This metabolic signature company using AI to prevent chronic diseases

Healthcare system globally is transforming very fast. Many healthcare solutions are now aiming at preventing the disease than only treating them after incidence. Many top-notch researchers are working on this aspect across the world. Vizzhy is one such company, which has its roots in famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company has built successful metabolic signature models of individuals in the US and is soon going to launch it in India. Dr. Vishnu Vardhan Pogunulu Srinivasulu, Founder Vizzhy Inc in an interaction with the Bizz Buzz said the company is soon going to launch India’s first healthcare-based Gen AI. The healthcare company will enable individuals to have their own metabolic signature and suggest remedial measures in case of anomalies. And all these preventive healthcare solutions will be provided at an affordable cost for mass adoption, he said. Given that disease incidence is increasing across the country, he is confident that management of metabolic disorder can reduce the disease burden to a significant level. The company is also setting up research centres across many geographies to build robust preventive healthcare system

Can you provide a brief overview about the functioning of Vizzhy and the kind of problem you are trying to solve?

What we do is we call it a metabolic signature company. Currently, what we do is if there is a disease, we do the treatment. For example, if somebody has diabetes, then he or she checks the sugar, and then they take medicine for controlling it. Then, the person may have some other form of illness like high blood pressure. And most of the people have some sort of chronic illness, which will be cured completely. So, the individual has to be under medication for ever or for a long-time. Slowly, the person may develop some complications. That’s how the healthcare system is. Nearly 75 per cent of the healthcare is managing these kinds of illnesses. These diseases are diagnosed based on different set of parameters. But what is happening inside the body is it doesn’t differentiate between this is sugar or any other disease. And the incidence of diseases is increasing tremendously in India. It’s all about life style diseases. We are trying to solve this problem at Vizzhy. We are a MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)-based company. I was a researcher at MIT and we all three co-founders are from MIT. We found that there is complex interaction happening inside the body. Our lifestyle is affecting our gut microbiome. Humans have 10 times more bacteria than cells in the body. So, it has a complex system. Everyone has their own metabolic signature. What we are eating is affecting our gut microbiome. What is happening in these gut microbiomes is it producing something, which is affecting our genes and the way these are expressed. That is the reason that suddenly we are seeing young people are getting affected with many complex diseases. So, through metabolic signature, what we take the map of what is exactly happening in the body. If someone is diabetic, then why diabetes has come. Because, sugar is just a symptom and these things start happening long before their manifestation. So, we can create a virtual map of metabolic signature. Through this, we can take care of it.

Can you elaborate how Vizzhy take genomic signature of individuals?

At Vizzhy, we do the genome testing and microbiome testing. Also, there are something called proteome and metabolome, which create the complexities. We do all these testing. And we do have a software which make sense of all these tests and create a metabolic signature map, which is very personalized. Through that, we can virtually predict and then manage.

Do you also suggest any remedial measures after detecting any anomalies?

Yes. Diagnosis is just one part of it. The other part is managing these anomalies. We call it 5P management- predictive, preventive, precise, participatory, and personalized. We want people to take care of their health than going to the hospital and taking prescription. Just like we take care of our finances, we should also take care of our health every day. So, after creating the metabolic signature, we provide a 5P regimen to manage these problems. We have managed many problems like diabetes, hypertension and others. So, we do have the full-service part and we are launching it. Because we feel by providing information, we are only solving half of the problem. The complete solution is to make them healthy.

When will the full-service part be launched then? Can you provide any time line?

We started in the US and later, we entered into India. Interestingly, each country population has different metabolic signatures. After entering India, we have developed a huge data base and we are ready for launching it in the country. We have recently entered into agreement to set up three large research centres. We already run a big research centre in IIT, Mumbai. I have funded a lot of projects there. Now, we are replicating same kind of thing with the US and Singapore. This will boost the international collaboration in this space.

Can you throw some light on the monetization aspects of Vizzhy?

US healthcare is huge. It’s around $4 trillion, which is more than India’s GDP. This is my third company. I had previously set up an artificial intelligence company and we had very good exit. So, I have funded the research in the current company based on the funds we had. We have not raised money in the market. In the US, we work with the healthcare system. Big companies have their own budget and we manage their employees’ health. We are also working with many big firms.

In India, we have plans to associate with a few hospitals, healthcare system and other related stakeholders. Currently, many top doctors are associated with us. Many hospital and healthcare chains have shown interest and we may launch our project with them in the future. We have also collaborated with many government agencies.

What is the level of acceptance for such futuristic healthcare system in India so far?

We understand that this kind of healthcare solution is very expensive, which only a few can afford in India. That’s where our AI-based platform and our large language model will help. We are building our own healthcare-based Gen AI. This has been built entirely by Indian engineers. We have imported very expensive computers to India for enabling that. We are building this model, which we will be launching in January. We will give it for free. Because the more data it analyses, the accuracy of the platform will increase. Our vision is to scale it in India so that everybody gets benefits out of this. We are launching the medical Gen AI. That’s how we want to take it to the people.

When will India experience the affordable scaling up of this solution?

It’s very near to the launch. For last four years, we are working on this solution. It should be launched in next two-three months.