OPPI felicitates start-ups with Excellence in Innovation Healthcare Start-up of the Year 2021 Award

The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) announced the winner of Excellence in Innovation Healthcare Start-up of the Year 2021 Award today. The award recognises the entrepreneurial spirit of organisations that provided value-based solutions and continued to impact patient outcomes, OPPI notified via a statement.

The statement also informed that this year, Briota Technologies, a digital health and wellness company, innovating for remote care, diagnostics and management of chronic respiratory conditions, has been conferred the award for developing a novel concept of AI-powered SpiroPROTM Device for screening and diagnosis of chronic respiratory ailments.

The participating start-ups went through a rigorous evaluation process, with an independent and external validator and jury panel, that included two rounds, viz The Validator Pitch and The Elevator Pitch.

Professor Sarang Deo, Area Lead, Operations Management, and Executive Director, Max Institute of Healthcare Management (MIHM), Indian School of Business, validated and shortlisted submissions that entered the elevator pitch round, to be evaluated by a jury panel comprising Anand Anandkumar, co-founder and CEO, Bugworks; Rajaram Narayanan, Managing Director, Sanofi India; Rameesh Kailasam, President and CEO, Indiatech.org; Meena Ganesh, co-Founder, Chairperson and MD, Portea Medical and Dr Karthikeyan Ponnalagu, Technical Director, Bosch AI Initiatives for Software Engineering in India.

Commenting on their win, Shardul Joshi, co-Founder, Briota Technologies, said in the statement, “We are delighted to be awarded the Excellence in Innovation Healthcare Start-up of the Year 2021 Award by OPPI. At Briota, we follow an AI-first approach aimed at simplifying the diagnostics and lifestyle management of chronic respiratory ailments in a post-COVID world. Our current focus is addressing a huge unmet need of early detection of asthma and COPD in children, and frequent monitoring of elderly patients in rural setting of our country.

“Our AI-powered SpiroPROTM is a user-friendly and connected device that our frontline workers such as ASHA or homecare nurses can use remotely as point of care screening tool. Briota’s approach of holistic solution also makes it possible for physicians to cater to a huge volume of patients remotely thereby reducing burden on our healthcare system and state economy as well as assisting patients to gain total symptom control. Through such innovations, we hope to continue to offer a range of cutting-edge tech solutions tailored to both patients and doctors and simplify the treatment and monitoring of various chronic conditions and make them accessible and affordable to all.”

As a part of the award, the winner will receive a year-long mentorship from Bayer Pharmaceuticals in addition to a grant-in-aid of Rs 1,00,000 and a certificate of citation.

The award will be conferred at the upcoming Annual Summit of OPPI on 23rd March, 2022.