Spara Health

We started Spara because the new health authority and government guidelines requiring temperature screening puts health care facilities between a rock and a hard place. Companies are overwhelmed by costs and hassle of staff screenings using variable accuracy temperature guns, which puts the screeners at higher exposure; getting staff to self-report symptoms is time consuming, and oftentimes health workers are so busy taking care of patients they can be running a fever and not know until 10-12 hours later.

What Spara wants to do is give a completely new solution that protects staff health with real time alerts of high temperatures of staff without wasting PPE on false alarms or time consuming manual checks that exposing staff to infections in the process.

When our platform is used by companies everywhere, they'll have peace of mind in offering a safer workplace and staff will be more confident from minimized infections. 

Over 16.8 million healthcare workers in the US and 59 million globally are putting their lives at risk every day to save ours. 42% of infections and deaths globally consist of healthcare workers and elderly patients. With fever being a symptom in 89% of cases, temperature is now a critical element in assessing staff health as symptomatic patients can easily infect healthcare workers, who in turn see dozens of people during a shift. 

This creates a significant number of potentially preventable infection situations that puts patients, coworkers, and family at risk. However, companies are struggling to find efficient solutions for screening to reduce infection risk among staff. They spend resources allocating personnel to conduct daily staff screenings; workers aren't happy because it's time-consuming and puts them in a tense interpersonal situation, and it's simply a job no one on staff really wants to do because it increases their infection risk.

While there are point solutions in the space, data has to be manually logged. Consumer wearables aren't accurate enough, resulting in false alarms that waste PPE. What companies need is an accurate real time system, because the earlier high temperature is detected, the staff can be isolated and fewer exposed.

Our breakthrough AI-powered biosensor platform prevents the spread of COVID-19 at hospitals with real time detection of elevated body temperature. Spara is a comprehensive system made of customizable modular components that:

1. Collects health data from contact-less thermal camera kiosks for screening both visitors and staff.  We've developed the first enterprise, cloud based thermal check in system using computer vision and machine learning for health care facilities that reduces staff screening time by up to 50%.

2. Continuously monitor accurate temperature with IOT wearables. We're importing clinically proven, EU FDA approved biosensors which are Fitbit-like wearables that come in the from of a single Airpod-like lightweight earpiece, or a thin silver dollar shaped disc that can be worn on a chest strap or clipped into a bra. These wearables are synced to mobile devices.

3.  The Spara mobile app makes if simple to for healthcare staff to do their daily symptom checks, and is configured to make vibration alerts to urge them to conduct a secondary screening if the wearable senses a high temperature.

3. Alerts get pushed a desktop application that allows administrators to effectively track team health and proactively manage staff risk with an all-in one web dashboard. 

We have conducted extensive user interviews with health care providers, property owners, insurance companies, an industrial hygienists. Varna is targeting healthcare providers in urban communities, with an emphasis on elderly care facilities, with medium to large sized staff who are trying to find a way to be proactive about screening symptoms to reduce infection risk among staff so patients, coworkers, and staff family members don't get impacted. 

Leveraging industry best practices in design thinking for customer development, identifying what jobs they need the technology to do, mapping out their current processes, and identifying the "magic bullet" scenarios that would significantly improve their day to day lives. Varna follows Google's sprint methodology in order to rapidly prototype feature, get immediate user feedback, and conduct learning launches to validate or invalidate our assumptions. We plan to keep an ongoing feedback loop with our end users throughout the development process.

Spara hypothesizes that the platform will help hospitals and space operators reduce staff costs needed to support manual temperature reads, decrease the time it takes for people to be screened to enter buildings, increase revenue for businesses from more visitors, and save costs from prevention of staff infections.

