{"id":2751,"date":"2025-09-06T06:07:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T06:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/2751\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T06:07:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T06:07:44","slug":"how-health-tech-startups-are-reinventing-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/2751\/","title":{"rendered":"How health tech startups are reinventing care"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a small hospital in Ahilyanagar, Maharashtra, a 13-year-old boy lay barely breathing. A suspected krait bite had left his pulse precariously weak. The hospital lacked someone trained to handle such emergencies.<\/p>\n

Help came from an unexpected source. Within minutes of intubation, doctors at the hospital were joined, virtually, by paediatric intensivists from healthtech startup Cloudphysician. The remote team guided the local staff through a series of interventions. After 12 days, the boy walked out of the hospital fully recovered.<\/p>\n

Cloudphysician\u2019s founders, Dhruv Joshi and Dileep Raman, are both trained doctors who recognised a universal challenge in health care. \u201cGood quality care depends on having highly trained experts physically present. That model does not scale. You simply cannot have that level of expertise available everywhere, all the time,\u201d says Joshi.\"\"<\/p>\n

This realisation led to the founding of Cloudphysician in 2017. The Bengaluru-based startup infuses inpatient care with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered video. Its platform, RADAR, uses real-time computer vision and clinically trained models to enhance patient safety, address workforce shortages, and improve hospital compliance. On top of that is AINA, an AI layer that analyses data to generate autonomous clinical insights.<\/p>\n

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Cloudphysician is among a bevy of startups using technology to improve health care\u2014from accessibility to drug discovery, and chronic disease management to emergency response. Orange Health is reimagining diagnostics. Twin Health is working on reversing chronic conditions such as diabetes. SigTuple brings robotics and AI to lab diagnostics. Mestastop is developing platforms to prevent cancer metastasis. StanPlus is streamlining emergency responses. And Niramai offers non-invasive, radiation-free breast cancer screening.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedical outcomes must be non-negotiable in the Indian market,\u201d says Mohit Bhatnagar, managing director at Peak XV Partners, a large venture capital firm that used to be the Indian arm of Sequoia. \u201cYou can\u2019t delay or dilute the service to make unit economics work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bain & Company puts the Indian health care market at $180 billion in FY23 and projected to reach $320 billion by FY28. Healthtech accounted for roughly 25 percent of the health care innovation market in FY23, having more than doubled from $3 billion in FY20. Bajaj Finserv AMC estimates the sector to be at $638 billion by 2025, up from $110 billion in 2016.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are at a point of convergence, where all stakeholders recognise and embrace technology, and we have a supply side strength of talent and capital to deliver the solutions,\u201d says Sunil Thakur, co-founder and Investment Committee Member, HealthQuad, a health care innovation fund.<\/p>\n

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Tech Treatment<\/p>\n

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Dhruv Gupta and Tarun Bhambra, Orange Health<\/p>\n

When Dhruv Gupta and Tarun Bhambra set out to build Orange Health, they noticed that most startups were layering solutions on top of outdated infrastructure, without addressing the inefficiencies at the core. \u201cMost were creating retail layers\u2014marketplaces that followed an ecommerce approach to health care. But the underlying supply chain was not designed for efficiency. No one wanted to rebuild the base infrastructure,\u201d recalls Bhambra.<\/p>\n

A full-stack, vertically integrated model was the only way. Their thesis was simple but ambitious: 60-minute home sample collection, six-hour report delivery, and availability from 6 am to 10 pm. \u201cMost labs shut by 5 or 6 pm, maybe 7 pm at the latest. After work, if you visit a doctor and they recommend tests, no lab is available. The typical response is, \u2018We\u2019ll do it tomorrow morning.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

In a world where pizza arrives in 30 minutes (fans of the 2009 movie, 3 Idiots, will nod at this), this kind of delay felt archaic. \u201cThe reason reports typically take time is because samples spend a lot of time waiting\u2014waiting to be picked up, waiting to reach the lab, waiting to be accessioned, waiting by the machine, and waiting to be reported. Our focus has been to eliminate that waiting,\u201d Gupta says. Reducing waste speeds up reporting and improves outcomes. \u201cFresher blood yields better results,\u201d adds Bhambra.<\/p>\n

