AI-driven health tech startup plans India entry
Located in Boston, basys.ai is planning to launch its services in India soon. Through its proprietary AI technology, it tracks, predicts, and provides treatments to improve metabolic health outcomes.
basys.ai, a health-tech startup that began its journey from Harvard, says its in-house technology will help improve doctors’ clinical decision-making in managing the metabolic health of their patients.
To launch its platform in India and Singapore, the startup has begun discussions with healthcare providers. To connect hospitals across the country, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is being used. With this program, doctors in India may be able to share patient records consensually.
“We believe that this (universal electronic health records framework) will become a reality in five years in India. Although we might not be profitable at first or have the necessary numbers to gain traction in the market, Amber Nigam, co-founder and CEO at basys.ai is excited about the sheer scale we can achieve.
The number of type-2 diabetics in India reached 77 million in 2019. The substantial burden of cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes is associated with metabolic syndrome in India because one-third of adults suffer from this cluster of conditions.
As long as prospective investors support basys.ai, the platform might launch in India within the next few months. As India’s universal health record system is being built, basys.ai plans to develop its artificial intelligence capability through partnerships with hospitals. Currently, only the US is served by the startup.
The genesis of basys.ai
During his time at Harvard’s health data science program, Amber met Jie Sun, his co-founder. They decided to improve metabolic health in people by focusing on diabetes while exchanging ideas at the crossroads of data science and healthcare.
Amber has also personally experienced the disease through his father, who also suffered from diabetes-type-2.
Their venture was launched in 2020 by the co-founders.
Several competitions have been won by basys.ai. At the MIT 100K Accelerate event, the co-founders won first place. Harvard Innovation Lab and MIT have also awarded them grants.
A world-leading diabetes research center has also signed on as the startup’s first customer. This 5-year contract will bring Basys.ai over $1 million.
The agreement allows basys.ai to track and intervene with diabetes, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease in conjunction with the diabetes center. As part of its collaboration with the research center, the company is working on a range of diabetes-related issues.
basys.ai’s proprietary AI technology
The basys.ai system tracks patients’ health using three main data sources: historical health data, glucose levels derived from glucose monitors, other health metrics derived from devices, and user input. Since users tend to be biased when feeding their data, the last source is given the least importance by the platform.
A patent application for AI technology has been filed by the health tech startup.
Through the combination of EHR data and health metrics collected via user devices, the startup analyzes risk profiles, summarizes information for doctors, recommends tests, and predicts/suggests disease management strategies.
The electronic health record (EHR) contains information about patients that we analyze. After extracting this information, we classify patients into different risk categories based on the patterns found,” she says.
By analyzing the risk profiles of each user, Basys.AI determines the types of diagnostic tests they must take, as well as their frequency.
The platform, for instance, suggests if an individual should have a diabetic retinopathy test every three months, every six months, or an annual test if he/she has diabetic retinopathy (a complication that affects the eye).
In other words, let’s say someone suffering from diabetes has diabetic neuropathy as a result of diabetes or diabetic nephropathy as a result of diabetes. Using the platform, doctors can determine whether patients need to undergo additional tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs) or renal function tests since diabetes can damage internal organs.
How the platform works
Providers/doctors and patients use the startup’s platform. Doctors are currently the main focus of the startup.
By displaying patient information on the dashboard, Amber says doctors can see past and current health status and recommended next steps.
On average, doctors spend 15 to 20 minutes scanning patient records, diagnosing problems, and creating treatment plans.
It takes the doctors a short time to interpret the data (from EHRs). It’s a messy notebook with multiple tabs, so doctors have to navigate through multiple tabs to find out a patient’s information. As a result, they might take shortcuts in scanning information, which is harmful to the patient.”
As a result of the use of artificial intelligence, basys.ai provides a summary of a patient’s health along with actionable recommendations for doctors.
Currently, patients are not required to use the platform. They can sync their glucose monitor once they register on the platform. A platform would automatically store all information collected in the past. Smartwatches can also be synced with the platform by users.
The platform collects additional information regarding an individual’s metabolic health in addition to glucose levels. For those using the device to monitor these metrics use the platform, it will also include blood pressure, heart rate, physical activity, calories burned, resting heart rate levels, and heart rate variability.
To determine whether or not the diabetic condition is improving, the platform uses such information.
The glucose levels can be manually entered by those who do not use any glucose monitoring device.
The platform has been designed so doctors recommend it to patients by making it provider-first. Patients and their families download and use it when doctors recommend it,” Amber says. The B2C platform (business to consumer) is also being considered by the startup.
Hospitals would benefit from basys.ai by increasing revenue and reducing costs. According to him, hospitals receive higher insurance payouts if they improve patient treatment outcomes under a value-based healthcare delivery model.
Using the fee-for-service model, doctors could treat more patients in a given time since they are paid for each service they provide.
The road ahead
The startup is exploring mental health alongside its B2C platform for patients in the US.
Mental health is the next step for us. There’s still a long way to go. Amber describes it as a different game than metabolic health. Similar partnerships are also being discussed with a few hospitals in the US.
In addition to the grants and competition money they earned, Amber and Jie have saved for their startup. The developers of Basys.ai are in the process of raising seed capital from some investors. Healthtech startup aims to reach international clinical validation by scaling its customers and products.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
