How are AI startups solving the most common problems in Indian hospitals? Worker shortages, patient care and more

When racing engineer Mudit Dandwate nearly died of undiagnosed sepsis in a hospital in India after an uncle, he made it his mission to improve patient monitoring in a country of 1.4 billion people.

Dandewater, who was working as a consultant for sports car manufacturers such as McLaren at the time, decided to apply his experience in racing to the health care field. He and a fellow engineer began working on a project to non-invasively map health indicators in hospitals using sensors used in Formula One racing cars to monitor microvibrations in the body.

“We use a lot of sensors, analytics, artificial intelligence to assess the health of the car,” Dandewater, 33, told Bloomberg News. “That’s where my racing engineering background helps because we use some of the same methods to develop sensor-based, contactless patient monitoring systems.”

Like much of the world, hospitals across India are often understaffed and doctors and nurses are overworked, causing minor delays in patient care that can lead to life-threatening complications.

Dozee is one of hundreds of medtech companies looking to use artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies to fill long-standing structural gaps in health care delivery in the world’s most populous country.

Investors, ranging from private equity giants like TPG Capital to the investment arms of big pharma companies like Novo Nordisk A/S, have plowed a total of $37 million into Indian health-related startups since 2022, according to data aggregator Tracxn Technologies Ltd. billion in funding. According to Tracxn, health technology-focused companies in the Asia-Pacific region have raised $7.4 billion.

Bain & Co. predicts that India’s healthcare innovation opportunities will reach $60 billion by 2028, led by pharmaceutical services and health technology.

Despite India’s huge potential, at least 170 Indian medtech startups have folded since 2023 as the world emerges from COVID-19 lockdowns, according to Tracxn. Many of the companies that survived saw their valuations plummet.

Most startups now see domestic expansion and tapping into more profitable overseas markets as the two main ways to scale their operations and one day turn a profit.

The global Covid-19 pandemic and related movement restrictions have spawned a wave of healthcare startups seeking to replace in-person services with online services, such as online pharmacy PharmEasy. Many of these companies are now facing valuation cuts as investors gravitate toward companies with hybrid models aimed at filling gaps in India’s health infrastructure.

Dozee was co-founded in 2015 by Dandwate in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru and is valued at about $150 million. The company uses two sensor patches placed under the mattress as an early warning system to detect heart, breathing, sleep and other vital signs.

Dandwate said the forms capture patient data every second with up to 98% accuracy, reducing workload for hospital staff and improving real-time observation.

The company charges more than 500,000 rupees ($5,947) to integrate its smart beds into hospitals’ management software, and its products are used in more than 16,000 beds in about 250 hospitals in India and another 55 in the United States.

Dandwate said Dozee has raised $35 million to date and plans an additional funding round within six months to fund its U.S. expansion.

Mohit Bhatnagar, managing director of venture capital firm Peak “. Peak XV, formerly known as Sequoia Capital India & SEA, has invested in at least 14 healthcare startups in India.

According to the World Health Organization, India has 7.3 doctors per 10,000 people, compared with the world average of 17.2. The shortage of specialist doctors is even more severe, especially in rural areas, where less than 80% of the required number are available.

“Supplier shortages are a global phenomenon,” said Carl Byers, partner at F-Prime Capital. “I think it’s particularly acute in India, especially outside of first-tier cities.”

Dhruv Joshi and Dileep Raman are two former critical care specialists at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States who moved to India to set up CloudPhysician, which enables remote monitoring of hospital intensive care units across India through its team of about 120 doctors and nurses. . Working in Bangalore.

The company, which raised $10.5 million in June, works with hospitals in 23 Indian states — from Mumbai to Deoghar, a small city in eastern Jharkhand state.

Paramount Hospital, a small 40-bed medical center in north Mumbai, is one of CloudPhysician’s partners. Paramount owner Utkarsh Angachekar told Bloomberg News that the company has a five-bed intensive care unit and its patients are mostly from low- and middle-income backgrounds, so it does not have the money to hire a full-time critical care specialist.

Paramount had earlier not sent “patients above a certain criticality level to the hospital, but instead sent them to centers with better monitoring,” Angachekar recalled when the hospital contacted CloudPhysician. “This now gives us increased confidence in the consultants who are working with us on critical issues at a higher level,” he said.

The results are clear: The average length of stay for Paramount ICU patients has dropped to three days from five days a year ago without CloudPhysician.

India’s infrastructure shortages and rapid economic growth mean there is no shortage of such start-ups.

Bengaluru-based Qure.ai, which raised $65 million in September from investors including Merck & Co.’s Global Health Innovation Fund, uses artificial intelligence for early diagnosis of diseases such as stroke and lung cancer. TPG-backed Asia Medical Holdings has helped treat 1,300 babies in small towns through its remote neonatal ICU.

“As far as India is concerned, technology is the reason why we can serve our customers profitably at a price they can pay,” said Peak XV’s Bhatnagar. “Ultimately, technology will lead to better medical outcomes, and that’s the win.”

The founders hope that tens of millions of new internet users and a rapidly growing middle class will expand their customer base and eventually help them break even. Companies like CloudPhysician and Dozee are also expanding into higher-paying markets like the US and the Middle East to boost profits while keeping prices low in India.

“You develop technology that is so powerful that it can compete in the global market,” said Ashwin Raguraman, co-founder of Bharat Innovation Fund.