ADVIN: Digital Health Technology for the Global Good

ADVIN builds portable health-diagnostic hardware and software solutions to address the needs of hard-to-reach communities with AI-powered health-screening and diagnosis.

The World Bank predicts 90% of all health problems in developing countries could be solved through provision of effective primary care; yet across developing countries there exists a shortage of 2.3 million physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers. As a result, in Bangladesh alone, 24-64% of all diabetics go undiagnosed, 7-31% of individuals don’t have access to blood pressure management, 50-80% of primary care comes from informal and untrained health providers, and correct treatment is prescribed in only 30% of cases due to a lack of proper tools and training. Moreover, Approximately 50 percent of Bangladeshis live on less than USD $2.00 a day. With a population subsiding largely in rural areas, access to medical care is near impossible due to geographic, financial, temporal & social barriers. Rural populations, particularly children & women, receive care from local informal providers who lack the knowledge & technology to treat people effectively.  ADVIN technology will allow better asses child nutrition, women's health & simultaneously improve healthcare worker's productivity. 

ADVIN's approach to providing high-quality and low-cost primary care has two pillars: first, ADVIN engages trusted community stakeholders with existing rural infrastructure (NGOs and MFIs), to run health literacy campaigns introducing concepts of health monitoring and digital health to rural populations. The rural centre is then outfitted with an ADVIN healthcare worker and ADVIN's hardware for performing health screenings. The use of existing rural infrastructure makes ADVIN easy, cost-effective to set up and market, and removes barriers to adoption through leveraging existing patient behaviours. Second, is the technology itself. ADVIN's hardware is integrated with a proprietary, AI-powered software platform able to provide symptom and data-based diagnoses with greater accuracy and efficiency than any healthcare worker can on their own. Health workers gather information through urine and blood test strips, and other health devices to enter into the device which then provides a diagnosis. All patient data is stored on a cloud-based digital health database, and is immediately accessible to remote doctors who contact patients on-the- spot through the 3G-connected devices to provide consultation, or prescribe medication, when alerted to a more serious diagnosis. ADVIN's devices let frontline healthcare workers provide higher-quality care to more patients, more frequently, through augmenting their abilities with the expertise of physicians and the intelligence of advanced software.

Unexpected healthcare costs are responsible for pushing millions of people into poverty each year across the Global South. ADVIN's solution is a technological leap past more expensive and cumbersome models of healthcare as are relied upon in the West. By leveraging new technologies such as AI-powered diagnostics, rural communities across the Global South have a real opportunity to develop themselves at a previously untenable rate, improving quality of life and economic output for all future generations. With a scalable and replicable model, ADVIN has an opportunity to provide communities around the world with the basic healthcare they need to prevent more burdensome future health issues.

ADVIN leverages proprietary software and existing hardware technology to bring together a fragmented care system. ADVIN applies its proprietary AI algorithms to huge databases of health data collected through ADVIN's centres to provide care providers with diagnostic recommendations. Each of the algorithms developed by ADVIN's team was produced in-house. The hardware deployed at each of ADVIN's centres meet all international standards of quality.

ADVIN's screening technology provides other stakeholders with an accurate profile of each patient's health, while ADVIN's software provides the means by which disparate stakeholders can manage patient data and coordinate care. ADVIN brings together a fragmented care system – turning existing rural infrastructure into primary healthcare centres using digital health technology and tele-consultation. Through capturing patient health data at the point-of-care, ADVIN facilitates physicians in diagnosing, prescribing medication, and recommending further care. ADVIN acts to coordinate patient data along the healthcare pathway, leveraging its technology at each point in the care continuum to do so.

Over the next 12 months, ADVIN will be launching an additional 49 centres, for a total of 75 in the 2018 calendar year. Having just finalized agreements with the Bangladeshi Government, the third largest MFI in Bangladesh, BURO, and one of the country’s larges NGO, GUK, ADVIN will begin scaling-up centres and investing heavily in strengthening supply-chains in remote northern communities. As the number of centres launched increases, ADVIN will also be scaling up physician call centres and IT systems to support the increases in tele-consultations through the software platform.

