Finnish health tech startup Etsimo Healthcare powers Brazil with its diagnosis engine.
Well, it is our partner techtools ventures calling. What do they have in mind this time?, wondered Thomas Grandell, CEO of Etsimo Healthcare, in April 2020.
Soon he would learn that the startup would expand its business to Brazil at a fast pace, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
There was a great need for Etsimo’s and techtools ventures’ mobile health and telehealth services in Minas Gerais, a state with over 20 million inhabitants in Brazil. At the core is a mobile application, which is powered with Etsimo’s technology platform, the diagnosis engine.
Never say never as anything can happen. Telehealth used to be prohibited in Brazil, but Covid-19 changed this overnight.
Based on the patient’s symptoms, pre-existing conditions and basic information, the app makes a diagnosis and estimates the need for treatment. If there is a need, the patient gets a list of doctors to choose from and a virtual consultation with a doctor will follow.
“Never say never as anything can happen. Our relationship with techtools ventures was established during an export trip organized by Business Finland to Brazil in 2018. At that time telehealth was prohibited in the country, but Covid-19 changed this overnight,” says Grandell.
The need for healthcare is bigger than ever as Brazil has been hit badly by Covid-19.
To make the app suitable for Brazil was not that tough a thing as Etsimo’s cloud-based system has been built for global markets from the beginning. The whole process took only six weeks.
To serve a new market, Etsimo has to make sure all common diseases are supported and have the correct prevalence, and translate the content to the languages of the target market. Etsimo also has to verify that the solution complies to local regulations.
To make the app suitable for Brazil was not tough – the process took only six weeks.
So for Brazil, Etsimo added data of eight typical diseases such as Dengue fever to the healthcare solution, and for Covid-19, the company used official advice of Brazil. Etsimo translated all information to Portuguese, and applied and was granted the national medical device certification, ANVISA.
“It is important to take the country into consideration to avoid diagnostic errors. Now the app in Brazil contains altogether 755 diseases and 102 disease groups,” explains Grandell.
“We have top-notch data and medical, AI and machine learning expertise in Finland. Finnish researchers publish an equal amount of AI related research papers compared to MIT,” highlights Thomas Grandell, CEO of Etsimo.
So where has Etsimo gotten the data as the platform is powered with AI and machine learning?
“First, to teach our platform to make the right diagnoses we used the same data than the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim uses in its ‘Find the Diagnosis’ tool designed for doctors. It contains the symptoms of over 3,000 diagnoses. We have also used anonymized international data to develop the platform further,” says Grandell.
He highlights that the more there is data and real-life cases, the less there is uncertainty in the diagnoses of the platform.
Now in June 2020, the diagnosis engine will get new validated features as clinical evidence exists. The engine can classify the patient’s need for treatment according to urgency and recommend the right care path.
Since his graduation, Grandell has established companies and fostered his learning in tech. He thinks that the Finnish health ecosystem is a great place to develop solutions. Etsimo has partnered with Terveystalo, the largest private healthcare provider in the Nordics, since 2018. The company will start to use the diagnosis engine this June. In addition to Terveystalo, angel investors have invested in the company.
“In general, we have top-notch data and medical, AI and machine learning expertise in Finland. Finnish researchers publish an equal amount of AI related research papers compared to MIT,” highlights Grandell.
The Etsimo team includes these experts. The international team used to work at various universities before spinning out to tackle societal problems.
“Some insurance agencies have estimated that 30 percent of all doctors’ appointments are unnecessary from a medical standpoint. To add up, Sitra, a Finnish future foundation, has come up to a conclusion that 50–70 percent of doctor’s appointments could be handled virtually,” says Grandell.
50–70 percent of doctor’s appointments could be handled virtually.
The healthcare platform not only boils down to efficient care and savings, but also to proper care at the right time. It can be difficult for a doctor to get a holistic view of a patient’s condition – and that is why the Etsimo platform can make a big difference.
If Etsimo had been here six years ago, Grandell’s wife’s tumors would have been found faster and not by accident. Now all is well.
Text: Katja Alaja
Photos: Etsimo Healthcare
from Greater Helsinki
