Innovation

AyuLynk can record sounds which can be transmitted via digital medium for further diagnosis. The team is also developing AI based software to classify heart and lung sounds to classify it as normal and abnormal.

• Ambient noise reduction

• Traditional look and feel

• Recording and playback

• Storage and sharing through app

• Bluetooth connectivity

• Can be attached to existing stethoscope

The Beginning of AyuDevices:

The team was formed as part of MEDIC, a five-day Hackathon organized by Biomedical Engineering and Technology incubation Centre (BETiC). Adarsha K, Tapas Pandey and Dr. Nambiraj Konar were given the task of transferring heart and lung sound waves from one place to another. They cracked the test and were were approached by a BETiC professor, Ravi B, who offered them a fellowship to convert their findings into a full fledged product. They left their jobs and joined the research field to complete the work they started.

Inspiration

At MEDIC 2015 which was a 5-day hackathon held at IIT Bombay, Adarsha and his friend Tapas Pandey decided to find a solution for the 2.8 million people who die of heart or lung diseases in India every year. They teamed up with Dr. Nambiraj Konar and started working on the problem of transmitting heart and lung sounds from one place to another. Adarsha compared the BMW of stethoscopes that cost around $220 with the $110 worth stethoscope from Ayu Devices and the difference in the sound quality was stark. Ayu Devices was better by a huge margin. This greatly inspired the team to work harder to improve the device and make it commercially available. Also, the fact that in India only about 300 of the 800-odd medical device manufacturers are licensed poses a question of quality in the market. Again, the fact that 80% of the medical devices are imported in India adds to the plight of the poor as they fail to afford world class treatment. All these facts proved to be the inspiration behind the continual efforts towards making Ayu Devices a success.

Quotation that hint towards the inspiration behind Ayu Devices:

“We discourage our innovators from selling-out to multinationals because the price will shoot up. What’s the point of innovating locally, if the Indian population cannot benefit from it?” – Dr. Ghyar.

“Heart and lung diseases have become the top causes of death in the world and require effective tool for early diagnosis. Conventional stethoscopes used by doctors require considerable training and concentration to identify the relevant sound patterns. Also listening to the chest sounds is subjective and has a long learning curve. The magnitude of the problem and the impact that we can have motivated us to take up the project.” –Adarsha K

Overall impact

The digital stethoscope is just one out of 12 inventions – screening and monitoring devices to surgical instruments and patient specific prosthesis – that have been taken to the incubation center – BETiC, IIT Bombay. The Indian market for medical instruments is estimated to be $5-6 billion and imported devices account for 80% of that and they are mostly used in private hospitals, as a result of which the poorer patients often go unserved. So far, the company has received more than 60 orders – 14 clinicians and a telemedicine company currently use it.

The ratio of physicians to the number of people in India is 1:1668 which is very less than what should be standard or ideal. In fact, this ratio is extremely bad in rural areas because the density of doctors is high in urban areas. The device can be used in primary healthcare centers to record abnormal sounds, which can be sent to expert physicians for further diagnosis – thereby reducing the issues that a rural dweller might face.

Quotation that describe the impact:

"We showed our device to Dr. Joe (Ex-president of Canadian thoracic society) who had visited Hinduja Hospital Mumbai. He liked the device and wished us all the best. We met Dr. Lancelot Pinto chest physician, Hinduja hospital, who is also a member of the development team. He gave positive feedback after using the device."

“So, an Asha worker in a remote village can capture a patient’s stats and share them with a doctor located elsewhere.”

Business benefit

With the continual effort of institutions like BETiC, Indian Medical Devices companies are starting to breed. Ayu Devices is targeting both B2B customers such as telemedicine centres and B2C clients such as medical students, chest physicians and cardiac surgeons. Ayu Devices is in talks with telemedicine centres such as YOLO Health and Care Expert, which operate in remote areas such as Chhattisgarh’s Sukma and Dantewada districts and Karnataka’s Kolar district. Currently, there are 105 telemedicine centres set up across India. The staff at these centres can record heart and lung sounds of the patients and send it to doctors in urban centres for diagnoses. The business potential for Ayu Devices is huge with the medical devices industry in India growing at about 15% annually and destined to reach at least $25-30 billion by 2025 according to Deloitte India. AyuLynk is priced about 3 times less than other electronic stethoscopes available in the market and is more effective than the conventional stethoscope. Therefore, the business benefits that could be derived out of it can be enormous if it strikes the right chord in the market. Also, how quickly it is able to scale up its operations would depend upon how fast the medical fraternity warms up to the invention.

Organization Processes, System and Culture:

The organization has an open work culture with no specific hierarchy. For the purpose of simplicity, the technological aspects of the device design and manufacturing is looked after by one of the founders and the business aspects of the company is looked by another. Nascent teams have been formed for manufacturing and testing of device, coding team for developing the mobile application & website design and a new sales team for developing the sales channel of the company. The employees are given specific tasks and deadlines for completing the work. They are encouraged to think out of the box and bring in new ideas to the table. Teamwork is another area where the founders focus on. Since it’s a small organization, everyone knows each other, and tasks are given which requires the employees to work in a team. The founders review each employee’s work at fixed intervals and then set goals and deliverables for the coming period.

Social and environmental benefit

In India, the ratio of physicians to the number of people is roughly 1:1668, which is very less than the standard. The ratio is in fact even poorer in rural areas because the density of doctors in Urban India is higher. AyuLynk can be used in primary healthcare centers to records abnormal sounds which can be then sent to expert physicians for further diagnosis. This would help the poorer patients who most of the time can not afford quality treatment due to location disadvantages or monetary issues.

Dr. Pinto, who currently uses the device, says a digital stethoscope can be extremely helpful for young, inexperienced doctors. “If a doctor is still in the process of learning, it’s not easy to detect abnormal sounds. There are a lot of subtle sounds which you cannot detect unless you are tuned to them or they are amplified,” says Dr. Pinto.

Interview

Adarsha K, Co-founder and Executive Director