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Orange Health caught the attention of Amazon, which invested in it through its Smbhav Venture Fund, leading a $12 million round in December 2024. The partnership supports the launch of Amazon Diagnostics, an at-home diagnostic service in India, with Orange Health Labs as the exclusive partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about helping doctors diagnose better, what we are really talking about is enabling the measurement of human health,\u201d says Bhambra.<\/p>\n

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SigTuple\u2019s journey, too, began with a simple observation: The most critical part of pathology\u2014blood analysis\u2014was still being done manually, even in labs equipped with advanced machines. \u201cAnalysing blood manually, even by a pathologist, could be highly error-prone. So we decided to address this issue using AI,\u201d says founder Tathagato Rai Dastidar.<\/p>\n

After six years of R&D, SigTuple began commercialising its flagship product, AI100, in 2021. The solution combines an automated digital microscope with AI-driven software that scans and analyses samples, presenting results to pathologists through a web browser. \u201cWe are improving the quality, turnaround time, and accessibility,\u201d Rai Dastidar says.\"\"<\/p>\n

Tathagato Rai Dastidar, SigTuple<\/p>\n

SigTuple recently launched SigVet, a point-of-care device that uses microfluidics and AI to deliver a complete blood count report in under five minutes right at the doctor\u2019s chamber. \u201cIt runs entirely offline, making it ideal for access-deprived or data-sensitive environments,\u201d says Rai Dastidar.<\/p>\n

The company has released an upgraded version of the AI100, built for high-throughput lab environments. It offers higher image quality and has already received European regulatory clearance. As you read this, distribution agreements are being finalised, with Europe as the launch market, followed by the US.<\/p>\n

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Mindset Matters<\/p>\n

India\u2019s health care system lacks outcome-based incentives. \u201cIn many countries, health care systems pay for performance\u2014better outcomes mean better reimbursement. That is a proven way to prioritise quality care. But, in India, that model does not exist yet,\u201d says Cloudphysician\u2019s Raman.<\/p>\n

His fellow founder, Joshi, underscores the urgency of this shift: \u201cIf patients are dying more often than they should, something is wrong. Technology and analytics help us identify and correct that.\u201d Raman adds that the proof of their minimum viable product (MVP) is lives saved in the ICU. \u201cIt is not active users or a software metric,\u201d he says. \u201cWhether it is neonatal care, emergency departments, or inpatient care\u2014we have consistently seen mortality reductions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Raman anticipates a move towards accountable, quality-driven, pay-for-performance models. \u201cIt is inevitable,\u201d he says. \u201cBut for a country like India, with 1.4 billion people, this can\u2019t be done manually. It will require a robust, tech-enabled payer ecosystem\u2014and that is where companies like ours come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, despite the promise of innovation, health care remains one of the slowest industries to adopt technology. \u201cIt is a global phenomenon. That inertia presents both a challenge and an opportunity. There is a wide open space for innovation, but we are constantly up against the status quo,\u201d says Joshi. For Gupta and Bhambra, their biggest competition is not another company but the mindset that says, \u201cThis is how it has always been done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Companies like Twin Health are out to do it differently.<\/p>\n

Growth Catalyst<\/p>\n

Twin Health is not just about counting steps or heart rate, it is about building a real-time, doctor-led model of human biology. The idea was born during a family gathering in Chennai, where founder Jahangir Mohammed noticed that four out of the 10 present had diabetes. \u201cThey were comparing their blood sugar levels like cricket scores,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

That sparked a deeper inquiry into chronic illness and the realisation that diabetes rarely exists in isolation; it usually comes bundled with obesity, fatty liver, kidney disease, and hypertension. \u201cAll these conditions stem from one root cause\u2014metabolic dysfunction,\u201d says Mohammed.<\/p>\n

Despite its central role in chronic disease, metabolism remains poorly understood. \u201cWhat if we could use AI to build a digital twin of human metabolism?\u201d Mohammed wondered. The result is Digital Twin, an AI-powered model that monitors, models, and improves metabolic health in real time.<\/p>\n

