Diagnostics Platform Medhini Arficus Bags Jio Gennext Cohort 2024 Entry

Established in 2019 by Sandeep Sinha and Anurag Jain, Medhini-Arficus, is an AI-driven platform focusing on disease screening, diagnostics, and prediction.

Bengaluru-based healthtech startup Medhini Arficus has bagged a spot in Jio Gennext Cohort 2024.

Jio Gennext, a startup accelerator backed by Ambanis has announced MAP’24, its latest cohort with a focus on Generative AI. Ten startups from diverse sectors including finance, healthcare, legal services, entertainment, and agriculture have been selected to be a part of the cohort.

Established in 2019 by Sandeep Sinha and Anurag Jain, Medhini-Arficus, headquartered in Bengaluru, is an AI-driven platform focusing on disease screening, diagnostics, and prediction.

Sharing thoughts, Sandeep Sinha, cofounder & CEO of Arficus said, “Jio Gennext cohort seems to be a perfect partner towards the growth and impact journey of Arficus. With great visionary leaders of Reliance group and their expertise lead us towards exemplary support of business growth, GTM refinement, and cross-continent development.”

While talking to DHN, Sandeep Sinha, shared how his startup differs from established diagnostic solution providers.

“The word Arficus is a mixture of two words- Abacus (First Computer) and Artificial Intelligence, whereas our product name Medhini has been taken from Shiv Mahapuran. It means- Healthy Mother Nature,” said Sinha while explaining the meaning behind the unusual name of his startup.

Sinha and his cofounder Anurag Jain both lost their loved ones due to a late diagnosis of breast cancer and leukemia. This inspired them to build a platform to provide timely diagnosis of life-threatening diseases.

“I come from a mining state where I have seen people suffering from Tuberculosis, Pneumonia, Fibrosis and succumbing to death without a proper and timely diagnosis followed by treatment. Anurag also comes from a rural background. He has seen the dearth of affordable and accessible diagnosis. We wanted to bridge this gap.” Sinha pointed.

Medhini-Arficus’ Offerings

Arficus provides AI-enabled diagnostic and predictive services through its SaaS-SAMD framework. The startup says its product MEDHINI is the world’s first Gen AI-powered SAMD (Software as a Medical Device).

According to Sinha, MEDHINI platforms’ MedhxBERT and MedhxAKAZE provide quick diagnosis of diseases with a turnaround time of 53 seconds. He says it can deliver 45 Results inferences in a minute and have 99.31% clinically certified accuracy.

“Our Generative AI-based solution aids preventive healthcare by predicting the disease a patient will suffer in upcoming 5 years and reduce the mortality rate by 78% in chronic and complex diseases of pulmonology, neurology, nephrology, cardiology, and oncology,” Sinha highlighted.

The startup offers these services at a cost of INR 485 making it affordable for wider masses.

How does MEDHINI work?

The traditional diagnostic methods often involve extensive manual interventions, leading to significant time expenditure in achieving accurate prognoses and diagnoses.

For instance in the case of breast cancer, traditionally patients are required to undergo a battery of four mandatory tests, including tissue culture, excisional and incisional biopsy, and mammogram, to ascertain the presence of breast cancer.

However, the absence of technology capable of precisely analyzing anomaly areas often results in either the unnecessary removal of larger portions of affected tissue or the risk of leaving behind potentially cancerous cells.

Additionally, the entire diagnostic process typically consumed an average of six days and cost patients INR 18,000 or $250 before treatment could commence.

Sinha explains with MEDHINI, the diagnostic process is not only streamlined but the number of tests is also reduced to just one i.e. the mammogram while retaining the efficacy of the results.

“Through MEDHINI's Akaze functionality, the platform accurately identifies the precise area requiring surgical intervention, enabling doctors to operate only on the affected region. This approach minimizes unnecessary tissue removal and preserves healthy tissue,” Sinha added.

With MEDHINI, the startup aims to offer a rapid, affordable, and accurate diagnostic solution that promotes healthcare inclusivity.

Arficus’ solution MedhxGAN - Generative AI functioning also claims to keep a close watch on the spatial disease effervescence and the disease viral probability distribution. This can help identify prevailing diseases in communities and alert if a new disease is turning into a pandemic.

According to him, this can also help governments/local authorities to take strategic decisions as preventive measures.

Future Plans

According to Sinha, Arficus presently operates with 188 B2B clients, and 12 State governments with a business expanse of more than ten countries.

It has tested over 22 million patients so far and with a business growth rate of 213% and customer retention rate of 98%, he added.

Currently, Arficus is focusing on enhancing coverage of MEDHINI by becoming a partnership channel Asset lite business model.

Moreover, it is looking to expand its footprint across 15 countries. The startup is also developing the world's 1st Human health- climate change cross-prediction platform in association with the United Nations.

“We believe climate change will create the biggest havoc in the history of the human race and there is no technology available which could analyse how it is impacting Human health. With our solutions, we are working towards solving this complex problem,” Sinha said.

Additionally, the startup in association with Stanford University is also developing a Generative Artificially Intelligent Non-Invasive Neura Chip- Human Computer Interface to enable self-diagnosing capability for individuals.