New Delhi: Healthcare technology firm Remidio Innovative Solutions has announced that it has received funding from the Gates Foundation to further its retinal imaging and artificial intelligence (AI)-based Oculomics platform for maternal health applications in low- and middle-income countries LMICs.
The programme intends to promote earlier risk assessment of pregnancy complications, like pre-eclampsia, anemia, and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), in countries like India and African nations, regions that contribute to most of the global disease burden of pregnancy and perinatal death.
Nearly 2 million stillbirths occur annually worldwide, about 84 percent of which occur in LMICs, according to Remidio. The leading causes of maternal death and stillbirths globally are pregnancy hypertensive disorders, of which pre-eclampsia is most common.
Nearly one in six pregnancies worldwide are afflicted by gestational diabetes, which leads to an increase in maternal and neonatal adverse outcomes. “Women most at risk from pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes are often the least likely to reach a laboratory or specialist in time,” Remidio Chief Executive Officer and Founding Director Dr Anand Sivaraman said in a statement.
Remidio has said that the grant will aid in determining whether retinal imaging, a tool already widespread in diabetic retinopathy screening, may serve as an earlier identification method for high-risk pregnancies in under-resourced settings.
Retinal imaging may be a non-invasive alternative to laboratory diagnostics, which have not typically been available in primary healthcare settings, the company said. The retina is the only site within the human body that allows direct visualization of blood vessels without any invasive procedures.
Thus, the retina may be able to provide important information related to systemic metabolic and vascular issues. Remidio Chief Medical Officer and Head of AI Divya Rao said that the programme will study if these unique retinal markers for pre-eclampsia and GDM are reliably identifiable in various patient populations during community-based antenatal care programmes.
This could lead to the development of a low-cost point-of-care screening method to enable healthcare workers to more rapidly identify pregnancies at high risk in settings where specialist care is not easily accessible.
Founded in Bengaluru in 2009, Remidio is a healthcare technology company that develops portable retinal imaging devices and AI-powered diagnostic tools. It focuses on bringing eye care and disease screening closer to patients through smartphone-based solutions that can be used in primary healthcare settings.
It also claims to be the first company to receive CDSCO approval in India for adaptive ophthalmic AI. Preventing avoidable blindness remains central to its work, it says.