SL start-up in healthcare breakthrough
Sri Lanka has done it again. In the wake of the country being on a winning streak this year in many fields; start-ups are assisting to brand Sri Lanka as well. In a new development, Jendo Innovations Pvt Ltd has developed a technology to detect cardio-vascular diseases way ahead of time – and they are aiming to go global.
This tech-led healthcare is capable of assessment which will help to assist and treat patients, explaining the technology, Keerthi Kodithuwakku, a biomedical engineer by profession and co-founder/ CEO of the company, told the Business Times in an interview. He said what they built can identify endothelial dysfunction before it happens – as much as 15 years prior to the condition being diagnosed.
“We can test cardio-vascular dysfunction, which is a common and early event in cardiovascular disease, through this technology. This happens when the vascular endothelium, the thin layer of cells that lines blood vessels when damaged, impairs the function of the endothelium.
Cardio-vascular ((CV) diseases are the number one killer in a global context and in Sri Lanka 30 per cent of deaths happen due to related diseases. More than 50 per cent of this happens to the breadwinner in the family.
So as a biomedical engineer my idea was to develop the technology where this situation can be identified beforehand, so that it can be arrested in time,” he explained.
It can be identified through something called a vascular dysfunction test for which Jendo has built the technology and it is a non-invasive method which can be done in 15 minutes, he said.
A 29-year-old, he had developed this in 2015 with two other biomedical engineers – Charith Vithanage and Shashika Munasinghe along with Dr. Danuka Hettiarachchi.
The technology was patented in 2015 in the US, Japan Singapore and in Sri Lanka. Along with Mr. Kodithuwakku, the expertise was co-founded by Vinod Samarawickrama, Country Manager at Ericsson Sri Lanka and Maldives and Heminda Jayaweera, Sri Lanka Institute of Nano Technology (SLINTEC). The advisors are Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe, Prof. Godwin Constantine, Dr. Bandula Wijey and Dr. Manjula Karunaratne.
“This tech is medically proven,” Mr. Samarawickrama said joining in the discussion.
The company has partnered with the Softlogic Group to offer the service at SoftLogic’s Asiri Hospitals chain. “By mid next year we want to commercialise it,” Mr. Samarawickrama said.
The Softlogic Group owns 20 per cent of Jendo Innovations. Now the device is open for trials at Asiri Hospitals. “There is a two week queue already,” Mr. Kodithuwakku said. The team said that through early-detection they can help more than 50 per cent of threats caused by CV health problems.
Mr. Samarawickrama said that the device will be launched as a consumer product as the next stage of development. “This is the kind of technology we need to take the economy to the next level,” he said noting that modern technology impacts everyone’s lives and healthcare is improving as is the quality of life of many people. “When it comes to incredible tech innovations, we have only just started to scratch the surface,” he said stressing that of all the ways technology has improved the lives of humans across the globe, none is as important as the technological advances in medicine.
After releasing this practice to Sri Lanka the company plans to go global by initially going to the region, Japan and then the US.
Mr. Samarawickrama stressed that the future economic growth for many countries will increasingly depend on domestic tech innovation. He said that it’s also important to recognise that higher-than average economic growth will also come through small contributions made by entrepreneurs steering the growth in the economy. “The entrepreneurs push the boundaries of their environment, and through these efforts, the innovation they create will add to poverty alleviation.”