We're providing a breakthrough technology that supports the prevention of infection, accurately detects the most shown symptom (high temperature), and empowers managers to respond in real time to high risk staff. Spara's data enables decision making on protecting staff health to be done in a completely new way. Since the symptom tracker and quantitative measurements on the system can be easily changed, Spara enables the healthcare industry to rapidly respond to emerging health threats. Our vision is to expand to serve the billions of staff at any organization so that no matter their socioeconomic level, their health can be protected.

As the only solution that does enterprise B2B early heat fluctuation detection, Spara is well-poised to succeed against its competition. Thermal camera brands such as Seek Thermal, ICI, and FLIR take spot temperature but the data is lost: none of these solutions connect to the cloud to deliver information outside those immediately present, and do not record historical or continuous data of staff. Point solutions like infrared forehead scanners may be accurate, but the output has to be manually logged and is often lost. In addition, it creates a tense interpersonal experience among staff while simultaneously increasing the risk of exposure of the screener. Consumer wearables like Microsoft Band, Ember, or Smart Temp offer more ongoing monitoring but lack the ability to do this accurately and continuously on an enterprise level--some of these solutions can only be used for 48 hours and then thrown away, and the others are of highly variable accuracy. There are also the high accuracy, FDA approved medical devices to monitor temperature and blood oxidation but these are mostly wired and not practical or affordable for staff use. Unlike other solutions, Varna provides screening and alerts continuously and in real time organization-wide, so staff can instantly know if their temperature is high and managers can efficiently organize backups.

Spara offers a unique combination of AI based technologies: 

• AI thermal kiosk--Uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to not only detect when someone wants a temperature read, but uses advanced detectors to take temperature from the eyes as a more accurate detection of core body temperature (the measurement needed to indicate a significant deviation from baseline temperature). We simultaneously use the optical camera to scan QR codes and register the temperature read to the employee account. Spara has IP on privacy protection for thermal reads, as privacy has been a major concern with AI being used on cameras. We are the only ones to address this issue, and we're so serious about protecting privacy on thermal reads that we're filing a patent on it. Since the camera is linked to the cloud, we use machine learning on both building temperature and outdoor temperature to level set variances according to weather in order to reduce false reads. This currently has to be done manually with other thermal camera systems.
• Wearable--We use EU clinically proven wearable devices that have not yet been distributed in the US. These wearables are significantly more cost effective than wired hospital devices. Our system conducts machine learning in order to understand an individual's baseline temperature so we can accurately detect deviations to drive alerts without setting off false alarms.

Thermal cameras--Originally used for industrial purposes, thermal cameras were made to detect the highest temperature in the view of the camera. The broadest applications had to do with machinery calibration using handheld devices; therefore, the accuracy was dependent on being close to the object.  The majority of thermal cameras on the market have no third party testing and erroneously cite accuracy that was applied at a very minimal range (less than 1 foot), which does not reflect the operational accuracy (6 feet). This becomes problematic when combined with the fact that most thermal cameras will only detect the highest temperature in the frame, whether or not it's connected to the human in the field of vision.

Wearable temperature monitoring--These have become popularized with consumer wearables such as the Oura ring and Microsoft Band. The issue with consumer wearables is they are only taking skin temperature from extremities. When combined, these two factors result in highly inaccurate reads on temperature that do not reflect the core body temperature needed to recognize elevated temperature. In addition, current wearable data is limited in only being available to the individual or a family. Enterprise solutions for temperature exist in bulky wired medical devices at hospitals which isn't practical for staff that aren't on bedrest.

