TINNITUS LAB: PROYECTO DE SALUD SOCIAL

According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2021), 420 million people in the world suffer from tinnitus. On the other hand, according to forecasts for 2050, it mentions that one in four people will have hearing problems. Tinnitus is a pathology that generates, in those who suffer from it, the perception of unbearable noises in the auditory system without there being a real sound stimulus. The symptoms of tinnitus are that different types of sounds can be heard, for example, whistling or ringing in the ear. Also of concern is the ability of health care systems to care for patients with tinnitus. According to statistics, 78% of low-income countries have less than one otolaryngologist per million inhabitants and only 50% have at least one teacher for the deaf per million inhabitants.

This pathology has no pharmacological cure and we have developed an electronic equipment that allows to generate rehabilitation therapies to gradually reduce the patient's perception of his TINNITUS so that he can have a better quality of life. Tinnitus causes stress, anxiety and sleep disorders in those who suffer from it. We believe that this program will help us to transform this problem suffered by people with tinnitus and provide them with a solution that generates a positive impact on their quality of life and the people around them. In this way, we will put technology at the service of the health and well-being of society. Additionally, we seek to raise awareness about this pathology that affects millions of people, but is not well known.

Tinnitus Peru is an electronic system that diagnoses, controls and performs a treatment by emitting processed signals for each person diagnosed with tinnitus. It is an innovative option in the market at an accessible and mobile cost, making care for each patient more flexible. Tinnitus offers its technology developed by its medical and engineering staff through a comprehensive service that provides diagnosis and subsequent treatment of tinnitus. The ways in which we carry out the treatment is face-to-face and in the case of provinces through our web system or our native system installed on a desktop under a membership. Our technology is based on an App and distributable software that provides treatment for TINNITUS through TELEMEDICINE.
This system emits sound signals through specialized digital signal processing, based on phase changes of signals, emission of complex signals, wide-band wide-spectrum sounds, elimination of energy in diagnosed sound frequency bands.
The objective of this technology has always been to improve the quality of life of the population that suffers from this condition and that drastically affects their lives in academic, work, social and family life. For this reason, we innovate by personalizing and carrying out new engineering processes in anomalous sound neural activities, reducing costs and improving what already exists.

Currently, the direct beneficiaries are 3% of people who suffer from hearing disabilities in Peru and all the limitations that suffering from this condition currently represents in our society. Additionally, the friends and relatives of people with hearing disabilities because with the hearing health programs as part of the comprehensive support process we improve the quality of interfamily relationships and with it the quality of life of people. In many cases we also allow to increase the level of independence of the disabled.

Our innovation has a global reach, on average TINNITUS affects 7% of the population and in more developed countries the incidence is higher due to the inappropriate use of hearing aids. Our model is easily scalable and distributable. Currently, there is no system in the world that provides treatment for tinnitus and according to research in countries that have censused their population, we have that between 10% and 15% of the population suffers from TINNITUS.

At Tinnitus Lab we seek to generate more awareness about this pathology that affects millions of people, but is not well known. Our goal is to prevent more people from having tinnitus and also to achieve greater empathy for current patients from the environments around them. Together with our work team, we seek to fine-tune our intellectual property strategy, establish a business model for marketing by licensing, and optimize the user experience.

Our work team is made up of leading specialists in their area. The current impact of the proposed solution is attributable to the intervention of the enterprise, it is described and supported by specific indicators. It must be taken into account that the impact is not the direct results of the proposed solution (outputs), but rather the positive consequences that said results have for the well-being of citizens. Tinnitus Lab has 3 leaders and a multidisciplinary team of 30 people who seek to innovate and improve the quality of our services for tinnitus patients every day.

- Giannina Ofelia Honorio Heredia (CEO of Tinnitus Peru): Industrial Engineer with a specialization in Marketing and a master's degree in Neuroscience, she has experience teaching at the university level for more than 3 years. She has the necessary business knowledge and training along with the academic experience that allows her to manage the enterprise and lead the scientific research necessary to perfect the electronic system. She is also the founder of the Technological Association of Peru, a non-profit company that seeks to improve people's quality of life through technology. In this association she leads and assumes with great commitment various projects in favor of the community.

- Ángela Matumay (COO of Tinnitus Peru): She works as an Otorhinolaryngologist. In the project she leads research and clinical trials.

- Indira Preira (COO of Tinnitus Peru): She has extensive experience in public health policies and implementation of new technologies in the health sector.

The main reason why we are applying to the program is to have specialized advice to improve our services. The project has patent registration and at the same time we have different versions of the product that have not yet been patented; therefore, one of our short-term goals is to patent each of these versions. In the medium term, open stores in different regions nationwide where there is a high population suffering from deafness and tinnitus. Likewise, establish alliances that allow us to easily enter new markets in which the incidence of Tinnitus is equal to or greater than that of Peru.

