywhere as he/she is able to perform a variety of scans using one portable device. This device may be the most versatile ultrasound machines in the market today. The uniqueness of Butterfly iQ lies in the fact that the company compares its technology to how photo camera sensors have been integrated within smartphones, allowing a person to have high quality photo imaging in their pocket.  

SOURCE: www.mobihealthnews.com

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder affecting mostly the male children who suffer from muscle wasting and they typically live only until 35 years of age. Until 2019 there was no definitive treatment of DMD but in 2019 FDA approved a Genetic Engineered Medicine called Vyondys 53 for its treatment. A total of 26 children have been given this medicine since then and have shown promising results. Vyondys 53 is a Gene codon correction at the defective DNA level.

In India Kenmax Multispeciality Hospital, Madurai has become the first in the country to receive the ‘Gene exon Skipping therapy’ which has been delivered to a 10 year old patient suffering from DMD under the guidance of Dr. K. Raghavan, a renowned paediatric Neurologist. The patient was diagnosed with DMD at the age of 3.5 years. This young patient is the 27th patient in the world to receive this advanced treatment. JOGO Health which provides the patient neuro-muscular assessment and then the digital neuro-rehab therapy has been roped in to evaluate and help in the functional recovery of the child. As opined by specialists Vyondys 53 is by far the most advanced and definitive treatment of DMD. As per the neuro-therapists from JOGO Health, the patient has shown very good progress since the administration of Gene Therapy alongwith the digital therapeutics from JOGO.

Kenmax multi-speciality hospital is 50 bedded, located in the heart of Madurai which specially  focusus on people with rare Genetic neurological disorders like Muscular Dystrophy, Neuro-Rehabilitation, Behavioural disorders in children and Special Education needs. Kenmax Multispeciality hospital has now tied up with JOGO Health to take care of such patients collaboratively. Kenmax is one of the Government of India Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI) registered institutions for clinical research and are presently involved in Gut-Brain Axis study in collaboration and funded by University of Okinawa, Japan. This study is an approved CTRI study. Current work is also going on the influence of Yoga on Neurotransmitters in Autism.

SOURCE: www.techplusmedia.com

Chennai-based Digital healthcare platform, Medibuddy is India’s leading digital healthcare platform for inpatient, outpatient, wellness and fitness needs that gives its users 24*7 access to quality healthcare allowing them to have doctor consultations, book lab tests and order medicines by letting them enjoy the comfort of their homes. The healthcare platform has a partner network of more than 90,000 doctors, 3000 diagnostic centres, 2500 pharmacies and 7000 hospitals covering 23,000 pincodes and a team of 1000 members located across 22 cities in India.

Medibuddy attends to the needs of more than 35,000 users everyday across India. For the online consultataions with medical specialists via video or voice call in real-time the specialities include Cardiology, Dermatology, General Medicine, Gynaecology, Neurology, Paediatrics, Psychiatry and more. In February 2021, Medibuddy has raised $ 40 million from multiple investors with the aim to bringing more healthcare, disease management and wellness curative services and with the objective to scale up its market penetration and provide affordable and accessible healthcare services to the entire Indian population. The vision of Medibuddy is also to expand its infrastructure technology, team members and network of doctors, labs, pharmacies and hospitals.

SOURCE: www.cxotv.news

Dementia is the most common disability and dependency in older people world over. India alone has nearly 53 lac elders suffering from dementia which makes it number 2 in the world as far as the caseload is concerned and Karnataka itself has 3 lac such cases. The forecast is that India’s Dementia and Alzheimer’s burden will reach nearly 7.5 million by the end of 2030. Despite the prevalence of  such a number of cases only a tiny fraction of them are formally diagnosed and treated. Taking care of one’s mental health is still considered a stigma in Indian society and sadly by most Indians memory loss is considered as an unavoidable part of ageing rather than a degenerative disease that must be looked into and treated just like any other medical condition. So to cater to such group of suffering elders, a Geriatric Care specialist, KITES Senior Care has launched an exclusive, super-specialised Dementia and Alzheimer’s Care Centre in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

The facility is located in HBR Layout in North Bengaluru, headed by a team of well trained and highly specialised medical experts. The state of the art facility has Superior rooms, Counselling rooms, Consultation rooms, Cafeteria, Library, Activity room, Yoga and Exercise hall, Prayer room and a Terrace Lawn with 24 beds. The place provides Day Care, Residential Care, Family Counselling Services and Memory Clinic for elders with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Patient safety was the most important point kept in mind while constructing the world class facility specially designed by Healthcare Architects in conjunction with the medical experts.

Doing effort to treat such patients with the right kind of care, provided at the right time becomes imperative now in India that out of the 1.3 billion population nearly 11 crore Indians are above the age of 65 years which is likely to grow to about 24 crore by the year 2040, making elderly care an essential service to be available throughout the country. It is sad that as a Nation, presently we are under-served to provide the right care for these illnesses. So every endeavour should be made right now to take care of the elderly with such disabilities. KITES Senior Care has received a funding of INR 4 crores which it intends to use to expand its infrastructure and is looking to raise more money so that it can provide its services to more number of cities soon.

SOURCE: www.cxotv.news

The asymptomatic covid-19 patients are more difficult to trace as these people do not know that they are sick. However to overcome this problem, MIT has found out a solution the answer to which lies in the use of Artificial Intelligence. In this direction, Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in one of their latest researches have found out that asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 may differ from healthy individuals in the way they cough. The study shows that an AI model can detect asymptomatic covid cases by analysing the sound of their coughs.

To conduct the study, researchers used forced-cough recording submitted by volunteers via smartphones, laptops and web browsers. Using this collected information, the AI model was then trained using tens of thousands of spoken words and coughs. The AI model is based on four algorithms which analysed the data and resultantly it accurately identified 98.5% of coughs from confirmed cases of COVID-19 and detected those cases who had no symptoms but tested positive with 100% accuracy. The study is published in the IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology. The asymptomatic covid-19 patients are more difficult to trace as these people do not know that they are sick. Ho

The uniqueness of this model lies in the fact that it can detect who may be a carrier of COVID-19 even without any visible physical symptoms, just by hearing the way a person coughs. The human ear cannot differentiate between the cough of a healthy person and that of an unhealthy one but this can be picked up by Artificial Intelligence.

The study also emphasises that a person’s sentiment is embedded in the way he/she coughs. AI by analysing one’s cough easily pick up things like the person’s mother tongue, gender or even emotional state. In the long term, the research team intends to incorporate this AI model into a user- friendly application so that it can be made accessible to a large number of people. In the form of an application this model can be convenient, free and non-invasive screening tool for coronavirus.

SOURCE: www.businessinsider.in