Activities

• Symptom screening-mobile based staff input on CDC screening points (cough, fever, COVID positive contact, etc)
• Kiosk checks--daily screenings when staff arrive at hospital
• Real time, continuous monitoring conducted by wearable

Outputs

• Automatically symptom screened employees
• Staff-less morning screenings
• Alerts if high temperature detected

Short term outcomes

• Prevention of symptomatic staff showing up at work
• Eliminate exposure of staff needed to conduct morning screenings
• Reduction in exposure due to unnecessary in person meetings to coordinate backups

Medium term outcomes

• Reduction of incidences of unscreened/not properly screened symptomatic staff exposed to other staff or clients upon arrival at work
• Infected staff not exposed to other staff during screenings
• People isolated or sent home earlier, decreasing the exposure to staff or patients

Long term outcome: Reduced infections among staff, patients, and family members

Since launching on May 31, we have secured two pilots. The immediate number of people impacted by our solution in for our nonprofit recuperative care pilots is 2300 health staff and residents. We've also secured a pilot with San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce pilot with an affected base of 30,000 residents.  In one year, with a 20% month over month projected growth started with first sales in month 7, we expect to serve 624,000 users. With stabilized growth of 5% month over month by year five, Varna is projected to reach 19 million users in the US and globally, which includes both healthcare workers and staff at businesses.

In the next five years, we want to be the most trusted resource for screening and monitoring staff health during pandemics and day to day life. On a quantitative level, Varna plans to become one of the first AI/IOT unicorns; secure 50 accounts with Fortune 500 companies, 50 accounts with large healthcare institutions, and 50 accounts with nonprofit health entities; and to be profitable so the business can sustain itself.

Although there are no HIPAA or FDA regulations for Spara to get started, the company is reliant on hardware in order to implement its strategy. We are importing and white labeling clinically proven temperature wearables from the EU and assembling kiosks from commoditized components. With the uncertainties in supply chain do to COVID, there may some some delay with the import and production of the kiosks.

Spara has negotiated a conditional exclusive conditional manufacturing license with one of its device partners so we can transition production over to North America to reduce trade risk and turnaround delays. We also plan to have at least two assembly centers in North America to reduce shipping times and deliver our product to clients quickly.

We have three cofounders and a weekend warrior hackathon team of five AI engineers, mobile developers, operations, and UI/UX who believe in the cause and want to assist any way they can.

Spara has an exceptional team with deep experience in AI/IOT software solutions which make us the right choice to mobilize our solution. Hazel Mann is our CEO, she has a background in data science from Johns Hopkins, is certified in Software Product Management, and holds an MBA in Technology Leadership from UCLA Anderson.  Hazel has have rolled out complex B2B SaaS solutions for the fourth largest private global owner in healthcare real estate as well as for the sixth largest owner of office real estate. Alok Desai is our Chief Data Officer with experience in industrial vision system, an M.S. in Control Systems and a PhD in computer vision. He is on the bleeding edge of developing high efficiency detectors for high volume, time critical use. Natasha Bajc is our CXO and holds an MA in Architecture as well as an MS in computer Science, Affective Computing. She has a diverse skillset that enables her to do everything from 3D printing kiosk parts, designing 3D rendering of products, or researching AI data sets and training models.

Our unique blend of backgrounds allow us to deeply empathize with users, construct meaningful solutions, and execute our strategy leveraging new technology methods.

Spara is partnered with the following organizations:

• Illumination Foundation. This is a nonprofit which is the largest recuperative care provider in the US with a 20M operating budget. They are partnered with FEMA in COVID relief efforts. They are hosting test sites among their 14 locations for Varna's kiosks and are in process of constructing a study with healthcare staff using the wearables.
• San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce. Alongside the busiest border in the world, San Ysidro is the gateway to the US. The president of the chamber of commerce has engaged Varna to pilot its kiosks and wearables at large businesses highly impacted by COVID.

Spara will be sold as a SaaS based subscription. Our strategy is to offer a cost effective solution that is easily scalable across organizations. We consider ourselves a data company, not a hardware company, so our emphasis is to provide value through the software and utilize hardware as a means of collecting data.

