IIT Guwahati students develop device for diagnosis of chronic non-communicable diseases

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) alumni-led startup Primary Healthtech Private Limited has developed an indigenous point-of-care-testing (POCT) device which is expected to test 25 parameters in blood to diagnose early chronic diseases related to kidney, liver, heart, and pancreas malfunctions.

Titled MobilabTM, the device is operated through an IoT-enabled Android app and can perform about 150 tests with a single charge of the battery, which enables a digitally-connected ecosystem for its use even for the remotest locations of the nation, Primary Healthtech chief executive officer Sahil Jagnani said on Tuesday.

The device is expected to perform early screening of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which contribute to around 41 million (74%) of deaths globally, as per the recent reports of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

''The vision of MobilabTM is to make diagnosis available to fellow citizens at an affordable cost, along with generating instant results to speed up the early screening, disease management, and treatment'', he said. The device was also expected to perform import substitution under the Centre's 'Make-in-India' initiative'', Jagnani said.

MobilabTM will enable testing at patients’ site at a low cost to enable early screening as well as long-term disease management, he said. As of now, 11 parameters have been validated in NABL accredited and government labs which include heart profile-cholesterol, LDL, HDL and Triglycerides, liver profile - total bilirubin, albumin and total protein, kidney profile - creatinine, glucose and uric acid, haematology - haemoglobin and diabetic in glucose.

The device generates data in 10 minutes, followed by a digital report, along with an electronic health record of the patient which can be easily shared with doctors. MobilabTM is validated at various levels in hospitals such as Guwahati Medical College & Hospital, Guwahati Neurological Research Centre, Nemcare, Army Hospital, AIIMS New Delhi, and has been deployed in various parts of Assam, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat, Delhi, and Arunachal Pradesh.

Mass production of MobilabTM has been planned by establishing a vendor network at a cost that is affordable and at the same time sustainable, he added. Primary Healthtech Private Limited is incubated at the Research Park and the Centre for Nanotechnology on IIT Guwahati campus and has a team of 30 engineers and researchers working to make diagnostics frugal, portable, affordable, and accessible.