Rupal Mehta
Founder & CEO
With a keen focus in addressing the fourth most common neurological disorder, epilepsy – a medical technology startup is paving the way towards finding the solution using technological assistance. Pune-based MedMarvel Software Solutions brings to bear an advanced medical imaging and informatics platform built on Cloud. The company is focused on helping drug-resistant epilepsy patients free of seizure & side effects to lead a healthy life. The Founder and CEO, Rupal Mehta, who is an expert in product development for solutions in healthcare, has secured well-rounded experience with the technological advancements in the medical imaging field. Here, Rupal Mehta throws more light into the engagements of MedMarvel Software and its services.
In conversation with Rupal Mehta, Founder & CEO, MedMarvel Software Solutions
As a healthcare technology domain player, how has MedMarvel grown and adapted to the dynamic changes in the industry?
There have been a lot of advancements across medical science and technology domains. However, it is unfortunate that not much of such advancements are easily accessible to clinicians at point of care to treat the patient. We at MedMarvel focus on bringing state-of-the-art automated medical imaging informatics to the fore for accurate diagnosis and faster clinical decision making in particular to the field of neurosciences. We aim to address the challenges faced during treatment of epilepsy patients to the grassroots level, since it is an often overlooked disorder. Over a billion people are suffering from neurological disorders, and among that, 50 million patients have epilepsy. Today, all people are concerned about pandemics and epidemics; however, epilepsy has been a critical neurology problem over the years.
Tell us about your solutions, and which among them do you consider your flagship offering that distinguishes MedMarvel from its competitors?
Currently, Neurophysicians and surgeons undergo time consuming complex process of diagnosis to identify substrate responsible for epilepsy with no mechanism for visualization into brain, leading to
inconclusive diagnosis and treatment.
The state-of-the-art MedVirtuoso Platform, automates and simplifies the diagnostic process.1GB of data per patient from CT/MRI-fMRI/PET scans is automatically processed by our patentable image fusion algorithms to generate rich multidimensional information, which is readily available for interpretation by Neurophysicians to examine the structural deficits in the brain, abnormal metabolic information, evaluate neural network connectivity, and blood flow analysis, on a case to case basis.
They can now confidently identify the source and location of seizures in less than two hours instead of few weeks
They can now confidently identify the source and location of seizures in less than two hours instead of few weeks and decide if surgery is beneficial to the patient, precisely locate the site of surgery, and predict the deficits that can be caused due to removal of certain part of the brain.
Our local, Made In India and globally compatible cloud-based Platform as a Service solution is easily accessible and scalable to reach all the Neurophysicians and surgeons across India and globally. With MedVirtuoso, Diagnostic and Surgical planning is now available in remotest parts of the world, on a pay per use basis at an affordable price. This will increase the diagnostic yield and thus translating into more patients getting treated accurately in less amount of time.
We are a startup company established in 2019, and currently the prototype is in development stage. The platform uses Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning for advanced reporting in diagnostics that go beyond epilepsy. We have not yet deployed the product in the market, but are piloting this year. Though Covid-19 has brought challenging times, we have interacted with almost 25 to 30 neurosurgeons regarding the technology. They are optimistic that the platform will bring a revolution in treatment of epilepsy and neurology disorders, particularly brain diseases.
You lead a well experienced team. What is the kind of role played by your team’s experience in the endeavors of MedMarvel?
I have got considerable experience in product development for healthcare IT. My professional career started in the US, with handson experience in developing RISPACS solutions. After moving back to India, I happened to meet Dr. Nilesh Kurwale, an Epilepsy
Neurosurgeon. He shared challenges faced by Neurophysicians and surgeons during their treatment process. Based on my experience, I wanted to help address these grass root level challenges and impact lives of epilepsy patients. With this vison, together we established MedMarvel Software Solutions Pvt Ltd. We have built a team of medical imaging specialists, healthcare IT specialists, radiologists, neuro physicians, and surgeons. With medical physicists and technocrats, we were able to sort out the platform integrated with AI and Deep Learning capabilities. Almost everyone in our company has a global experience of around 15 to 20 years. They also have a grassroot level understanding of healthcare problems in India.
What further innovation do you plan to include in your healthcare technology offerings?
Multidimensional approach to treatment of Epilepsy is a superset process that can be easily extended for treatment of other neurological disorders. The intelligence of the system has developed and continues to develop over time with the data of epilepsy patients fed into it. It helps in finding the disease patterns of causes and brings some new biomarkers in the industry. Thereby, pharmaceutical companies and clinical organizations can find ways to provide treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy. At present, we focus on medical imaging and related disease detection and development of a novel algorithm from new biomarkers, particularly in brain science with the help of CT, MRI, and PET scans. It, therefore, eases the chance for detecting brain tumors, Alzheimer’s disease, or Dementia.
Dr. Nilesh Kurwale
Our initial focus is reserved on Epilepsy. Epileptic patients, especially children, undergo high social stigma, and suffer from side effects of costly antiepileptic brain medicines. Simple brain surgeries have the potential to cure or significantly reduce the frequency of seizures, and offer productive life years in children & adults based on globally established standard medical treatment protocols. The pediatric patients within the age of 5-to-15 need early diagnosis. It tremendously helps in reducing disability-adjusted life years of patients. We aim to transform the lives of at least one million epileptic patients by the year 2025.