In this sense, Solve would allow us to make a new patent of the final product to the status quo that we have. Likewise, with consultancies, advice and specialized services, it would allow us to validate our business model and enter new market segments worldwide. A barrier for the business would be that research is currently being carried out to find drugs that control the symptoms of tinnitus, so a large market share could be lost, since patients could opt for these drugs because they perceive them to be more practical than our product. . Among the opportunities, it stands out that we can cover a larger sales area at the national level and a significant increase in sales through a franchise model.

Our solution is innovative, since we have our own validated technology that improves quality of life at a lower cost, with unique algorithms and processing on the market that no other offers. On the other hand, there is no company that is marketing non-invasive treatments for tinnitus at a regional level and provides support throughout the rehabilitation process. Likewise, we offer accompaniment throughout the patient's rehabilitation process, achieving effective results between 8 and 14 sessions, in which patients reduce the perception of beeps or even stop hearing them for several months.

Tinnitus Lab has agreements with various medical centers to treat other frequent needs in patients with Tinnitus such as hearing loss, psychiatric treatments, psychological treatments, language therapies, etc. Due to the deep knowledge of each patient's case and the market offer, we provide effective advice on where to treat your other medical needs. Additionally, the progress of patients in their other medical treatments is centrally monitored to achieve comprehensive improvement of the patient. On the other hand, through our allies, we provide self-help sessions in which our patients find an empathetic community with which to share their experiences with tinnitus and overcome the various challenges that this disease entails.

In the short term, our objectives are: to increase our coverage (care centers) so that more people with tinnitus and deafness can access our services, improve the quality of life of people with these disabilities through continuous monitoring programs, increase our market share by 10% per year by entering new market segments, designing and validating a business model for licensing in a pilot launch with clients (B2B), validating the intellectual property strategy with a law firm, validating the commercial strategy with a panel of mentors. In the long term, our objectives are: to attend to 1 million patients diagnosed with tinnitus in Latin America, to cover greater coverage through a franchise model with the aim of implementing a service center in each region, to validate the price of the start-up with an investment fund, launch a pilot with health professionals to assess the UX/UI design of the electronic system and launch a pilot with patients to assess the UX/UI design of the electronic system.

• Number of patients treated through telemedicine
• Number of patients attended by face-to-face appointment
• Degree of improvement in hearing ability
• Number of comprehensive monitoring programs implemented
• Number of service centers opened
• Number of strategic alliances established with NGOs and health centers
• Level of satisfaction of patients with tinnitus in relation to our services

We believe that this program will help us transform this problem suffered by people with tinnitus and provide them with a solution that generates a positive impact on their quality of life and that of the people around them. In this way, we will put technology at the service of health and welfare of society. Additionally, we seek to generate more awareness about this pathology that affects millions of people but is not well known. We also seek to fine-tune our intellectual property strategy, establish a business model for commercialization by licensing and optimize the user experience.

Our developed electronic system allows us to:

• Significant decrease in the intensity of the patient's tinnitus. • Signal processing according to the diagnosis of each patient.
• Change of phases.
• Broadcast of broadband signals.
• Residual inhibition.
• Facility for medical technologists, specialists and doctors to give treatment indications.
• Possibility of monitoring the patient's progress and issuing reports.
• Allows you to generate tinnitus statistics.
• It allows to mathematically characterize the different unbearable buzzes, beeps, squeaks that each person suffers in Peru and in the world . This had not been done before and gives us the possibility of allowing patients to externalize what each of them suffers and hears in their auditory system.

There is currently no system in the world that provides treatment for tinnitus. According to research in countries that have registered their population with TINNITUS, we have that between 10% and 15% of the population suffers from TINNITUS, so this would be the neglected population whose quality of life we will improve through our innovative technology.

The client interface is based on an App and distributable software that provides treatment for Tinnitus through telemedicine. Our system emits sound signals through specialized digital signal processing, based on phase changes of signals, emission of complex signals, broadband sounds, broad spectrum, energy elimination in diagnosed sound frequency bands. We innovate by personalizing and carrying out new engineering processes in the anomalous neural activities of sound, reducing costs and improving the existing one.

The population with tinnitus or deafness cannot function adequately in their daily lives because very few people are able to understand and empathize with them, for which they are forced to isolate themselves. For this reason, our solution seeks to improve the quality of life of these people through comprehensive treatment and support, such that it allows them to function in a real environment and reduce the communication barrier, thus allowing the construction of an increasingly inclusive society. . Our team has been working every day to improve the technology and services offered to our patients with tinnitus. It is represented by leaders committed to the objectives of Tinnitus Lab, with defined roles, attitude and openness to continuous improvement, and capable of carrying out the vision. Likewise, it has the capacity to generate alliances with community actors and with external actors. Regarding initiatives in terms of social and environmental impact on which we have been working are the following:

• We develop technology to improve the quality of life of people with hearing disabilities. 
• Our multi-functional application software enables all communication and rehabilitation technology needs for tinnitus to be covered.
• Opening of the first ENT center in America to treat tinnitus.
• Significant decrease in the intensity of the patient's tinnitus.
• We contribute to reducing the workload in the health sector by treating patients with tinnitus.

