New Flint Knapping

From PPE kits to diagnostics, informatics and ventilators, tech start-ups have repurposed their expertise and preferences for the fight against COVID-19.

- Ajay Sukumaran

There is a business opportunity lurking in every circumstance. This summer, Bangalore-based start-up PathShodh was all set to launch a device that could carry out eight different tests to monitor chronic health conditions--the culmination of a decade’s research. Then the lockdown happened and, like everything else, the event had to be put off. What was more frustrating, says co-founder Vinay Kumar, was being shut off from their laboratory at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). But that enforced idleness triggered a brainwave—why not add COVID-19 diagnosis to the gadget’s array of paper-strip tests?

Pathshodh’s device, called Anupath, aimed to fill a gap in disease management—a solution as handy as a glucometer but which could do more than just read out blood glucose levels. And reach rural areas that don’t have access to sophisticated medical machinery. Anupath’s paper strip tests have been designed for five blood tests—HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin), glycated albumin, blood glucose, hemoglobin, serum albumin, and three urine tests— microalbuminuria, urine creatinine, and urine ACR. It covers, at one go, diabetes, anemia, and kidney disease.