Healthtech startup scores series A funding to save India’s hearts

Photo credit: Pixabay.

Cardiovascular disease – a disease of the heart and surrounding vessels – surfaced as India’s leading cause of death over 30 years ago. In 2000, one of five Indians who died died of heart disease. Four years ago, that number jumped to one in four. Though India’s elderly population is growing, growing numbers of the younger population have been affected too. 12 percent of heart attacks experienced in India are by individuals under the age of 40, double the number in the west.

Besides standard preventative methods – a low fat diet high in fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, and a non-smoking lifestyle that includes regular exercise – upcoming heart attacks can be quickly detected with an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) machine and a doctor who can interpret the ECG chart.

That’s where startup Tricog Health Services steps in. The Bangalore-based healthtech company has raised a series A round of funding from investors including Inventus Capital Partners, Blume Ventures, and a clutch of angel investors. The amount was undisclosed.

The funding will be put toward improving the startup’s technology.

Beating the clock

Tricog installs a cloud-connected ECG in primary and secondary care medical centers – clinics, polyclinics, hospitals, and nursing home. When a doctor takes a patient’s ECG, the information gets sent via cloud to a hub where qualified experts are available at all hours. The specialist sends his or her evaluation to the patient’s doctor via SMS and a message on the startup’s mobile app.

The process is aimed at saving time and possibly encouraging preventative medicine – many heart disease sufferers don’t seek help until symptoms like chest pain strike – and the time between the first symptom and getting treatment is an average of six hours in India.

“The chances of survival with this delay is a mere 20 percent,” said Tricog founder and CEO, cardiologist Dr. Charit Bhograj, in a statement. “If this delay were reduced to 90 minutes, the survival probability jumps to 80 percent. Tricog’s aim is to change that patient’s 80 percent chance of death to an 80 percent chance of staying alive.”

Charit speaks of the “golden hour” – 80 to 90 minutes after the onset of heart attack symptoms (heart attack symptoms, by the way, present differently in women than in men). After the golden hour, heart tissue begins to die and cannot be recovered.

Cloud-connected ECGs mean that even if a small nearby clinic doesn’t have a cardiologist or specialist – India only has one cardiologist per every 250,000 people, as compared to one cardiologist per every 10,000 in the US – information can be sent to one.

Tech for lives

Photo credit: El Payo.

Founded by Dr. Charit Bhograj, a cardiologist, in January last year, Tricog began operations the following month. It has expanded to nearly 250 clinics, nursing homes, and hospitals in 12 cities or towns. It claims to have diagnosed almost 100,000 patients, and uses algorithms and data visualization to help doctors interpret ECG data.