• Recycling Plan: This plan allows us to collect our products or for them to be disposed of properly and not harmful to the environment, since the product is 60% software; that is, being a non-tangible product, it does not represent a polluting material.
• Eco-friendly Digital Manufacturing: There is machinery to develop Tinnitus Lab products. In addition to cost reduction, this manufacturing offers benefits such as more agile and efficient work models to optimize resources and supplies, reducing the negative impact on the planet and generating social conscience.

We have 2 well-differentiated customer segments and our type of business model is B2C:

• Corporate clients: The product they want is the license sale of the TINNITUS electronic diagnosis and treatment system to be able to franchise it and/or offer it in their medical care centers (Clinics, Hospitals and private practices). According to recent studies, the global market potential of the health sector for TINNITUS is $10 billion.

Our strategy to enter this market is to generate prestige in the medical and engineering community so that they can recommend us to their patients. In addition, having the support of the medical and scientific community makes it easier to overcome the entry barriers for the purchase of a license by health organizations.

• Individual clients suffering from TINNITUS: Attention in our own office and/or TELEMEDICINE. The technology of our electronic system for TINNITUS allows us to treat our patients in our office and also remotely through TELEMEDICINE. In Peru there are 2 million people and in the world 250 million.

Our strategy to enter this market is to maintain a strong presence in networks and a personalized and contextualized approach to our patients. Currently, we have made agreements with District Municipalities of Metropolitan Lima (San Borja, San Luis, etc.) and with centers for the Elderly (ESSALUD). Likewise, we carry out campaigns in the army, presence in fairs of the Ministry of Defense, campaigns in the aviation sector, etc.

We are an enterprise that generates income by offering our service to our direct clients made up of patients with tinnitus. In addition, we offer different hearing products and accessories for sale that complement the service we offer. Likewise, we plan to generate income through a franchise model, selling licenses of our patented technology and entering into a type of B2B business model with different public and private health centers.

On the other hand, it is important that we can improve our services and be competitive to achieve global scale. In this sense, the key milestones and activities that we will carry out to meet our objectives such that it allows us to be a company with social commitment and at the same time economically and financially sustainable over time are the following:

1. Design and validate business model for licensing in pilot launch with clients (B2B)
Contact mentors and benchmark business models for licensing in the health industry. Develop a model for TINNITUS LAB and validate it with directors of clinics and hospitals to achieve a commercially attractive and profitable business model.
2. Validate the intellectual property strategy with a law firm
Contact a law firm and develop the optimal intellectual property protection strategy and execute it to achieve the PCT patent.
3. Validate the business strategy with a panel of mentors
Develop the commercial strategy, media positioning, develop the marketing package, etc. and carry out a validation with a pool of mentors specialized in commercial launches.
4. Validate the start-up listing with an investment fund
Contact a specialist in the valuation of startups, order the finances of TINNITUS LAB and make an accurate quote to be able to enter investment rounds.
5. Launch a pilot with health professionals to assess the UX/UI design of the electronic system
Select health professionals, set up and design focus groups, carry out focus groups to test the UX/UI of the electronic system, analyze the data and obtain proposals for improvement.
6. Launch a pilot with patients to assess the UX/UI design of the electronic system
Incorporate the UX/UI improvement proposals in the electronic system in order to finally launch a better version approved by the users.

Our main indicators are the following: Number of patients that we manage to treat in our offices, level of reduction of the discomfort that the patient perceives at the end of the treatment and level of income. Currently, we have 2000 active users, 200 patients who are seen on average per month and our income is around 40 thousand soles per month; Likewise, in the last 6 months we have obtained 240 thousand soles of income. On the other hand, this treatment improved the patient's quality of life by 80%.

Our innovative initiative has participated in national competitions in relation to the use of technology to reduce inequality gaps. In this sense, we have received financing from the Ministry of Production (STARTUP PERU 5G) for a value of S/50,000. From this, we have invested in equipment and creation of user interfaces for the developed technology. This allowed us to simplify the care process and incorporate external professionals to the research group so that they can care for more patients. On the other hand, from Grupo Romero we have obtained an amount of S/80,000. With this, they invested in the implementation of an otorhinolaryngological medical office to be able to attend to patients suffering from tinnitus, medical equipment and in the electronic system invented by the entrepreneurial team for the diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus.