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Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) has joined hands with SELCO Foundation, to launch the pilot deployment of a long-supported portfolio technology in maternal and neonatal health monitoring. The technology’s is a non-invasive diagnosis and management of neonatal sepsis.
Currently, 23.4% of neonatal fatalities in India are caused by sepsis annually and the figure is alarmingly sharper in resource-poor settings. The deployment of this technology developed by C-CAMP startup and former incubatee Spotsense in the tribal majority Sargur, Mysore district, Karnataka is expected to significantly improve these numbers and make quality healthcare accessible to socially and economically vulnerable communities.
Vivekananda Memorial Hospital, the site of the deployment is a 100-bed rural-tribal hospital catering to the primary and secondary healthcare needs of HD Kote and three other Taluks, covering a population of approx. 4 lakhs that comprises mainly of Soliga, Jenukuruba, Yarava and Betta Kuruba (Kadu Kuruba) communities.
Priyanka, President, Hadanuru Gram Panchyat and Nagaraj, Member, Yogakshema Samiti, Dr Dennis Chauhan, Director, Vivekananda Memorial Hospital, the site of the deployment, Pradeep Murthy, SELCO Foundation, Dr Niranjan Joshi, C-CAMP and Amrita Sukrity, CEO and founder, Spotsense were present at the launch.
The platform technology by Spotsense called VIEWDx, is a frugal, all-in-one essential diagnostic device which, through universal photometry analysis, is capable of performing multiple platform tests on blood, saliva and other bodily fluids. VIEWDx is suitable even for low-resource satellite diagnostic labs and unskilled manpower as it is intuitive for use and helps in easy interpretation of results.
Droolie is a special ViewDx assay specifically for Neonatal sepsis detection. It is the first ever no-prick clinical sepsis monitoring tool based entirely on a salivary platform. It can detect up to three inflammatory proteins along with an AI based clinical decision support tool which provides the physician a risk-based score of bacteraemia based on overall clinical symptoms, maternal risk factors and readout from the inflammatory tests. This can help optimise the antimicrobial regimen, increase chances of survival and reduce risk for Antimicrobial Resistance related complications as well.
Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, C-CAMP said, “Spotsense’s Droolie is a DBT-Nesta, UK sponsored winner of the India leg of Longitude Prize, the world’s biggest Antimicrobial Resistance diagnostic challenge. What better place to begin deployment in the field than the underserved tribal community of Sargur.”
Huda Jaffer, director, SELCO Foundation, said, “The Spotsense pilots are a crucial part of developing efficient, need based and effective neonatal care units, with a vision to improve overall neonatal mortality rates, particularly vulnerable communities located in remote areas with difficult terrains. The healthcare innovation partnership between SELCO, C-CAMP and Spotsense aims for overall better outcomes for maternal and child care.
SELCO Foundation, with C-CAMP, will support Spotsense for pilot deployments with 7 different partners providing healthcare services to vulnerable communities. The learnings from this exercise will lead to the creation of a robust plan for helping scale the technology to a large number of communities across India and the world.
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