VIGO develops tech platform to allow doctors, hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients remotely

Attending to all Covid-19 patients has become a tricky task for doctors with the overcrowding of hospitals and the apprehension of a patient to be admitted in the hospital where the viral loads are significantly higher.

A two-year old start-up Vigo, or Vitals on the Go, has developed a tech-based platform to solve the problem of both the doctors and patients by enabling continuous monitoring and triaging.

Using an under 5-gm patch that sits on the chest, the platform gathers information, in real time, on heart rate, ECG, temperature, respiratory rate and blood oxygen (SpO2) – the key parameters that play a major role in making decisions on treatment.

Data collection

The palm-sized patch, which works for five days, collects the data, sends it to the command control centre via a mobile app for monitoring by clinical specialists.

“Analysing the data, the centre would come out with automatic reports, capturing early warning signals. It gives the doctors and hospitals actionable insights,” Sekhar Chennupati, founder-Chief Executive Officer of VIGO, told BusinessLine.

After piloting the platform in a few hospitals, the start-up is now ready for commercial deployments. The platform also has an Artificial Intelligence powered decision support system based on questions to check symptom pathways clubbed with vitals.

“Doctors have limited time at their disposal to continuously monitor each patient. Our solution uses Artificial Intelligence. Using information on vitals and symptoms, it provides trending graphs and actionable alerts, letting doctors take informed decisions in the least possible time,” said Sekhar, a doctor-turned-serial entrepreneur.

Funding

The system raises a flag if patient requires hospitalisation for higher level of care, including hospitalisation, if need be. The start-up, which has 48 staffers including 10 in the commaond control, will double the workforce in two months. It raised about $2 million so far from angel investors.

VIGO has completed 72,000 hours of remote patient monitoring till date with over 2,000 patients, said Ratish Bhat, co-founder of VIGO.

Akkiraju Bhattiprolu, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, said that there’s a scope for predictive analytics as the platform gathers more information. “Our proprietary algorithms analyses and assess the overall health score, factoring in the information gathered. This helps in determining the level of care,” he said.