GE Healthcare To Mentor Six Indian Startups As Part Of The Edison Programme

GE Healthcare has chosen six startups as part of the first cohort of its first India-based startup collaboration programme, Edison[X]. The startups chosen are Synapsica, DeepTek, 5C Network, Cancer Moonshot, ORBO AI and Predible, many of which are working directly in the healthtech sector.

These startups will work towards developing solutions on the Edison platform for tough healthcare challenges existing today.

“Edison[X] – Startups powered by GE Healthcare” will offer zero-equity cash-in-grant of $10K to each of the selected startups along with access to mentorship, skill development programs, commercial and regulatory guidance, and data provision.

The US-headquartered medical technology company announced the launch of Edison[X] in August 2019. It invited applications from any startup based out of India or has their core development activity or team in the country. The startups working in the healthcare space and leveraging advanced technologies like internet of things (IoT) hardware, big data and advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning were preferred.

The applications received were screened through a three-stage process and the shortlisted entries were evaluated based on the strength of the business plan, maturity and how close the startups are to productising their solution, team capabilities and relevance to defined focus areas among others, GE’s press statement said.

The selected startups will collaborate with GE Healthcare leveraging the Edison platform to create solutions that improve patient outcomes and experience, efficiency of clinical practice and healthcare facilities, reduce waste and inefficiencies, and eliminate costly and harmful errors.

The Startups Selected For GE Healthcare Edison[X]:

Synapsica
HQ: Bengaluru
Founded: 2018
Founders: Meenakshi and Cherian
This platform uses AI, computer vision and data analytics to save reporting time for radiologists. Synapsica’s product Spindle detects and characterizes degenerative diseases of the spine in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, providing automated vertebra labelling, central canal diameter, listhesis, disc heights and vertebral fractures at all levels with high accuracy.

DeepTek
HQ: Pune
Founded: 2017
Founders: Amit Kharat
DeepTek uses in-house innovated “assisted and augmented” (AaA) imaging focused algorithmic tools designed by experts and covering a wide sphere of medical imaging like radiographs, computed tomography (CT) scans and MRI. DeepTek’s vision is to provide cutting-edge solutions powered by deep learning algorithms seeking to bridge the wide gap in the imaging sector.

5C Network
HQ: Bengaluru
Founded: 2016
Founders: Kalyan Sivasailam
5C works towards solving the fundamental problem of lack of access to specialists for quality diagnosis, especially in non-urban areas. It aims to use technology to ensure quality radiological diagnosis is accessible anywhere within an hour.

Cancer Moonshot
HQ: Bengaluru
Founded: 2016
Founders: Suresh Kumar
This startup’s cancer care AI software helps fight back against the terminal disease using precision oncology software decisions by blending AI and oncologist intelligence for better outcomes.

ORBO AI
HQ: Mumbai
Founded: 2015
Founders: Danish Jamil and Manoj Shinde
The computer vision research startup brings AI automation and superior visual enhancement stack to edge-based applications. Orbo fixes video quality issues with its edge-based super-resolution tech built using AI. This has applications in medical imaging, remote procedures and more.

Predible
HQ: Bengaluru
Founded: 2016
Founders: Suthirth Vaidya, Abhijith Chunduru, Adarsh Raj
Predible caters to a large patient population facing respiratory conditions and the company aims to enable precision diagnostics for pulmonologists through their LungIQ platform. LungIQ uses AI to generate accurate insights of disease from CT scans, covering pathologies such as early cancer, chronic obstructive lung diseases.

How Technology Is Transforming Healthcare In India

Technologies such as big data processing, ML, AI and deep learning are changing the way healthcare in India worked. Today, data of millions of patients are available online making it easy for healthtech startups to undertake clinical research or build predictive models.

According to DataLabs by Inc42 estimates, the total market size of the healthcare industry in India is projected to be $202 Bn this year. This is a growth of 84% from the $110 Bn market size in the year 2016. The report also talks about increased funding.

From 2015 to Q1 2019, the total funding in healthtech startups was $1.34 Bn with a deal count of 334. Although healthtech startup contributes a mere 9.26%, it is still the sector with the fifth-most number of funded startups in India, says the report.

Infrastructural improvements through blockchain and IoT seen in the last few years and adoption of newer technologies and gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR have helped many healthtech startups drive growth.