Skrind

Infectious diseases are a leading cause of death globally, with Sub-Saharan Africa and other resource-poor settings accounting for more deaths. The Covid-19 pandemic further heightens the need to address challenges of existing and emerging infectious diseases.

The problem of readily accessible large scale first-line testing for the populace to effectively screen for timely detection of cases, and subsequently connect with follow-on treatment remains a challenge.

Our mobile app, Skrind, is an AI-powered self-testing solution that works with rapid test kits to provide qualitative testing for infectious diseases like HBV, HIV, HCV, TB, Malaria, and COVID-19 (within established regulatory testing frameworks), as well as follow-on care linkages.

Skrind, designed to scale the reach of vital info on infectious diseases of interest, as well as affordable and easy access to screening via self-testing at home, is easily implementable, highly scalable, and applicable across various income group countries around the globe.

Infectious diseases continue to pose grave concerns across a spectrum of diseases of global concern. Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV), according to a Lancet report, is a significant global health concern claiming nearly a million lives annually, with an estimated 292million individuals affected worldwide.

Worldwide, more than 170million persons have hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, with a published report by Alter et al indicating that HCV infections account for approximately 30,000 new infections and 8,000-10,000 deaths each year in the United States.

Equally, TB represents one of the top 10 causes of death and the leading cause from a single infectious agent worldwide with a total of 1.5million death recorded in 2018. Nigeria with other seven countries contributes two-third of the global burden.

Also, worldwide estimate of new HIV infection in 2018 was 1.7million, with 21% (about 8.1 million people) out of the approximately 37.9million people infected globally still needing access to HIV testing services.

The increasing novel Coronavirus cases which stands at over 8million affecting 185 of the 197 UN countries remains a concern.

Testing, though identified as an essential gateway to prevention, treatment, and care for many infectious diseases, remains largely inaccessible to many across these various diseases.

Our solution, Skrind, is a mobile app that leverages AI-based visual analysis for self-testing, anchored on the lateral flow immunodiagnostic science methods in rapid test kits to provide qualitative testing for infectious diseases like Hepatitis B, HIV, HCV, TB, Malaria, and also COVID-19, within established regulatory frameworks for testing, and subsequent follow-on care linkages to appropriate healthcare agencies.

Key value propositions include;

- direct, timely and accurate awareness campaigns to the populace leveraging on mobile ubiquity

- easily accessible testing at scale via at home self-testing for early detection

- very affordable first-line testing at markedly reduced cost compared to same rapid testing within four-walls of the laboratory

- In-app auto-referral and linkages to healthcare agencies for prompt follow-on care, prevention and treatment

- real-time surveillance data collation for informed decisions and policy-purpose by relevant healthcare agencies/governments 

Our app users simply order rapid test kits of choice in-store or online, and with the stepwise guide built into the Skrind app or ordered kits leaflet, proceeds to use a finger-prick blood sample, the in-app timer, and subsequently captured test cassettes images to get accurate test results discreetly delivered to them via SMS, based on Skrind’s proprietary AI visual analysis algorithm.

Our solution serves the unaware and at-risk individuals, many of whom are not able to readily pay for screening test for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV, and other preventable transmissible infectious diseases outside of intervention programs or happenchance screening, such as for pregnant women during antenatal visits (the common reasons some get tested for these infectious disease). The poor and average citizen who would not consider a medical checkup are also a target.

With strategies to engage with youths, previous experience and participation in infection testing outreaches will be brought to bear in using advocacy and testing outreaches to drive adoption for discreet self-testing.

Skrind is designed to address the user populace’ needs of readily being able to access infectious diseases screening as close as a rapid test kit at their local pharmacy stores around, and that at fraction of cost and time needed to visit traditional laboratory.

Also, the needs for discreet and confidential testing, particularly among youths and other high-risk groups for many of these infectious diseases, especially the sexually transmissible ones, will be met, just as the increasing desire by users (digitally-oriented millennial and mobile-oriented adult population) to be served where, how, and when they want it. 

No doubt, there exist global threats from both prevailing infectious diseases like HIV, HBV, TB, and emerging ones like Chikungunya, Ebola, and the novel coronavirus. The magnitude of threats by infectious diseases had only escalate with the COVID-19 pandemic. This has, as before, heightens need for greater attention to infectious diseases towards ensuring health security for mankind.

Our AI-powered self-testing approach aptly aligns with the Health Security and Pandemic Challenge as it not only directly propagates awareness to users’ mobile devices, but also scales testing accessibility, inventively leveraging on serological science in rapid kits, mobile and AI visual analysis technologies. 

Our Solution, Skrind, is innovative as it innovatively scales existing science – the immunodiagnostic science in colloidal gold rapid test kits, leveraging on a modern day cutting edge technology – the artificial intelligence, and the wider reach and penetration power of mobile phone technology.

