Anastasia Zagorovskaya
Denys Dymchenko
Irina Anikina
Arina Luneva
The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)
Ekaterina Ivanova
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It is not only the all-mighty MNCs that can change the world for better. The project we are going to talk about was created by two Russian university students whose aim was to implement the augmented reality technologies in healthcare. Magomed-Amin Idilov and Daniil Fedulov designed mobile app that helps people with amputations deal with phantom limb pain.
MDinc is a company that develops software for medical purposes. Their slogan can be translated as “Creating reality, improving the world”. They are working diligently with majority of the UN Global Goals but are mainly focused on goal number 3 (Good health and well-being) and 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure).
The method suggested by developers does not requires any expensive or inaccessible medical equipment: all that is needed is a smartphone and a cardboard. Mobile application Phantom MD visually modulates amputated limb via special glasses that eases and even stops phantom pain the user suffers. According to the research conducted in Oxford by Tamar R. Makin, the phantom pain originates in brain, therefore systematic mind therapy is more effective in pain release than strong painkillers. Testing of this innovative treatment method on patients has already shown positive results.
One of the factors that inspired two friends to work in this field was their visit to an event on the augmented reality technologies. “This event left us both amazed and disappointed,” tells Magomed-Amin Idilov. “Such an amazing technology with enormous potential is used only as marketing and entertainment tool.” On their way back home young entrepreneurs started discussing more practical ways of AR technology implementation and that was when the project idea was born.
In Russia attitudes towards the idea of integrating IT and medicine are rather skeptical. Eagerness to solve those unreasonable doubts became an extra motivation for the establishment of a cutting-edge IT company that will be able to solve modern healthcare problems. Young developers hope that their invention will be able to make a meaningful contribution to the development of both Russian and global medicine.
Concerning technology’s public availability, developers admit the following: “Regrettably, our product is not available for general public at the moment. We are at the testing stage, which cannot be done quickly. In order to correctly evaluate efficacy and side-effects of our product we need to conduct testing that requires use of medical equipment on a large number of suffering patients. Right now 20 people with lower and/or upper-limb amputations are testing our technology and in each case there are positive dynamics that we observe.” Even though the project is only at its earliest stages, the potential benefit this technology will bring to local society can be seen clearly. It is almost undoubtable that when the time comes it will deliver as promised and will gain it well-deserved place in Russian and even global healthcare practices.
By creating this product, the company has discovered a completely new market niсhe in Russia. Developers expect to commercialize their innovative project in the nearest future. The company now is in the middle of negotiations concerning establishment of the special rehabilitation rooms within state and private hospitals. The next stage is to sell innovation to private entities and individuals.
At the moment the company consults on technology implementation for stroke recovery, particularly to improve fine motor skills. In future it plans to introduce application for AR(MR)- glasses like Epson Moverio and Microsoft Hololens that will allow users to get access to the program without smartphone. Most importantly, this method does not require any animal testing and does not impose any danger for ecology.
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Daniil Fedulov, Co-founder, Developer
Magomed-Amin Idilov, Co-founder, Developer
MDinc is a start-up developer of software for medical purposes based in Yaroslavl in central Russia. One of the most perspective projects that the company currently implements is Phantom M.D. - an augmented reality (AR) application used for treatment of phantom limb pains.