How This AI Startup Is Set To Change The Face of Indian Healthcare

The Indian healthcare sector is ailing and it’s possible you’ll ask why. Properly, the nation has a doctor-to-patient ratio of merely 0.7 docs per 1,000 individuals, abysmally decrease than the World Well being Organisation’s (WHO) common of two.5 docs per 1,000 individuals. 

Then, there are public hospitals which, albeit inexpensive, are understaffed, poorly outfitted and largely restricted to city areas. 

Turning to personal avenues for remedy entails out-of-pocket bills, which may push a household into poverty. As per a NITI Aayog report, 7% of India’s inhabitants, practically 10 Cr individuals, are pushed into poverty yearly as a result of cash they spend on healthcare. 

It was the very equation that haunted Ankur Jain, the previous chief product officer (CPO) of fintech unicorn BharatPe, very often. Born in a household of docs, Jain couldn’t have understood it higher, triggering him to do one thing in regards to the weak state of the Indian healthcare system. 

Notably, for him, his second entrepreneurial alternative got here knocking when GenAI mania started gripping the world. Talking with Inc42, Jain mentioned that sufferers in India typically complain about not having the ability to get the very best remedy whereas healthcare professionals are sometimes overburdened. 

To unravel these challenges, Jain partnered with enterprise capital (VC) agency Reddy Ventures’ chairman Sanjay GV Reddy to drift his second enterprise Jivi. 

Based in December 2023, Jivi has constructed a complicated AI conversational platform that may assist sufferers independently diagnose their sickness primarily based on their signs. 

As per the corporate, its platform allows customers to get a primary healthcare screening for a number of persistent illnesses reminiscent of diabetes, migraine, and tuberculosis, amongst others. Apart from, prospects can verify their coronary heart charges and their “emotional well-being”. Jivi additionally claims to have partnered with Tata 1mg for telemedicine and lab testing. 

The platform went live in April this yr after working in stealth mode for 5 months. It additionally launched its Android and iOS apps in beta mode in September 2024. 

The Genesis Of Jivi AI

Jivi just isn’t Jain’s first tryst with healthcare. Proper after receiving his diploma from Stanford College within the US in 2006, he labored with a US-based early stage well being search engine, Kosmix. 

Talking with Inc42, Jain credit the expertise gained whereas constructing Kosmix as the bottom for founding Jivi. 

His AI expertise comes from his stint at Walmart Labs (the place he constructed superior AI and analytics platforms) and an AI-powered journey tech startup known as Instalocate, which he based in 2017 and shut down in 2020 as a result of Covid-19 pandemic. 

Thereafter, he joined BharatPe because the chief product and expertise officer in 2020 and was later elevated to the place of CPO. But, he yearned to construct one thing that had a far-reaching impression on individuals’s lives globally. 

He noticed AI altering the face of Indian healthcare, and therefore the concept of Jivi took start. Whereas emphasising that the concept of integrating AI or machine studying (ML) with healthcare has been round for a number of years, the impression of such AI and ML-led instruments in healthcare was restricted because of their cost-heavy nature. However this was all set to alter, a minimum of what Jain was seemingly betting on again then.

“Issues took a unique flip when analysis papers got here out on the usage of GenAI in healthcare, which may enable us to construct AI options that would drive real-world options for healthcare. Since 2018, I’ve been researching to grasp the methods to construct AI options that would have a long-lasting impression,” Jain mentioned.

A Sneak Peek Into Jivi’s Tech Stack

The analysis led Jain to the understanding that such a healthcare answer would require two supporting AI components – transformers that may translate languages and summarise texts and enormous language fashions (LLMs) that may sift by means of photographs and voice instructions.

Subsequently, Jain developed an in-house proprietary AI mannequin Jivi MedX, which was constructed atop present open-source LLMs and educated utilizing an in depth unique medical dataset, together with thousands and thousands of medical analysis publications, journals, medical notes, and different sources. 

Thereafter, Jain sat down to handle one of many key issues dealing with AI fashions – hallucinations. The matter takes a critical flip within the case of healthcare as hallucinations may result in chatbots throwing up random diagnoses and false positives, which can result in pointless problem and typically bills.

To deal with this drawback, Jivi partnered with a number of docs and medical establishments to fine-tune its AI mannequin and curb hallucinations. Subsequent scrutiny from prime medical professionals in India and approval led the corporate to lastly introduce the beta section earlier in September. 

Curiously, Jivi just isn’t limiting itself to only one chatbot providing. The healthtech startup lately introduced its second massive language mannequin, Jivi-RadX-v1, which is a vision-based LLM that assists radiologists in making quicker and extra correct choices. As per Jain, it deciphers complicated picture information and delivers sharper insights. 

The Approach Ahead For Jivi

Regardless that Jain claims to be “happy” with the efficiency of Jivi’s AI mannequin, Jain has set his eyes on additional fine-tuning the LLM. He believes that the timeline for the total launch of Jivi could be early subsequent yr. 

Talking with Inc42, the cofounder claims that Jivi will proceed to stay free even after the beta section. However, how does the founder plan on creating wealth?

Properly, the corporate is eyeing a three-pronged technique to drive monetisation. It already earns a fee (for every transaction) from consumer referrals to on-line marketplaces. As of now, the platform is simply reside with Tata 1mg. 

The second potential income stream would come from licensing Jivi AI software program to hospitals, docs and chains. The third supply is constructing an LLM for insurance coverage corporations, which might assist them enhance the underwriting course of. 

Regardless of the area of interest choices, there seems to be no dearth of direct opponents within the AI-led healthcare house. Jivi locks horns with the likes of Parcha, YugasaBot, and Augnito, amongst others, within the burgeoning section. 

Nonetheless, Jain seems to be unfazed by the rising tide of contenders. For him, Jivi has an enormous ace up its sleeves within the type of its investor and third cofounder, Andrew Ng

Ng is an AI analysis pioneer, the founding father of DeepLearning.AI, chairman and cofounder of Coursera, and an adjunct professor at Stanford College.

For Jain, the assist of the AI wizard opens the way in which to construct a deeper tech stack and world insights mandatory for a global-scale enlargement. 

Whereas Jivi’s ambitions are lofty, it stays to be seen the way it walks a tightrope between regulation and innovation as healthcare is without doubt one of the tightly ruled areas within the nation. Nonetheless, for now, Jivi’s group has a extra equitable, exact and personalised healthcare-focussed AI stack to construct for the plenty. 

[Edited By Shishir Parasher]