Dr Tathagato Rai Dastidar grew up in an atmosphere the place science reigned supreme, he recollects. His mother and father had been professors on the Indian Affiliation for the Cultivation of Science, which is the oldest analysis institute in India.
“So, science has been my bread and butter since early childhood. I’ve all the time been fascinated and interested by science and expertise,” says Dr Dastidar (45) in dialog with The Higher India.
The 22-year veteran of the tech trade, who holds 11 United States patents, is the founding father of Bengaluru medtech startup SigTuple, which automates the handbook microscopic overview of organic samples utilizing synthetic intelligence (AI) for quicker turnaround time for sufferers, making the lives of pathologists simpler.
Dr Dastidar’s love for science and expertise took him to the corridors of the famed Indian Institute of Expertise (IIT), Kharagpur. There, he accomplished his BTech and PhD in pc science and engineering earlier than embarking on a profession constructing software program and holding technical management positions for a number of the premier expertise corporations on the planet.
Nonetheless, when he began his skilled profession again in 2000 at Nationwide Semiconductor, an American semiconductor producer, tragedy struck again residence.
Dr Dastidar’s father handed away the identical 12 months after his remedy for acute myeloid leukaemia was delayed on account of an earlier misdiagnosis. Alongside his day job at numerous tech corporations, for a couple of decade and a half, Dr Dastidar started engaged on the issue of find out how to stop such deadly situations of medical misdiagnosis. He based SigTuple in 2015.
SigTuple was, partly, the results of this seek for an answer, and with the corporate, he has launched into a mission to revolutionise pathology by way of robotics and superior AI.
“At SigTuple, we’re about making use of synthetic intelligence into an space which positively impacts human lives. Correct and early analysis of illness circumstances is one such method, and this trigger resonated with me personally,” he says.
Mitigating the lack of human lives
Taking a multi-disciplinary method, SigTuple combines AI, robotics, microfluidics and cloud computing to create clever diagnostic options that make high quality healthcare supply inexpensive and accessible.
Right here’s how Dr Dastidar explains the issue assertion.
“In lots of instances, crucial illnesses go undiagnosed until it’s too late. This could possibly be due to the dearth of entry to high quality healthcare. It is also because of the inefficiencies within the healthcare supply system. Regardless of the trigger may be, the impact is finally tragic — pointless struggling and lack of human lives. The thought behind SigTuple was to construct synthetic intelligence that would assist early screening and analysis, probably in underserved areas, which might make life higher for the tip affected person.”
Extra particularly, nevertheless, he notes that there’s one pathologist for a inhabitants of greater than 65,000 folks. With the purpose of constructing the lifetime of the pathologist simpler and thereby bettering affected person outcomes, their focus lies in automating the inefficient and error susceptible handbook microscopic overview course of for the most typical exams — blood and urine microscopy.
Navigating the ‘greatest bottleneck’
One key gadget they’ve developed on this regard is the AI100, which gives an answer combining software program and {hardware} parts. The {hardware} is an automatic slide scanner, able to changing any bodily specimen into digital photos.
The AI platform analyses these photos and supplies scientific insights into the pattern, which brings down slide overview time for the pathologist and permits them to seamlessly work remotely or collaborate with their colleagues throughout geographies.
“Microscopic overview of blood samples is a gold normal for analysis of many crucial illnesses. This consists of one thing as severe as the assorted types of leukaemia. This course of stays predominantly handbook in additional than 96% laboratories globally and is thus the largest bottleneck by way of turnaround time for pattern reporting,” explains Dr Dastidar.
“Being handbook, it is usually vulnerable to errors. Most significantly, blood microscopy is by far the most important use case of the microscope in a scientific laboratory. The thought behind AI100 is to automate the microscopic overview of blood samples by way of robotics and AI, to make the method standardised, cut back turnaround time, and enhance high quality of reporting,” he provides.
Whereas the concept of AI100 originated on the time of the start of SigTuple, Dr Dastidar and his crew tried out completely different approaches on the {hardware} aspect earlier than zeroing on the present design. He says his crew knew that they needed to construct the {hardware} themselves, as there was no cost-effective answer accessible for automated digital microscopy out there.
“Our greatest problem was the founding crew’s lack of expertise with {hardware} design, particularly {hardware} that requires micron stage precision, as in microscopy. We had huge expertise in growing synthetic intelligence and information evaluation instruments, however hardly any to develop {hardware}. In consequence, we made many rookie errors alongside the best way, which delayed the ultimate deployment of AI100 into the market. These had been good classes to be taught,” he notes.
AI100 was prepared for beta testing beginning early 2019. SigTuple deployed the beta model into many labs, and used the chance to collect buyer suggestions and smoothen out any tough edges.
