Elvitron Technologies- NanoSense #HealthcareForAll

According to lancet research, it is estimated that about 101 million population in India that is 11.4% of country's population are living with diabetes. It is projected to increase to 124.9 million by 2045. More than 50% of people are unaware of their diabetic status which leads to health complications if not detected and treated early. Adults with diabetes have a two- to three-fold increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. Combined with reduced blood flow, neuropathy (nerve damage) in the feet increases the chance of foot ulcers, infection, and the eventual need for limb amputation. Diabetic retinopathy is an important cause of blindness and occurs as a result of long-term accumulated damage to the small blood vessels in the retina. Diabetes is among the leading causes of kidney failure.

Globally diabetes has affected 537 million adults (20-79 years) age group. That is around 1 in 10 have diabetes or are pre-diabetic.  This number is predicted to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045. Over 3 in 4 adults with diabetes live in low- and middle-income countries.

The main problem is lack of diagnosis in low and middle income countries, due to high diagnostic price, lack of knowledge, painful testing. India’s health system is characterized by medical pluralism, low government spending, high out of pocket spending and a large, unregulated private sector. Private providers range from highly qualified specialists to unqualified practitioners and local healers, and associated laboratory services are offered by large state of the art laboratory chains, medium sized facilities, and small neighbour-hood labs. They are largely profit-driven, diverse and lacking formal/official quality assurance or accreditation. The diagnostic system is highly fragmented and largely unregulated. Laboratory-based testing takes place across a multitude of providers ranging from small, ill-equipped one room labs in public clinics to large hospital labs, from small private neighborhood labs with limited testing equipment, to medium sized facilities and state of the art laboratory chains. 

The cost of most rapid card tests can be high in relation to their setting of use, particularly due to the cost of reagents. Glucometers used at home, for instance, cost USD24 and up with USD20 for 50 test strips. Prices for rapid tests in small private labs range from USD2-12, compared to USD0.5–1.5 for older methods. For poor patients in both rural and urban areas, paying more than 2USD for just one test in the private sector is very costly. Especially, because they also need to pay for consultation fees, transport (from home, to clinic, to diagnostic centres), food and/or accommodation, drugs and often loss of daily wages. Furthermore, not all aspects of public sector healthcare are free. Patients often have to pay user fees and pay for drugs and selected investigations. Bringing innovative and affordable solution in low income and middle income countries is necessary, to eradicate diabetes and other chronic conditions. 

Global health experts see immense potential in point-of-care (POC) tests to reduce delays in diagnosing and initiating treatment for chronic diseases. Low and middle countries like India face issue related to provision of medical laboratory services in India, including licensing, geography distribution, charging practices, quality, personnel requirements, information sharing and newer technologies that impact the sector. A physical examination and symphonic diagnosis may not always provide precise information to make prognosis and to guide treatment, thereby making diagnostic test crucial. It is believed that 60-70% of the clinical decision are based on diagnostics investigation. Many states in India have had no entry barriers or minimum requirement to setup medical laboratories. NanoSense solution is developed,  keeping all these barriers in mind and understanding the ecosystem of the Indian healthcare system, as a model for study of the healthcare ecosystem of other low-middle income countries. 

NanoSense is a point of care device used for diagnosis of chronic disorders, starting from diabetes. The solution is a wireless electronic skin patch made up of biomaterials for complete quantification of blood sugar of an individual with the help of mobile phone application. The wireless patch has embedded optical nanosensors for quantification of blood sugar in an non-invasive methodology. The cost of this technology ranges from USD 20-USD 8, thereby providing an efficient solution for low to middle income countries. 

Since the technology is non-invasive it does not require any trained clinicians also it does not produce any biomedical waste. The technology comes under sustainable and environmental free solution. The wireless electronic skin patch uses biopolymer embedded nano sensors for efficient point of care testing. 

