IIT Hyderabad incubated startups develop healthcare technologies to save babies lives and help bed-bound individuals
Hyderabad: Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad-incubated startups have developed healthcare technologies to save babies lives and help bed-bound individuals. The Second Batch of Fellows graduating from Center for Healthcare Entrepreneurship (CfHE), IIT Hyderabad, have formed two startups and met a jury panel to pitch their ideas during ‘Second Graduation Pitch Day 2018’ held today, 1st August 2018.
The Jury panel includes top investors in healthcare area, leading healthcare practitioners from hospital networks including Kamineni and Asian Institute of Gastroenterology and academics including lead advisers from Stanford University.
HEAMAC Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, which aims to solving unidentified pressing needs in neonatal and maternal care, has developed a product to help infants suffering from physiological jaundice. Kvayat Medical developed a product on faecal management system to assist bed-bound individuals and enabling them to lead life with dignity.
Both startups were involved in lengthy clinical immersions over several months at leading hospitals to assess the unmet needs in the medical fraternity. They have gathered positive feedback on their proposed solutions
Lauding the startups and the technologies developed by them, Prof. U.B. Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad, said, “The Institute is proud to incubate startups that are coming up with products that will have a huge impact on the society. We are sure their ideas will have a lot of traction with Indian healthcare community. We look forward to more startups coming up with innovative products from the upcoming CfHE batches.”
The Second Graduation Pitch Day 2018 is a platform to showcase the work of graduating CfHE Fellows and young entrepreneurs from IIT Hyderabad using a Pitch-to-Investor format. It is a forum to help forge new collaborations within and between the community of healthcare technologists, investors and social entrepreneurs.
Speaking about the two startups coming from 2nd batch of CfHE, Dr. Renu John, Co-Head, CfHE & Head, Dept of Biomedical Engineering, IIT Hyderabad, said, “The clinical immersions of the teams at Kamineni Hospital and Asian Institute of Gastroenterology were helpful in identifying the unmet needs in Healthcare. The Biodesign process and the mentorship of various domain experts helped the fellows in successfully identifying the right scope and focus towards the development of the product.”
Dr. Anurag Mairal, Director, Global Outreach Programs, Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, Stanford University, said, “IIT Hyderabad’s Center for Healthcare Entrepreneurship program has quickly become a well-structured effort with a high-quality pool of fellows and partners. The rigorous focus on the needs-focused biodesign methodology that forms the basis of the Center’s Fellowship has led to new ideas that serve the real needs of India’s healthcare system. The startups coming out the center seem promising and definitely worth watching closely.”
Mr. Prasad Muddam, Co-founder, HEAMAC Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, and Dr. Sai Laxman Bharadwaj, Co-founder, Kvayat Medical, gave presentations and interacted with the investors during the Second Graduation Pitch Day 2018.
Nearly 13 million infants per year are unable to process bilirubin quickly enough and require jaundice treatment to prevent death or lifelong disability. Even though the cure is simple and this condition, preventable, existing solutions are unable to address jaundice of different severities resulting in extended therapy time and morbidity. HEAMAC Healthcare has developed a device that provides graded phototherapy so that babies suffering from physiological jaundice get sufficient illumination.
Kvayat Medical is on a mission to improve the quality of life (QoL) of bedridden patients by building innovative products that enable them to lead dignified lives. It has developed a faecal management system, which is non-invasive and hygienic, thereby improving the quality of life of bed-bound individuals and enabling them to lead life with dignity. The solution also has the potential to address infection rates and costs associated with them while reducing costs related to bed care, nursing and laundry.
As a part of their Fellowship, CfHE Kvayat Medical co-founders have spent more than 400 hours to understand this problem through interacting with patients, stakeholders in hospitals and healthcare professionals across the country.
The startups that came out of the 2016-17 batch – Nemocare, which works on ending preventable neonatal and maternal deaths by developing monitoring solutions, and Beable Health, which works on intensive rehabilitation for upper limb, also interacted with the investors during the Pitch Day 2018.
CfHE has already been enjoying a growing record of traction with the first cohort startups attracting prestigious grant funding and awards. The invitees comprise leading experts from government organizations, academia, medical device industry, start-ups and healthcare providers. For more details about CfHE, visit: http://hc.iith.ac.in/