Twin Health integrates a suite of smart devices: A patch that tracks blood glucose, a smartwatch for activity and heart rate, and a smart scale that measures weight, body fat, protein, and water composition. Quarterly lab tests add clinical depth.<\/p>\n

Users interact with their Digital Twin through a mobile app, logging meals manually or through photos. The system decodes nutritional content and models how diet, sleep, activity, and medications affect metabolism. \u201cOnce the Digital Twin is fully synced with a person\u2019s metabolic data, it begins to understand the root causes of dysfunction and provides daily, personalised recommendations,\u201d says Mohammed.<\/p>\n

He talks about seeing outcomes already, including a reversal of diabetes, weight loss, and normalisation of multiple chronic conditions like high blood pressure, cholesterol, fatty liver, and chronic kidney disease.\"\"<\/p>\n

Arnab Roy Chowdhury and Debabani Roy Chowdhury, Mestastop\"\"<\/p>\n

While Twin Health focuses on the intersection of AI and metabolic health, Mestastop is rethinking the approach to cancer. Founded by biologist Arnab Roy Chowdhury, Mestastop is built on the insight that cancer is not just a disease of growth but of movement. And it is movement\u2014metastasis\u2014that causes nine out of 10 cancer deaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost treatments today target the rapidly growing rogue cells,\u201d Chowdhury says. \u201cBut when you speak to patients, you realise that death is often caused by the spread of cancer, not the primary tumour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traditional approaches try to block metastasis by preventing cells from leaving the primary site. These efforts have largely failed in clinical trials. Mestastop\u2019s targets the adaptation phase, when cancer cells settle into new environments and begin to thrive. \u201cWe broke metastasis into three biological phases: Dissemination, travel, and adaptation. Surprisingly, 55 percent of the weightage came from adaptation biology. That is where current treatments fail; they ignore adaptation,\u201d says Chowdhury.<\/p>\n

Mestastop began with drug repurposing: Testing safe, non-cancer drugs like those for hypertension and diabetes. One such molecule, previously untested for cancer, showed strong results both in lab assays and in retrospective patient data. \u201cIt was so compelling that we filed for CDSCO approval and are preparing for a Phase 2 clinical trial in colorectal cancer,\u201d adds Chowdhury.<\/p>\n

Beyond repurposing, Mestastop is pursuing novel drug discovery focussed on solid tumours, with emphasis on colon cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, and oral cancer. It is also developing companion diagnostics to identify patients at high risk of metastasis. \u201cAmong 100 patients, only 40 may develop metastasis. We don\u2019t want to burden the other 60 with unnecessary treatment. Our diagnostics help stratify patients and personalise care,\u201d adds Chowdhury.<\/p>\n

Access for All<\/p>\n

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Prabhdeep Singh, StanPlus<\/p>\n

To improve access, a chronic ailment of health care in India, RED.Health is not reinventing the hospital but reengineering how patients get there. Its founder, Prabhdeep Singh, set out to build an Uber for ambulances. After multiple pivots, the company\u2014earlier StanPlus, now RED.Health\u2014has come to offer a comprehensive medical assistance platform, providing everything from emergency response to recovery. \u201cWe are not just an ambulance company anymore; we are a pre-hospital system,\u201d says Singh.<\/p>\n

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RED.Health now manages emergency response for more than 100 hospitals. It claims to dispatch ambulances in under two minutes and reach patients in under 20. It also manages non-emergency transport\u2014discharges, inter-city referrals, and assisted transfers. It continues to grapple with lack of regulation, high cost of capital for ambulances, and the fact that insurance does not cover emergency transport, leaving patients to pay out of pocket. \u201cWe need insurers to start covering critical transport\u2014air ambulances, neonatal care\u2014so the quality can go up,\u201d Singh says.<\/p>\n

As in the case of most health-tech startups, RED.Health, too, has AI at the heart of its ambition. It is investing in AI-powered triage, auto-dispatch systems, and hardware integrations that will make emergency response faster and more predictive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the next 10 years, machines are going to call machines in emergencies,\u201d Singh says. \u201cMost of the emergencies will become predictive or, at the point of incidence, there will be a sensor that will be able to detect. When they call, we pick up the call, we understand what has happened, we get all the contextual information, and the nearest hospital\u2019s ambulance system is also operated by us.\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n

