It’s not only artificial intelligence that’s creating a buzz in healthcare these days. From AI to artificial organs to genomics data, healthcare is awaiting a change in trajectory.
Several studies indicate that India’s health tech sector is on the brink of a revolution.
A report called ‘Unleashing the Healthtech Potential’ by RBSA Advisors predicted that India’s health tech ecosystem will be a $50-billion market in the next 10 years. The report expects that the sector will grow at 39% compounded annual growth rate between 2020 and 2023.
This International Women’s Day, News18 introduces you to three women who are driving innovative concepts in the world of healthcare.
Firoza Kothari aims to provide patients with tailored surgical parts, Anu Acharya brought the concept of genomics for Indians as ‘genomepatri’, a take-off on janampatri or horoscope. Roli Mathur is the one who keeps a sharp eye on new developments in healthcare with focus on ethics in the new research.
Firoza Kothari: The Organ Maker
Co-founder of Mumbai-based Anatomiz3D, Firoza Kothari is also the Chief Technology Officer at her company where she aims to develop patient-specific tissue engineering solutions with the objective of reducing dependence on organ donors someday.
Also a ‘Forbes 30 Under 30’ winner, Kothari started working for a firm after completing her B.Tech. She worked with a diagnostics firm and within six months, decided to start a business in medical applications.
“The future of healthcare is going to be revolutionised by a lot of different technologies such as AI, regenerative medicine, telemedicine, computer vision, and many more,” she said.
“Just like one shoe does not fit all, no two surgeries are the same.”
Anatomiz3D provides surgeons with a patient’s physical or digital 3D anatomical replica extracted from their 2D scan images to study the defect prior to surgery. They also personalise surgical tools and implants specifically for that patient to ensure the desired outcome.
With this, surgeons face fewer on-table surprises, save operating time and reduce the risk of repeat surgery, eventually empowering themselves to cater to more patients.
India has already made significant strides in 3D printing technology in various fields. “One area where India could work on and build capabilities in 3D printing is in the development of custom-made implants and prosthetics,” Kothari said.
Another area where India could focus its efforts is the development of 3D-printed organs and tissues, she added.
“While this technology is still in its early stages, researchers have already demonstrated the ability to 3D print functional tissues such as skin, cartilage, and blood vessels.”
“In the future, 3D printing could be used to create replacement organs for patients, eliminating the need for organ donation and the risk of rejection,” she said.
“Fortunately, during the early days of my career”, Firoza said, “I had very few responsibilities towards the household… For the longest time, my start-up was all I thought of, with very little social life.”
Now, after her marriage, she is excited and working towards striking the right balance. In the next two years, global expansion is her priority.
Anu Acharya: The Gene Reader
Experts believe that the future of healthcare is reading of the genetics. As the founder and CEO of Hyderabad-based personal genomics firm Mapmygenome, Anu Acharya believes that the future of healthcare is going to be preventative, personalised, predictive and participatory.
This means consumers of health will play a bigger role and we will see more interventions to prevent diseases rather than curative medicine or sick care.
“We will be seeing more sensors and wearables that will give data output on a continuous basis. Data will be combined to provide more meaningful insights using artificial intelligence or machine learning (AI/ML).”
Another area would be making healthcare easy to access and use anywhere in the world.
Genomepatri, a product from Acharya’s firm, is a do-it-yourself genome-testing kit which allows consumers to understand what they need to modify to remain young and look better while also preventing diseases.
Her company has addressed some of the main challenges of personalising medicine and made people familiar (to an extent) with the concept of genetics. Her firm is reaching out to consumers directly at home with the help of a concept called ‘HarGharDNA’.
Acharya’s firm started much earlier on the concept of preventive health and the use of AI to generate health scores. She now aims to reach out to smaller towns and villages where access to healthcare is limited.
So what is her goal for the next two years? To make Mapmygenome a household brand, she said.
Acharya emphasised that India needs to improve the statistics on the funding side as only 1.5 % of the funding currently goes to women founders.
When asked if women are more well-versed with multitasking, she said: “I enjoy multitasking and that comes in handy as an entrepreneur.”
“I don’t generally get high on emotions as I am usually quite calm and, therefore, can make decisions quickly. That doesn’t mean I haven’t made bad decisions but as my genetics also show, I learn from my mistakes.”
Roli Mathur: The Rule Writer
While Kothari and Acharya innovate, Mathur is the one who makes guidelines for their innovations for use in healthcare research and practices. She is the head of bioethics units at the Indian Council of Medical Research.
With ICMR, Roli is trying to bring recognition to an important branch of healthcare called “research ethics” for which there is no formal education for both doctors as well as non-doctors.
All of the very few bioethicists working in India get trained abroad. While not many people would understand the importance of “research ethics”, India will not be able to conduct any research if her department does not make guidelines.
Mathur and her department are already involved in reading of the long-term effects of new tech concepts on healthcare research such as ChatGPT and AI.
She is deeply passionate about protecting the rights, safety and well-being of participants in medical and health research. She feels that the interest of the people and their choices must always come first and protections must be in place so that no compromises are made.
Between 2015 and 2017, Mathur at ICMR Bioethics Unit coordinated the publication of the National Ethical Guidelines that have now become legally binding for any biomedical research being conducted in India and this was a major achievement.
Further, during the Covid-19 pandemic, India was one of the first countries to come out with guidance documents for ethics committees.
This helped India in providing an easier corridor for faster research towards the development of vaccines, diagnostics and drugs without compromising quality.
Her job at ICMR, she said, prepared her to take on all challenges and groomed her to find solutions by the tightest possible deadline.
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