The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) organized the AI Gamechangers Award as part of the Annual GPAI Summit. The startups showcased state-of-the-art progress in the development of safe and secure AI. 

These developments encompassed inventive applications in agriculture, healthcare, and finance, as well as solutions for issues in dairy farming, crowd-sourced data collection, and the fight against disinformation. Every presentation demonstrated a dedication to technical advancement that tackles present-day societal problems and aligns with GPAI's objective of advocating ethical AI principles. 

India faces significant challenges in pathology testing, with around 100,000 labs serving a population of 1.3 billion. Rural areas are particularly underserved, with limited access to labs. Neodocs identifies several critical issues: the concentration of labs in urban areas, many labs lacking NABL certification, high test prices, and the risk of sample contamination. These issues contribute to many undiagnosed diseases, preventing timely medical intervention and treatment.

To address these challenges, Neodocs is developing an innovative solution that offers instant point-of-care testing, thereby eliminating the typical 2-3 day waiting period for test results. Their platform is designed for both at-clinic and at-home use, requiring only a smartphone and no additional hardware. The system uses custom test cards embedded with highly specific biochemistries that produce a visual output at the end of the reaction, such as a colour change or intensity change.

The visual change is then captured by a smartphone application, which employs sophisticated algorithms to account for variations in surrounding light and camera differences, ensuring accurate semi-quantitative or quantitative results based on the specific test performed. The process is simple: users apply the sample to the test card, and within minutes, they receive their results.

Neodocs offers a variety of blood and urine tests, tracking over 20 biomarkers including Haemoglobin, Albumin Creatinine Ratio (ACR), Luteinizing Hormone (LH) for ovulation, Leukocytes, Zinc, Magnesium, Protein, and Glucose. Future expansions include tests for HbA1c, Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA), and Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH), among others.

Additionally, Neodocs provides a real-time monitoring dashboard for users to track their test results. The platform seamlessly integrates with other applications and dashboards through SDK/API, enhancing convenience and accessibility.

Twenty thousand tests have been carried out in 250 health centres in Nashik (Maharashtra) and Ladnun (Rajasthan). The tests detected over 1500 cases of uncontrolled diabetes and more than 400 cases of Chronic Kidney Disease. They prevented the loss of over 2,500 lives among 7000 individuals who were screened and at high risk of maternal death. In addition, they have initiated a project in collaboration with the Government of Karnataka to implement Haemoglobin test kits at over 200 Health Centers located in the Gulbarga District.

Furthermore, Neodocs has also forged B2B partnerships with notable companies like Cipla, Bayer, Eris, AstraZeneca, and SunPharma and is expanding internationally in Nepal, Australia, the USA, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa. They are working closely with Taiwan Medical University as a part of their TMU/BE Accelerator program, Google for Startups, Amazon ML Elevate, IITB Research Park, and Nvidia Inception.

Core team

• Nikunj Malpani, Co-Founder & CEO, NeoDocs
• Pratik Lodha, Co-Founder, NeoDocs
• Anurag Meena, Co-Founder, NeoDocs