COVID-19, nevertheless, dampened their commercialisation plans. They began business deployments of AI100 after the second wave of the pandemic subsided in late 2021.
How does it work?
In regular laboratory apply, a blood pattern is smeared on a glass slide after which reviewed underneath the microscope.
With this gadget, as an alternative of a pathologist reviewing the slide underneath the microscope, the slide is inserted into AI100. The machine routinely captures excessive magnification microscopic photos of the related parts of the slide and uploads the photographs to a cloud platform.
“The AI module resides on the cloud platform. It analyses the photographs, mimicking what a pathologist would do whereas reviewing it underneath the microscope. The results of this evaluation is then introduced to the pathologist on an internet browser, which makes the report accessible from anyplace and anytime. The pathologist opinions the AI urged report after which approves it.
This course of helps the present workflow in some ways,” says Dr Dastidar.
To start with, the pathologist needn’t be within the lab to report on the pattern.
“Think about a crucial affected person requiring instant consideration within the useless of the evening. Earlier, the pathologist needed to rush to the hospital or the affected person needed to wait. Now, that’s not obligatory, because the pathologist can report from residence, whereas the pattern is within the laboratory the place the AI100 machine is current. Additional, because the AI does many of the job of the pathologist, it makes her extra environment friendly, by lowering the overview time. She will now focus extra on the actually crucial sufferers, relatively than losing time on close to regular samples,” he explains.
Lastly, the AI is free from fatigue-related errors that impression human pathologists. It’s higher at detecting these rarer and straightforward to overlook abnormalities. This finally improves the tip affected person end result. With AI-enabled automated digital microscopy, the pattern overview course of by a pathologist, which used to take 5 to 10 minutes, has come all the way down to 30 seconds as we speak. Additionally, because of this expertise, a pathologist can now overview roughly 300 slides per day as in comparison with 30 slides with handbook microscopic options, in accordance with Dr Dastidar.
“That is how AI, robotics and cloud all come collectively to enhance the velocity and accuracy of analysis. Additionally, other than blood, AI100 may analyse urine samples. Urine microscopy is the second commonest use of the microscope within the scientific laboratory. Quickly, different and extra specialised exams shall be enabled on the identical platform,” he provides.
Parts of AI100
AI100 consists of an optical column with a microscopic lens (400X magnification), an LED illumination unit and a CMOS (complementary metallic oxide semiconductor) digital camera.
“It has a mechanical stage used for shifting the pattern underneath the lens, and in addition to focus it, which operates at micron stage precision. There’s an digital printed circuit board (PCB) to manage the mechanical stage and the LED unit. It additionally accommodates a full-fledged compute unit consisting of an Intel processor and NVIDIA GPU,” states Dr Dastidar.
“SigTuple has the potential to assemble the {hardware} in home. We even have a tie-up with a licensed contract producer for medical units. Whereas most of the inner parts are imported, some are regionally sourced. The plastic cowl and the machined parts are manufactured regionally,” Pranat Bhadani, President of Enterprise Progress, SigTuple.
Enhancing care in Tier 2 and three cities
SigTuple can also be centered on equipping Tier 2 and three cities by putting in their gadget in pathology labs and introducing the necessity for superior automated digital microscopy, which is able to assist deal with the dearth of pathologists.
“Most laboratory chains are stunted of their capacity to open up high quality diagnostic centres in Tier 2 and three cities (and even past), by the shortcoming to discover a good pathologist for such labs. So, they usually function in a hub-and-spoke mannequin, the place samples from smaller cities and cities are transported to their important centres in bigger cities. This has its apparent drawbacks — elevated turnaround time, pattern degeneration whereas transport, and so forth,” explains Bhadani.
Microscopy requires the bodily presence of the pathologist within the lab. Most different features within the lab may be carried out digitally, with technicians on the lab operating the machines.
“AI100 allows the labs to carry out microscopy digitally over the web, obviating the necessity to have the pathologist bodily current within the lab. Given the elevated effectivity of the pathologist because of the AI, the identical pathologist can now have a look at many extra samples in a day than what she might do earlier. That is how SigTuple helps laboratories of their foray into smaller cities and cities. We depend practically all the highest laboratory and hospital chains in India as our clients — HCG, Manipal, Krsnaa Diagnostics, SRL, Aarthi Scans, and many others,” says Bhadani.
What’s the highway forward for SigTuple?
“We are going to proceed our journey of innovation within the medical house and provide you with newer options which clear up actual scientific issues. We may even proceed our journey to broaden commercially, each in India and internationally,” says Dr Dastidar.
(Edited by Divya Sethu)