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Date: November 15, 2021

This AI-powered healthtech startup is a virtual physician to answer all your health concerns

This AI-powered healthtech startup is a virtual physician to answer all your health concerns

In August 2021, ZINI was selected for the Startup Punjab seed grant award. In March 2021, ZINI won a grant of Rs 25 lakh under the Startup India - NGIS (Next Generation Incubation Scheme) started by the STPI (Software Technology Park of India).

Founded by Dr Rohit Sharma in May 2017, Delhi-based ZINI is an AI-based virtual physician trained on medical data. Last month, the healthtech startup raised pre-Series A funding from Solarus Group, a London-based VC and PE firm.

The importance of family doctors was increasingly felt during the coronavirus pandemic when people started becoming more concerned about their health. But in the absence of family doctors, who do we approach during medical emergencies? 

As per a recent report, the doctor-patient ratio in India currently stands at 1:1,445, which is lower than WHO recommendation of 1:1000. In government hospitals, there is one doctor for every 10,000 patients. There are PHCs (primary health centres) with no doctors at all. 

The lack of genuine medical advice at the right time can be detrimental for a patient. To solve these challenges, Dr Rohit Sharma came up with ZINI, a flagship product of Delhi-based GRAINPAD Pvt Ltd. 

Founded in May 2017, the healthtech startup is an AI-powered, voice-based virtual physician that provides medical guidance and directs patients to seek timely medical help. 

According to Rohit, ZINI can address the gap in doctor-patient ratio in India. ZINI can also help gather structured data, which can promote research and help policymakers make data driven decisions about their communities.  

How does it work?
Accessible through an app, ZINI allows users to ‘talk to ZINI’ about any medical symptom or health issues. With an Alexa-like experience, the app can evaluate 950+ health symptoms, 300+ diseases, provide a detailed report, recommend the course of action and share details of nearby medical facilities that a patient can reach out to. 

When a patient calls a doctor, the doctor usually tries to figure out why they have a fever. “There are 200+ causes of fever. Until the doctor does not know “Why” the patient has a fever, they cannot advise further course of action. By talking to the patient, the doctor tries to extract more information to know the exact cause of the fever. This interview process is called ‘History taking’ a.k.a ‘patient interview’ step in clinical care. Only after this thorough interview can the doctor determine what is the cause of these symptoms and what is the ideal course of action,” Dr Rohit tells YourStory.

ZINI is a virtual intelligence that can automate the process of ‘history taking’. It is a ‘history taking’ bot, he says. '

“So far, in all of human history, only human doctors could do this. This is because the interview process requires three things -- knowledge (of medical science), intelligence, and intuition (from experience). But today, using the power of Data and AI, this process can be replicated by virtual agents like ZINI,” Rohit says.


“This technology is incorporated in various products. Some of those include ZINI the Android App, an OPD Management system, a medical API, and a 5-minute clinic system,” he adds. 

 

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