Geetha Manjunath, Niramai<\/p>\n

Similarly, Niramai\u2019s journey shows how AI can drive innovation in health care. Founded by Geetha Manjunath, its Thermalytix uses AI to analyse thermal images for early detection of breast cancer in a non-invasive and radiation-free manner that is sensitive to issues of privacy. \u201cNobody needs to die from breast cancer if only they are able to catch it early,\u201d says Manjunath.<\/p>\n

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So far, Niramai has screened 280,000 women and its technology has received regulatory clearances in both the US and Europe. \u201cInterpreting thermal images is complex,\u201d Manjunath says. \u201cBut our proprietary AI algorithms make it possible to detect subtle abnormalities that even trained eyes might miss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Niramai plans to expand to 35 to 40 countries, deepen its presence in its existing markets, and scale manufacturing through local partnerships. Manjunath is extending the platform\u2019s capabilities to diagnose other conditions, including whole-body screening and fever detection.<\/p>\n

Home and Away<\/p>\n

Challenges persist. \u201cThe foremost hurdle is the motivation or, in some cases, compulsion to adopt healthtech models across diverse groups. This is compounded by the difficulty of monetisation in a predominantly out-of-pocket, price-sensitive market like India,\u201d says Thakur of HealthQuad.<\/p>\n

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A more universal challenge is the shortage of skilled talent. \u201cYou simply can\u2019t expect highly trained professionals to be available everywhere all the time for everyone. In India, our doctor-patient ratios are far below countries like those in Scandinavia, and even they face challenges. We are unlikely to ever reach those ratios,\u201d says Joshi of Cloudphysician.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, the response has been to build more medical colleges and train more professionals. \u201cYes, we still need more people,\u201d Joshi acknowledges, \u201cbut that can\u2019t be the only solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raman adds: \u201cDo we want to spend 20 percent of our GDP on health care? No. We already have examples of systems that are expensive and inefficient. Instead, we have a chance to reinvent care delivery and sidestep those problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshi points out that the US spends $4 trillion annually on health care for a population of 300 million and still struggles with outcomes and workforce shortages. \u201cThat $4 trillion is India\u2019s entire economy. We can\u2019t afford to follow that path,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Instead, Raman and Joshi believe, India has a unique opportunity to lead. \u201cWe should be asking: \u2018Can we find a better way?\u2019 And we think that better way\u2014tech-enabled, autonomous care\u2014is something India can actually export. If any country can do it, it is us,\u201d says Raman.<\/p>\n

While many Indian healthtech startups continue to build for the US\u2014the world\u2019s largest health care market\u2014there\u2019s growing recognition that addressing India\u2019s unique challenges could unlock even greater long-term value.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US is our largest market, but India is an extraordinary opportunity in terms of sheer volume. However, the Indian market is much more price-sensitive and driven by affordability, making it a high-volume, low-price game,\u201d says Mohammed of TwinHealth, which is currently based in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Startups like Cloudphysician, which has trained its AI models on 170,000 critically ill patients in India, are now expanding to the Bhatnagar of Peak XV points out that India\u2019s health care system is almost a consumer proposition. \u201cUnlike the US, where insurance intermediaries dominate, here, if you deliver a medical or preventive outcome, the consumer decides whether it is worth paying for, and spreads the word.\u201d<\/p>\n

This allows Indian healthtech startups to test, iterate, and scale quickly, gathering real-world feedback and rich anonymised data\u2014critical for training AI models. In the US, you need FDA approvals and insurance buy-in before you even reach a customer.<\/p>\n

Though global expansion is exciting, Bhatnagar is equally bullish on bridging India\u2019s access gaps, especially in rural areas. \u201cThe real opportunity is building for the 200 to 500 million Indians who consume in sachets of Rs200\u2013250,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is about delivering reliable health care at scale, using tech to drive down costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infographic research by Samreen\u00a0Wani<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a small hospital in Ahilyanagar, Maharashtra, a 13-year-old boy lay barely breathing. A suspected krait bite had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60,1884],"class_list":["post-2751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-startups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}