Evidently, the rapid test kits have played a critical role as first-line test tool or panel in leading infectious diseases such as Hepatitis B virus (HBV), HIV, Hepatitis C virus (HCV), etc, prior to a confirmatory enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) or molecular PCR tests; with high level of sensitivity and specificity in the range of 98-100% across many of these rapid kits, except for the novel coronavirus yet to have validated test kit with such a high level of accuracy. Hence, the crucial role of rapid testing kits cannot be over emphasized. Agreeably, there are a number of competitors playing in the direct-to-consumer home testing space, including https://www.everlywell.com/,  https://www.letsgetchecked.com, among others. However, Skrind is unique particularly with regards to our focus on proven scientific, readily accessible, markedly affordable testing kits and our technology application dimension. Away from the norm where some platforms simply provide paper images for interpretation of results, our solution uses machine learning algorithm with its high precision and accuracy to provide accurate test results taking into cognizance other factors such as test timing (too short or too long).

The core technology that powers Skrind to deliver on its mission essentially includes the lateral flow immunodiagnostic science, mobile technology, and artificial intelligence algorithm. These are existing technology combined in inventive development of Skrind.

Anchored on the its merits for being fast, easy to use, usable for triage and provision of actionable results to direct treatment, lateral flow immunodiagnostic science in rapid test kits deployable in our solution seeks to provide large scale screening in tandem with awareness to be created on various infectious diseases of global threat, on-boarded to our app.

Mobile technology and the rapid adoption of smartphones represents an unprecedented transformation in the way consumers access the web and other digital services. The fact is that computing services are now available virtually wherever and whenever users desires them. Mobility indeed has helped initiate ubiquity. This is the true import and impact of the mobile shift Skrind is leveraging to enable deeper population penetrations with critical health intervention as first-line testing is a gateway to detection and/or a more specialized testing as well as follow-on treatment and care.

Similarly, the advent and use of artificial Intelligence in solving problematic healthcare challenges has been widely lauded. This alludes to Skrind’s deployment of image analysis frameworks of AI technology in its solution. Users are able to simply capture the color bands of their rapid test kit cassettes for image analysis and interpretation same way as a professional would interpret same in the lab, if not much more accurately.

While, our solution, Skrind, is innovative in approach, literature is replete with evidence on the application of immunodiagnostic rapid test kits as first-line screening tool for many infectious diseases.

According to W.H.O established guidelines on testing for some of the infectious diseases of global scale, rapid antigen or antibody serological testing kits (HBsAg for Hepatitis B, HCAb for Hepatitis C, and HIV 1/2 rapid antibody kits) plays significant roles as the first line screening/testing while molecular PCR or nucleic acid testing (NAT) for the detection of the Hepatitis B deoxyribonucleic (DNA) or HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) are performed following a positive serological test to establish the diagnosis of HBV or HCV infection.

Similarly, increasing attention is being given to the application of machine learning to image analysis for solutions to a range social problems as well as biological use-cases. Image analysis solutions building on its usability in detecting regions of interest for further analysis in images, labeling or classifying objects in digital images based on one or several object classes, as well as recognizing individual features of an object and classifying it with more precision, all gives credence to the technology behind Skrind.

The ubiquity and penetration of mobile technology cannot equally be overemphasized as shown by its performance in other industry verticals such as in financial inclusive efforts like mobile money.

The challenges with testing accessibility is evident today, and the potential impact of our solution and approach is obvious, as has been shown by the increasing direct-to-consumer testing market.

We believe in a change that follows evolving behavioral tendencies owing to the increasingly digital economy in the world today. 

Over the next 12 months, we have plans to complete our private beta testing, while making our app more robust to deliver on our mission across spectrum of infectious diseases we are solving for. We also plan to engage in several advocacy and marketing campaigns, particularly among in-school undergraduate youths as targeted early adopters, and make efforts to replicate similar efforts in other targeted countries through personal contacts. With this we hope to distribute minimum of 1 million rapid test kits. 

Within our private beta testing that is ongoing, we have done initial 100 testing, and anticipate completing more beta testing soonest, set out on the goal of 1 million within the next one year, as well as work towards 50 million testing at the minimum within the next 5 years.

Our primary goal is to further enhance the robustness of our technology/mobile app solution.

Similarly, we intend to develop and expand to more and more available rapid test kits of market interest.

Also to refine our business and revenue model from a prototype to a scalable, replicable or franchise service, as well as nurture a reputable brand presence to reach new partners and clients.

Critical hurdles we need to overcome going forward with Skrind includes funding to bankroll our OEM rapid kits manufacturing arrangements and other critical market entry and distribution needs, strengthening of our team with key skills, especially tech skills, as well as needed network and partnership for deployment at scale to reach the populace that will markedly benefit from our solution.

We have in place already OEM partnership arrangement, we equally believe we can successfully bring to market ban MVP that can attract to us further investment, skills, and partnership so as to deliver on our set goals. 

Skrind is presently not registered as a business enterprise of itself, althought we have plans for that in the near future. As it stands now, Skrind is an offshoot project being developed and promoted by a team from PreDiagn, with the Founder and CEO, Adekunle as the concept initiator and leader of the project team.

Full-time members include:

- Adekunle Adeluwoye

- Gabriel Omatiga

- Naomi Adeluwoye

- Felix Ayange

Part-time member:

- Bolaji Sanusi

Contractors:

- Sodiq Oladeini

- Joshua Arowolo

- Detola Daniels 

As medical professionals with deep industry knowledge, we are determined
to succeed leveraging on our collective expertise. Our previous experience working together on PreDiagn, an e-health diagnostic platform will also serve as a plus. The above mentioned as factors among us the main project team, we believe will play critical role in our success as.

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