The ScanEngine

Scan Engine is committed to solving the issue of inaccessibility that arises often in healthcare. With COVID-19 plaguing the world over the last 18 months, routine healthcare services have been disrupted and we believe that Scan Engine would be perfectly equipped to bridge this gap.

The solution would involve a platform with a model of a human body that patients could use to identify the exact health issues they are facing. In order to gain a detailed idea about the medical condition/ issue, the patients will also have an option to upload pictures before they connect with a medical professional virtually.

Scan Engine is suitable for a range of accessibility issues. In a fast-paced city life that is more virtual than ever, users will get at-home healthcare. With some modifications in the model and relevant public sector partnerships, it could also facilitate accessibility in remote/ rural contexts.

Rural populations especially in developing countries suffer from an acute lack of an efficient and timely provision of healthcare advice to patients whose access is limited either by geographical restrictions or the unavailability of trained medical staff. A number of remote villages still rely on traditional medicinal remedies which may in fact deteriorate the condition at hand. The ScanEngine aims to address the unique scenario by connecting medical practitioners in developed urban areas to those with a dearth of professionals. The ScanEngine aims at streaming the access to proper medical advice patients can receive, thereby increasing one's chances of survival and recovery. The ScanEngine also aims to provide an early warning system for governments, allowing them to access real time medical situations as they build up on the ground.

The solution is an interactive platform that will help the users identify the problem areas before getting in touch with the doctors. It allows the users to access an interface with a 3-D model of the body which they can use to accurately inform the system about their symptoms/ health issues. A comprehensive analysis will then be constructed based on the data users identify and they will be given a list of doctors to get in touch with. The comprehensive analysis will then be shared with the doctor selected and the appointment will therefore be virtual, detailed and hassle-free. The technology required for this platform will be a website as well as mobile applications.

This solution has multifold uses. We have built the idea with the intention that it will have an audience amongst the fast-paced urban population as well as increase access in rural/ remote contexts. While the website and mobile applications will be easily accessible to the users with internet and relevant devices, we also hope to enter into partnerships in the public sector which will help with the last mile healthcare accessibility issues.

Since the idea is still in a nascent stage, we haven’t concisely figured out the public sector accessibility yet. However, some models that we have thought about include keeping a port with this product in every village, in partnership with the village administration. This could then be used by the village population to get in touch with medical experts. There are several variables that come into play here but we think that with appropriate partnerships, we would be able to efficiently use this solution to target the accessibility issues in remote regions.

Our tool aims to equip last-mile healthcare providers with adequate disease detection and response insight. The world is more connected and we believe that healthcare solutions meant for urban areas should be transferrable to populations with limited access to healthcare-infrastructure.

ScanEngine could efficiently be used for this. With partnerships in the public sector, the platform could be set up in rural regions and used as a tool for identifying problem areas and setting up virtual appointments. Since the analysis is digital, this would also act as a detection and monitoring tool in order to ascertain trends in specific disease categories. 

This is still a concept that would need a lot more thought and idea incorporation based on ground level interventions. We would like to test the feasibility of this tele-health platform and would like to run some pilot tests. However, it is necessary to refine the concept and get feedback from an entrepreneurial and health angle in order to proceed with this idea. Some level of funding will also be required in order to commence the applications and website building to run some pre-pilot tests. As a result, we have selected “Concept” as the stage of development for this solution.

The website and application have commercial bandwidth to become a portal that patients rely on to accurately gain preliminary insight into

medical functionalities.
(A) Doctor Service Aspect - The Scan Engine allows for doctors to register themselves are specialists or generalists on the application to treat certain conditions. The doctors, hospitals, pathology labs, speciality hospitals, paediatricians pay a small annual membership fee to list themselves as having insight into various medical verticals. Once a patient books an appointment for a medical professional via The ScanEngine a certain percentage is charged towards the facilitation.
(B) Product Marketing – For simplistic conditions such as acne, hair fall etc The Scan Engine could tie-up with various over-the-counter brands to push their product as a ‘most used’ by users reporting similar symptoms and conditions. We would tie-up with brands to market their products for certain
everyday non-medical solutions.

(C) As an early warning system – Given the volume of patient health-related data flowing through the system, The Scan Engine becomes the ideal interface to identify common medical conditions occurring on a regional level. It becomes a data-driven early warning system for countries and local
governments where if a certain infectious disease is identified within a local area, The ScanEngine can alert local authorities that an increasing number of users are reporting similar symptoms of a certain ailment within that geographical region thus providing authorities with accurate, real time
data to better tackle the growing epidemic.

This effort will require minimum staff to get up and running, a couple of medical professionals as well as a handful of technology experts is truly all this concept needs to get off the ground. The investment in headcount is not large, but what is of paramount importance is the quality and speed at which we can implement this idea.

The number of users who adopt the software, the number of medical practitioners who get involved in contributing to rural healthcare would be accurate measures of impact on our target population. The Indian government currently offers subsidiaries and incentives to take on the challenge of rural healthcare and hence us obtaining these incentives would also be a sure shot sign that there is some confidence in our technology.

At the moment it is still on a concept with 2 individuals working on weekends to try and bring this to market.

If guided and mentored correctly we can definitely deliver this solution. The idea has accounted for all possible scenarios to increase profitability and provide community service at the same time hence the only missing piece is mentorship on how to bring this to market. I have extensive experience in corporate financing and merger funding being a M&A analyst with Citigroup for over 7 years. My colleague has extensive experience in public policy and social contribution having worked with some of the biggest names in the field. Together we feel we are well placed to take this solution to market and ensure its a success.

We feel MIT Solve would provide us with the mentorship, guidance and best possible chance to take this concept of healthcare-tele service from an idea to a product that not only serves the community most in need of proper advice but also seeks to provide a return on investment in terms of profitability. MIT Solve has in the past guided numerous such endeavours from the initial stages right through to product launch. We seek to leverage this wealth of knowledgeability and experience that the MIT Solve team has on offer to truly give The ScanEnigine the best possible chance to change the lives of the local communities it seeks to serve.

Technology focused ones as well as those in the tele-health industry would be our top priority.