ADVIN currently has several 10 year contracts with the Government of Bangladesh, GUK, and BURO, for a total of 1800 primary health centres; a total population of more than 5 million rural community members provided with access to primary care. ADVIN plans to scale up a number of other health initiatives focusing on maternal and child health and nutrition by leveraging ADVIN's existing distribution network. By 2020, ADVIN will begin moving into Myanmar, India, and Tanzania, with pilot projects completed by 2021.By 2022, ADVIN will have 1800 centres, and will move forward with talks to support government-operated hospitals across Bangladesh.

ADVIN operates through partnership with international and domestic NGOs and Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). Leveraging the existing infrastructure of these partners, ADVIN provides diagnostic hardware and a trained health worker to operate the device. Each centre serves at least 2500 individuals and their families who regularly visit for MFI loans or NGO services. Pilot testing has shown ADVIN's services to be highly valued in rural communities, particularly the micro-health insurance program ADVIN offers members, and low-cost walk-in health screening and tele-consultation.

Currently, ADVIN has deployed its devices across 26 centres to date, and has screened more than 20,000 patients through its system. At any primary care centre where ADVIN’s hardware is utilized, patients can receive health screenings, diagnoses and prescriptions. Basic medication is covered under the micro-health plan, and secondary and tertiary care provided through ADVIN’s institutional partners. Each patient’s health plan, should they sign-up through ADVIN, covers medication, physician consultation, hospitalization, and lab tests.

Based on pilot studies, ADVIN has found approximately 2,500 patients register with ADVIN's centres in the first year, based on 40,000 regional population. Based on conservative estimates (accounting for no growth in users after the first year), ADVIN has contracts for 75 centres in 2018 and 1,000 by mid 2021. Hence, approximately 200,000 unique patients will be served in the next 12 months, and 2,500,000 by mid 2021. Based on currently operating centres, health-related travel costs for those in communities where ADVIN operates decrease by 62% and the proportion of correct diagnoses goes from 30% to 95%.

ADVIN's CEO is a successful entrepreneur from Bangladesh who has previous experience building social enterprises in the Bangladeshi Market. His previous company operated in the solar energy market solar energy, with $22 million in annual revenue by the time he stepped down as CEO. ADVIN's CTO has a masters in Machine Learning from the University of Toronto, and has worked for decades for Fortune 500 companies on implementing AI and ML into their software infrastructures. ADVIN’s Director of Business Development has years of experience researching the application of mHealth in Southeast Asia to reach last-mile populations.

For each of the partners ADVIN engages with, it is stipulated in the contract that the partner will provide ADVIN with funds for the 2,000-2,500 individuals, independent of whether or not that number of patients ultimately register. Each patient pays a one-time registration fee and an annual micro-health plan premium. Additional revenue is secured through sale of the consumable test strips for each of ADVIN's devices, walk-in patients, and tele-consultation fees. Each device can screen up to 62 separate health metrics, many of which requires the use of a consumable test strip. For a majority of patients, the cost of tests and tele-consultation with a physician are covered under their micro-health insurance, where-in ADVIN receives payment from the insurance company for services rendered. ADVIN's current model based on the 26 centres in operation and the guaranteed revenue from each contract ensures profitability by mid-2019.

Solve offers two major benefits to ADVIN. First, is the funding from a reputable partner, in-so-far as future funding from grants or equity financing would be significantly easier to secure. Second, is the network of experts and other like-minded change-makers Solve could introduce ADVIN to. As a venture employing cutting-edge technology to the benefit of hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations, ADVIN is deeply concerned with maintaining a high ethical standard of operation particularly in our application of AI, backed by quantifiable impact and smart business. Doing so means leveraging the knowledge of experts in each of these areas.

ADVIN’s most significant barriers to success are: scaling ADVIN’s supply chain infrastructure and raising awareness amongst rural communities on the benefits of preventative primary healthcare. Regarding the first barrier, ADVIN would ideally be connected to expertise in supply-chain management by SOLVE, to ensure that demand is met as ADVIN grows to provide more comprehensive services. With regards to the second barrier, ADVIN will launch monthly health campaigns and leverage local community members to spread awareness on value of preventative healthcare. SOLVE could benefit ADVIN to this end by connecting us with those experienced in running similar public health campaigns.