Even as the PM has announced a 21-day lockdown and wants the nation to practice social distancing as the norm, a healthcare startup in Bangalore is working on a suite of solutions using AI to ensure doctors are not put at higher risk of infection, while also allaying the fears of citizens over battling COVID19 

The fight against COVID19 continues. Even as the three-week lockdown from today, cases are still rising. In the midst of it all, the unanimous conclusion is that technology could play a crucial role in bailing the country out of this crisis. Processes are being expedited to allow more testing to take place – Mylab Discovery is now the first company in the country to receive approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). The Ministry of Health & Welfare (MoHFW), in collaboration with NITI Aayog and Board of Governors (BoG) Medical Council of India (MCI), has also released guidelines for telemedicine and remote delivery of medical services. 

This is the time for telemedicine to really shine. As hospitals and medical officials urge patients with COVID19 symptoms to avoid Emergency Rooms in order to mitigate the chances of spreading infection, a large number of individuals are nervous, unsure and worried. With the possibility of an excessive strain on India’s healthcare system, a timely switch to online consultations is the need of the hour. 

One of the startups that is clearly ahead of the curve in this matter is mFine. The Bangalore-based company, founded by Prasad Kompalli, Ashutosh Lawania, Ajith Narayanan, and Arjun Choudhary, specializes in providing teleconsultations for patients with their doctors through an app. 

Ever since Coronavirus cases spiked in India, mFine has witnessed a sharp increase in teleconsultation. 

INDIAai’s Sindhuja Balaji spoke with Ajit Narayanan, CTO of mFine to understand how his company is catering to this flood of patients while also rolling out unique AI-based features to aid the medical fraternity at this time

SB: Tell us about mFine’s online consultation and how it works

AN: mFine was incorporated with the sole purpose of helping India’s medical fraternity with data, intelligence and insights, making healthcare more accessible, affordable, reliable and quality driven. We work with a vast network of hospitals across the country with doctors in more than 20 specialties. In our journey, we have discovered our product helps medical staff save valuable time during consults. Most of the time, doctors spend a good amount of time simply collecting data about the patient such as their illness, symptoms, medical history and more. By using the app, the information is pre-recorded and patients can describe their symptoms. The AI engine takes in, and understands this data from across patients, becoming more intuitive and accurate in its assessment of a patient’s condition. The assistive algorithm’s accuracy metric is above 90% on an average for patient diagnosis and drug recommendation. 

Ever since Coronavirus cases began spiking in India, we have seen a marked increase of teleconsultations on our app. In the past month, we have had around 5,000 cases of teleconsultation. We realized most of them are not symptomatic with COVID19, and display symptoms of a common cold or flu. 

SB: Tell us about your solutions specific to dealing with COVID19

AN: One of the most challenging outcomes of a pandemic such as COVID19 is the fear it creates. Right now, people are afraid. But this needless panic will only cause more chaos, especially on the country’s already strained healthcare system. In order to alleviate this panic and take some of the heat off the medical staff, we have introduced a new feature called ‘Coronavirus Assessment’, which encourages patients displaying symptoms like fever, cough, sore throat and breathing difficulty – to consult online with a doctor. Using the data, the algorithm will be able to assess the extent of illness and the doctor will provide a prognosis accordingly. 

In addition, we have inserted features that help patients find the nearest testing centre as well as reach out to the government helpline in their surrounding areas. 

Another feature we have added is a new tool called Radar. This is a map with a live dashboard of cases around the world. It allows a user to pinpoint his exact location, so he can check if there are any localities with active COVID19 cases around you and enabling him to take precautionary steps. This feature consists of live data of patients around the world, and also shows cases of people having the common flu. 

SB: You have a new and innovative solution lined up for cough detection – tell us about that 

AN: We’re very excited to roll out a specialized feature in the next two weeks or so – the cough testing feature through the app. We have been collecting cough sounds through our app over the past 7 months through an inbuilt audio record feature. We have collected a series of such cough sounds, allowing our algorithm to train with as datasets. These cough sounds range from dry to wet cough to barking cough, allowing the doctor to ascertain the kind of illness the patient might have. There’s also an additional feature to input the colour of sputum, providing more information to the doctor on the nature of infection. 

If a person has contracted the COVID19 flu, one of the first symptoms is a dry cough. So if a person were to present this symptom, he can use this feature on the mFine to send a recording of his cough while doing an online consultation. If the AI understands the cough to be symptomatic of the COVID19 flu cough, the doctor can recommend the patient to contact the government helpline and follow the due protocol of self-quarantine and avail consequent medical care. 

These features allay fears of patients, help doctors see more patients in a day and mitigate the possibility of in-person interactions – perpetuating healthy social distancing and hygiene. 

Image source: mFine