• Kiosks--Our strategy is to lease the hardware to derisk the purchase and increase adoption,  so we can flood the market quickly and gain adoption, since we are creating a high switching cost to alternative temperature screening solutions. We'll have a software subscription on an annual basis for the kiosks.
• Wearables--these will be priced close to consumer subscription prices on a monthly basis. There will be no upfront cost for the wearable as the hardware cost will be offset by the monthly recurring revenue from the software subscription and be covered by the 2-4 month mark.
• Maintenance--We'll charge a setup and maintence fee for each account in order to make a recurring stream of additional revenue.

Spara has a sustainable business model with a 54% margin. The company will conduct a series of fund raising (friends and family, pre-seed, seed) and will sell its products on a B2B SaaS subscription plan.

The upfront costs of the hardware and IOT software/integrations development are significant. Solve would be highly impactful in expediting our prototype testing and entry into the market, as we are currently bootstrapping the product. In order to expand to additional pilots, it will become cost prohibitive to not order in quantity in order to take advantage of discounts.

We also plan to patent our technology, and Solve would be a significant asset in this area as patent legal assistance is extremely expensive.

• Product/service distribution. Supply chain and logistics in order to simplify temperature screenings everywhere is no small endeavor. If you have experience with internet of things (IOT) devices manufacturing/assembly, our team would benefit from you advice on scaling this operation. We're also looking for pilot partners in healthcare and to refine the value and processes of our system. 
• Legal. We need assistance in trademarks and exploring a patent for our system.

A partnership with MIT faculty for research in using the devices and training our machine learning algorithm for higher accuracy will be of significant help. Foundations and corporate social responsibility entities who want to donate to our 501c3 arm in order to make the system available to frontline health workers and further the research from our academic partners would enable us to make this available in low income and urban healthcare facilities who would have high need of the product.

While vaccines from COVID are at least two years out, and PPE initiatives are solving a short term shortage, Varna stands in between as a solution that can provide immediate value not only to healthcare facilities, but to the world's new normal as it emerges from quarantine. Our product makes a significant impact in quantifiably preventing infections and has massive applications not only in healthcare, but in many other verticals such as travel, businesses, and schools. Our vision is to deliver a platform that helps save lives with the most affordable, high accuracy real time detection of one of the main symptoms of COVID; however, this solution can be fluidly adapted to symptoms of emerging diseases in other pandemics, leading to a rapidly responsive early detection platform for pandemic diseases.

Spara was built with a privacy first mindset. Our team is a huge proponent of ethical AI. We have special anti-facial recognition AI which which prevents the abuse of using the thermal cameras for unethical surveillance purposes. Our components are sourced and assembled in the EU and North America to reduce the risk our system being used for other purposes. We have also architected the system to redact faces in real time while simultaneously running high accuracy anonymous detectors, and also act as a net for the computer vision footage, only extracting data points which are sent to the cloud to prevent the footage from being scanned by unauthorized parties. 

We are applying cutting edge AI to old-school thermal camera cores in away that enables us to take low cost thermal cores and optimize them to perform similarly to cameras systems that cost up to 10x more. Spara also has an AI partner that uses their technology on the hardware level to lighten procession load so our hardware costs are drastically reduced so it can be affordable for any organization to protect their staff health. The thermal camera kiosks also pull environment and external weather data in order to optimize the thermal read to reduce inaccurate scans.

With our IOT devices, we are using machine learning to create one of the most accurate real time baselines of core body temperature, so we can detect significant fluctuations without false alarms that will waste PPE. 

ReplyForward

In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that over 80% of healthcare workers are women. The CDC and UN Women report that over 70% of COVID infections were among women healthcare workers. As businesses re-open in the US, it's important to note that the average job is that of a 40 something year old female working in retail--these will soon be the staff at high risk of infection. Unfortunately, many of these workers are struggling. They are hourly and do not have the luxury of working from home to avoid exposure. If they do decide to avoid exposure, they lose their jobs and can't support themselves. 

We've designed Spara to protect the health of staff, and with women being at such high risk of exposure both in the US and internationally, it is of utmost importance that we have a readily available solution to screen and monitor their symptoms.