Qure.ai

A lot has changed since the spread of the COVID-19 virus became a global health crisis. These changes include innovation in technologies that have led to the development of start-ups such as Qure.ai which is the center of this article.

Medical experts, scientists, and health care providers around the globe have been working day in and day out to understand the virus and provide smarter solutions to testing, diagnosis, and treatment.

Smarter solutions are accompanied by revolutionizing technology which makes the jobs of the doctors in a pandemic easier. Naturally, the world saw a surge in tech start-ups stepping in to deliver intelligent answers. 

Qure.ai is one such start-up. Let us take a look at how Qure.ai has proven its worth as a game-changer in technologically intelligent healthcare start-ups.

So what is Qure.ai?

Based out of Mumbai, India, Qure.ai was founded by a team of AI engineers and Scientists and strives to revolutionize healthcare to make it more accessible and affordable for India and the world.

The systems of the start-up are built to aid physicians in routine diagnosis and treatment which saves their time which can then be devoted to patient care and treatment.

Their product: qXR

Qure.ai launched an app named qXR which can detect and localize up to 29 common chest abnormalities by reading X-rays. The application can be used on a phone or computer and doesn’t even take a minute to give accurate results. 

How does qXR work?

Like many other tech start-ups, Qure.ai has also relied on continually transforming Artificial Intelligence technology to design this application.

The official website of Qure.ai claims that qXR was trained with over a million curated X-rays and radiology reports which make it hardware-agnostic and robust to variations in X-ray quality.

Therefore, qXR can help in detecting abnormalities caused due to the novel coronavirus disease.

The other benefits include combating the deadliest infectious disease, tuberculosis which has globally claimed over 1.5 million lives in just the past year, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, lung collapses, malignancies, and even cardiac strokes.

How qXR is benefitting the healthcare industry? 

The center of any innovative tech start-up is saving time and money. qRX is a ray of hope for the early detection of infectious diseases that can save more lives. The earlier any disease is detected, the longer the patient’s chance of survival.

The reason is obvious, early detection allows doctors to provide the right course of treatment and prevent the diseases from escalating beyond repair. Early detection can also save the mountains of money that are then spent on lab tests and medications. 

The mobility of the application can help in reaching out to millions who live in remote corners of the world where the availability of physicians is scarce. 

Other than this, qRX massively reduces the waiting period between getting a chest X-ray and diagnosing the problems with the same. Such a quick diagnosis can especially help with a later-stage patient whose health deteriorates by the minute.

So does the qXR eliminate the need for a human radiologist? 

The answer to this is no. Artificial Intelligence no matter how advanced cannot replace humans. The best is for the machine and man to work together.

Just as a human cannot detect abnormalities at the same speed and accuracy as the application, the application cannot understand the patient history and symptoms in person to suggest the underlying problems and a suitable treatment plan which needs to accommodate patient habits, lifestyle, support system and ability to afford.

qXR should be looked at as a means to fill the gaps in the expertise that is required for proper reading and analysis of chest X-rays. 

Other products by Qure.ai

Other than a tool for racking patient progress in COVID-19, the start-up has also created a Pandemic Response Care Platform- q-SCOUT which can be used for contact tracing and remote triaging for COVID-19 patients.

This is a ground-breaking solution to problems faced by front-line workers and first responders in the spread of a communicable disease. 

Qure.ai has also developed one qER an FDA 510(k) approved triage and notification tool that focuses on give precedence to CT scans that show serious abnormalities like bleed, fracture, or development of mass.

On similar grounds of Head CT scans is qQuant which is a progress monitoring tool for critical cases like brain trauma.

Conclusion

Qure.ai is India’s window to establish its standing in the global technology arena pertaining to healthcare. The smart solutions to the simple problems of this start-up are already being utilized by doctors in the most remote and rural locations of India.

In December 2020 Qure.ai partnered with AstraZeneca to develop solutions for early detection of lung cancer. If successful, the new technology can be a game-changer in reducing mortalities around the world.

Frequently asked questions

1. How can one join qure.ai?

• Qure.ai is hiring for business development, regulatory, clinical research, customer success, and engineering roles. Interested candidates can write to them at careers@qure.ai.

2. Who is the CEO of Qure.ai?

• Prashant Warier, the co-founder of Qure.ai is the current CEO of Qure.ai. Warier was born and brought up in Bhiali, Chhattisgarh where his father was working as an engineer in a steel plant and his mother was a schoolteacher. He has done his engineering in manufacturing science and engineering from IIT Delhi.

3. What is the status of the certification of Qure.ai?

• Qure.ai is ISO 13485 certified. This includes the protection of confidential data.

4. Is Qure.ai a publicly-traded company?

• No. At present Qure.ai is a privately owned company and has made no announcements regarding going public as of now.

5. Where is Qure.ai headquartered?

• The headquarters of Qure.ai is located in Mumbai, Maharashtra (India).