Early diagnosis of cancer is the only key to successful treatment. Timely and accurate medication can help save lives, cut down healthcare costs, and enhance the quality of life in cancer patients. The WHO Guide to Early Diagnosis of Cancer also emphasizes the need to bring in early diagnosis strategies to improve cancer survival.
The co-founders of OnwardAssIst Dinesh Koka and Vikas Ramachandra got theirinspiration out of their conversations with treating oncologists to build solutions that mitigate the challenges and limitations clinician face particularly Oncologists while analyzing complex diseases like cancer and deciding on the type of care to be given to the patients. The duo brainstormed the idea of establishing OnwardAssIst- a Predictive Analytics platform that equips Oncologists with tech-enabled tools and algorithms to help them analyze patients’ data and help decide on the accurate clinical diagnosis as well as treatment decisions. The team of OnwardAssIstcollaborate with leading cancer institutes in India and the US to devise these groundbreaking AI tools.
OnwardAssIst was selected for the Second Cohort of the India Edison TM Accelerator program, powered by GE Healthcare. OnwardAssIst and the other five health-tech startups received mentorship during the cohort period, they worked with the best minds in the industry to co-develop innovative healthcare solutions to address the challenges in the healthcare industry.
The NASSCOM CoE incubated startupdeploys their AI in three key verticals as:
- PathAssist: A full-stack Pathology AI platform that includes an extensive range of AI tools to enhance the efficiency of cancer pathology workflow and improve the accuracy of reporting as well as add new insights. PathAssist is a full-stack solution combining reporting workflow software combined with advanced AI tools that assist in the reporting of cancer biopsies. The platform includes a CE-marked pathology workflow software, alongwith reporting assistance tools for cancer biopsies in Histology and ImmunoHistoChemistry (IHC).Onward’s current research includes reporting of new markers with significance in treatment decisions involving immunotherapy.
- RadAssist:This platform includesMachine Learning-based tools to enable the radiology reporting workflow for the detection of tumors, malignant module in mammograms and chest xrays.
- Tumor Board AI: This supports the Tumor Board in assimilating the patient information and segregating them into risk-based or sub-groups based on response patterns.
The company has been active in implementing solutions to assist the diagnostic processes during the pandemic. Building on the in-house expertise in data science and extending their own telepathology platform, OnwardAssIst has devised an automated and Telepathology powered analytical tool that integrates with RT-PCR machines, helping microbiologists to analyze the gene plots to ensure comprehensive and accurate telereportingaiding staff safety as well as strong audit trails.
Furthermore, OnwardAssIst’sTelePathology solution plays a significant role in enabling pathologists to remotely report cases while improving access to diagnostic expertise.
In fouryears of its existence, OnwardAssIst has gathered several noteworthy achievements and recognitions. Its tech-driven solutions have been widely appraised and deployed by leading pathologists and hospitals across the country. OnwardAssIstis part of IIM-A’s CIIE (Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship) seed program, and a member of the Yale Sustainable Health Initiative in India, run by the CoWrks Foundry.
As a member of the MedTech cohort at Ojas Incubator, the startup had raised seed funding from IIIT Foundation (International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad). It has recently been selected for the Lumos’ premier Healthcare speed scaling program bringing clinical, technical, and business advisory to the startup scale-up. The startup has also received agrant throughthe Innovation Challenge organized by the Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH), a Government of Telangana initiative and recently won the JanCare Grand Challenge by DST-BIRAC and Nasscom FoundationThe company isawinner of the Microsoft Emerge X program from 2020.
Onward’s technology has been feted at multiple forums; Onward won in the Healthcare &LifeSciences category at the Amazon AI Conclave 2021. Onward is alsoa winner of the prestigious Emerge 50 2020, a marathon search for India’s most innovative and emerging software product companies, and many others.
What does the future look like for OnwardAssIst!!
Dinesh,Vikas and teamcontinue to build algorithms for targeted cancer biomarker through their clinical partnerships to further complement the platform and accelerate towards their vision of better outcomes. They are currently focused on expanding their market reach. Over the last 1 year, they started commercial deployments of their solutions and plan to continue initiatingnew innovations that will provide building blocks to the way cancer is diagnosed, analyzed and treated.
Related posts
EzeRx: A step towards a Healthier tomorrow!
