Startups lean on remote-use devices to boost Covid-19 patient care at home

From monitoring vitals, to generating alerts on health crises, to keeping the family abreast at all times, these firms are doing their bit in the war against the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the fore both, challenges and opportunities in India's healthcare sector. Without continuous monitoring, any deterioration in a patient’s health can go unnoticed and lead to complications. Several startups have come up with products or services to monitor a patient’s vitals at home so that immediate medical attention can be sought if the situation turns bad. 

Bengaluru-based healthcare startup Dozee has developed a Remote Patient Monitoring system that checks Covid-19 related vital signs such as respiration rate, heart rate, blood pressure and SPO2 and comes with an early warning system for timely hospital transfers. The service includes a mobile app for family members, a daily health report for sharing with doctors and 24x7 support to help manage Covid-19 better. Caretakers and family get continuous access to vital trends and an alert in case of health deterioration. 

RPM runs on a contactless sensor sheet when placed under the mattress to enable continuous and accurate monitoring of a patient’s heart rate, respiratory rate, and other clinical parameters like sleep apnea, and myocardial performance metrics. The sensor captures micro-vibrations produced by the body each time the heart pumps blood, during inhalation, exhalation, muscle twitches, tremors and body movements. An AI-powered early warning system then converts these signals into biomarkers and uses the data to present an analysis of the patient's health through a smartphone app, for users. The device also features blood pressure monitoring and an extensible platform where it integrates with other devices such as a SPO2 sensor. 

“Made in India, Dozee has been launched with a 98.4 per cent medical grade accuracy after successful clinical trials conducted with over 1,000 subjects at NIMHANS and Sri Jayadeva Institute. Apart from its use at home, it also allows healthcare providers in private and government hospitals to remotely monitor patients’ vital signs, receive updates and deterioration alerts,” said Mudit Dandwate, CEO & Co-founder, Dozee.

“Dozee is being used by over 4,500 users at home to monitor theirs as well as their loved ones' health continuously. Our AI powered early prediction algorithms have saved lives in over 70 cases, predicting early cases of heart failure, tuberculosis, pneumonia,” he added.

According to reports, the Global Remote Patient Monitoring Market is expected to be valued at $2.14 billion in 2027 from $786.4 million in 2019, registering a CAGR of 14.1 per cent through the forecast period. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed healthcare practitioners towards remote patient monitoring technologies in India and globally. 

“The scale at which companies like Dozee and several others have gone beyond just pharmacy and lab testing is actually transforming the lives of doctors, nurses and patients. As investors, we see a huge opportunity over the next few years to transform this industry and are excited about this potential,” said Sanjay Swamy, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners. The startup had last year raised Rs 12.5 crore from Prime Venture Partners, YourNest and 3one4 Capital. 

Atleria Capital-backed Portea Medical has been managing the Covid-19 patients at home by providing them with remote monitoring, telemedicine consultations and support in the form of home based healthcare. “In fact, at a time when a large number of hospitals have been declared as Covid-19 specific hospitals, we are seeing a great increase in the numbers of non-Covid patients seeking home healthcare for disease management, therapies and other allied services,” said Vaibhav Tewari, Co-founder and COO, Portea Medical. 

The startup has already delivered services like oxygen management, home ICU, nursing and others to over 3,000 patients in less than one month. “We have tens of thousands of oxygen concentrators deployed all over India and we are directly importing more equipment from foreign countries. Despite that, we are witnessing an incredible demand when it comes to oxygen or human resources, and there are times when the supply is not enough to meet the entire demand,” said Tewari.

E-healthcare platform Medtalks is playing its part by providing accurate information to patients suffering from Covid for which it has partnered with Heart Care Foundation of India and created a free online OPD where it is seeing almost 1,000 patients a day. “We have doctors and Covid educators present for 12 hours daily. We have over 3,000 videos and articles on overall healthcare and over 500 videos and articles on covid management, covid protocols and basic steps for prevention and management of covid which are used by consumers to help in home covid management,” said Nilesh Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Medtalks.