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Contributed on May 22, 2020

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How First Cohort Members of GE Healthcare Edison[X] Are Adopting Proprietary Technologies to Tackle COVID19

Blog: NASSCOM Official Blog

COVID19 is stress-testing healthcare systems across the world. However, there is immense hope for healthcare technology ventures and startups since their relevance has enhanced manifold during this pandemic. Solutions such as AI-guided telemedicine, AI-enabled detection for anomalies, thermal screening of patients to avoid contact, robotic fogging of infected wards and ICUs, 3D printed PPE… the list of innovation solutions emerging to address this crisis is endless.

GE Healthcare has been an active player in the field of healthcare innovation. Several initiatives have been mooted by the healthcare major such as – Edison (an advanced intelligence platform used by GE Healthcare’s internal developers and strategic partners to develop new healthcare applications, services and AI algorithms.) and Edison^[X] – GE Healthcare’s first global startup collaboration programme centered on the Edison platform. Through this program, GE Healthcare intends to work with and harness the brainpower and energy of the start-up ecosystem in India to develop solutions on the Edison platform for some of the toughest healthcare challenges existing today.

223 startups based out of India having their core development activities here applied for the first cohort of Edison^[X] from which FIVE start-ups were selected. These five start-ups heavily leverage AI and deep learning algorithms to drive significant improvement to outcomes in radiology, oncology and imaging technologies.

A recent focus of these start-ups has been to adopt their proprietary technologies to arrive at solutions to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 270,000 deaths since its outbreak in December 2019.

Even as the world tries to fathom the Covid-19 pandemic and its rapidly cascading effects on health, healthcare systems and the economy, companies & individuals are feverishly working towards arriving at solutions to the unprecedented challenges today. The most valiant efforts are taking place in healthcare to arrive at possible cures, curative and preventive, and in the ways of delivering more effective care.

This is where startups belonging to the first cohort of Edison ^[X] are making a difference*. Here is how:

 5C Network (5cnetwork.com/)

Bangalore-based 5C Networks, incubated at NASSCOM, which makes radiology more accessible through technology, is working closely with both private and government hospitals across the country to help them triage and monitor cases of Covid-19. With PCR facility being both rare and expensive, and thus inaccessible to most of India, 5C is using AI and its specialist Covid-19 radiology response team to read chest X-rays and CT scans, correlate them with vitals and symptoms, and help healthcare providers decide the best course of action for the patient.

Predible Health and 5C Network collaborate to offer AI-based quantification of Covid-19 Patients

Predible Health, another Bangalore-based startup that uses AI to diagnose cancers of the liver and lungs, has collaborated with 5C Network.

The partnership helps quantify the extent of lung disease in Covid-19 patients using CT Scan images. 5C, which has over 500 clients across India, receives CT scan images of COVID-19 positive patients for monitoring and prognosis.

 “COVID19 has tell-tale signs on a CT Scan: peripheral ground glass opacities and crazy paving pattern. Predible’s LungIQ software is helping radiologists not only identify these patterns, but also measure the increase or decrease in the disease. This quantification is invaluable for front-line physicians to decide the course of action for their patient” says Suthirth Vaidya, CEO of Predible Health.

“At the moment, CT Scanning is not being used to detect COVID-19 in India. However, in many hospitals who have the facility, patients with COVID-19 are regularly monitored using CT scanning. Since Covid-19 presents essentially as a viral pneumonia, understanding the extend of spread is critical for better treatment. Here is where Predible’s LungIQ supports us greatly. It not only helps our radiologists accurately quantify the extent of the disease, but also measures the change in disease with respect to previous images of the same patient. So, it is not just progression, it is prognosis” says Kalyan Sivasailam, CEO of 5C Network.

In Wuhan, where the disease first broke out, hospitals used CT scanning extensively to diagnose patients, due to lack of available PCR and antibody detection kits. Data published by radiologists and researchers in Wuhan suggest that CT Scans will play a vital role in detection and monitoring of the disease. In a study of 1,014 patients in Wuhan, researchers reported that chest CT found 97% of Covid-19 infections. Furthermore, the study found that 48% of patients who had negative results on RT-PCR had the disease.

Deeptek.ai develops SARS CoV-2 AI-Assisted X-Ray & CT Imaging Findings Smart Notification Tool & E2E Workflow Solution

Pune-based Deeptek.ai is leveraging technologies like AI to improve the quality and productivity of radiology services. The company has developed a SARS-CoV-2 AI-assisted X-ray and CT imaging findings smart notification tool and end-to-end workflow solution for follow-up analysis to ensure a patient is not lost for follow-up.

It has:

• Developed an Artificial Intelligence (deep learning) powered algorithm to train and develop models for detection of community acquired pneumonia biased for SARS-CoV-2
• Developed a smart reporting platform using standard COVID-19 terminology to classify studies and imaging as definitive/indeterminate/nonspecific for Covid-19
• Developed an alert system / smart notification to ensure fast communication between imaging team and referrals to ensure faster diagnosis.

Synapsica (synapsica.com/)

Synapsica AI detects features of Covid-19 on chest X rays with high accuracy. The product, Radiolens is integrated with a clinical workflow, well tested and is deployed at 25 X-ray imaging sites across rural areas in Delhi, Haryana, UP, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu. The deployment is quick, vendor neutral and requires no additional IT infrastructure.

Edison^[X] Cohort 2 To Invite Participation From Healthcare Startups In NASSCOM network:

NASSCOM CoE and GE Healthcare have been collaborators on driving innovation in healthcare since 2019. NASSCOM CoE has been driving its flagship healthcare initiative LHIF (Lifesciences & Healthcare Innovation Forum) for a little over two years, with the main aim of developing one of India’s most expansive and collaborative platforms for healthcare & lifesciences based on innovation & technology use in these areas.

In the upcoming, second cohort of Edison^[X], NASSCOM CoE’s LHIF will work closely with GE Healthcare to identify high potential healthcare startups with a strong, technology-based value proposition.

*Note: These startups are re-purposing their proprietary technologies to address challenges arising out of Covid-19. GE Healthcare is not involved in the validation or clinical testing of these effort and does not have a partnership for these solutions.     

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