According to the 2023 release, 1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people (just over 18%) live in acute multidimensional poverty across 110 countries. Sub-Saharan Africa (534 million) and South Asia (389 million) are home to approximately five out of every six poor people. Tackling life threatening diabetes among this group is important, as 1.5 million people deaths are directly attributed by it. Both the number of cases and the prevalence of diabetes have been steadily increasing over the past few decades. Type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin by itself. For people living with diabetes, access to affordable treatment, including insulin, is critical to their survival. There is a globally agreed target to halt the rise in diabetes and obesity by 2025.

Poverty is associated not only with higher diabetes incidence but also with inequality of diabetes care in a northeast Asian population, despite universal health coverage.

The wireless electronic skin patch for glucose monitoring will help the users to measure blood sugar at a sustainable range. The innovation will lead to ease of use. The costing will ensure wide reach out. NanoSense will serve around 1.1 billion population globally, by ensuring point of care diagnosis at an affordable price and solve the global burden of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes still remains a substantial public health issue. Type 2 diabetes which makes up a bulk of diabetes cases, is largely preventable and in some cases potentially reversible if identified and managed early in disease course.

Affordable point of care solution can reduce the burden of management of diabetes globally.

I am the founder and research lead, for building a community of eradicating diabetes mellitus from the society. I worked as a Research Scientist at the Indian Institute of technology, Bombay (IIT-B). I have 6 years of experience in biomedical engineering, material sciences, sensor technology and nanotechnology. 

Apart from this recently, me and my team had conducted a customer discovery process, where we interviewed people from the healthcare ecosystem. We gained a lot of learnings, identified few customer segments who would likely be our early adopters. 

Identifying the customer segments, designing interview questions which initially targets to gather information about their persona, asking their opinion on the condition, their complications, needs in context with their conditions and then further categorize them in sub-segments and Archetypes.
Also, we listed out their pains and gains related to their profession and persona. Here, we had made a hypothesis: Day to day life challenges faced by each customer segments with respect to diabetes and their area of concerns. Accordingly, we moved ahead to validate our hypothesis. Our identified customer segments include, doctors, patients, juvenile diabetic patients, caregivers, government agencies, NGO's , health insurance companies, pharmacist, health conscious sub-segments, below poverty line patients. 

As our product consist of some beneficial features like being non-invasive, small, thin, accurate, lower power consumptions, low cost, small-data volume, wireless and high life span, applicable to small and large areas, the response was very good and seems like a good market fit. 

However we will continue our customer discovery iteration for the coming weeks.

We are at the prototype stage. Along with the customer discovery process, we are carrying out paid pilot studies, clinical trials for our product. 

We have identified our customer segments, developed the sensor and worked on its accuracy. 

I am looking for an community to build, where I can solve many other health related problems through the wireless and sensor technology approach. My approach is completely non-invasive, affordable with the vision #HealthcareForAll. Together we can eradicate disease using non-invasive methods, sustainable business model, work with under-developed countries. I am looking for expansion, since I believe healthcare problems are not country specific and is a global burden if not diagnosed and managed efficiently. 

The product follows non-invasive methodology and uses accurate sensor based methods for diagnosis. This technology is clean technology and does not generate any type of biomedical waste. The self adhesive patch can be used by end users directly without the requirement of trained clinicians. Traditional used methods (glucometer) have test strips and require needle for pricking of blood. The procedure tedious for chronic diabetes patients. 

Customer discovery process and secondary research have helped us get findings, on the market, early adopters and also market opportunities of the technology.

The MIT Solve outreach will help me target the population at a wider range. 

The core of the technology is the nano-sensor, which accurately detects the blood glucose. 

We have filed a provisional patent with our findings, and soon we will publish a research paper. 

Research Associate- 2

Research Intern- 2

Sales and marketing Intern( Customer discovery) - 2

I have started working on this solution since January 2024

I believe in diversity and in equal opportunity. Being a women entrepreneur, giving equal opportunity to under privileged groups is my priority.  

White label modelling

D2C, B2B, B2G. Please refer pitch for more details. 

White label model for steady cashflow.