Anupam Lavania

50 million people suffer from traumatic brain injury every year in the world. Around 60% of them never return to normal life not because of lack of treatment but because of delay in detection. CT scan is the only way to diagnose hemorrhages at present but it’s huge costs, non portability and exposure to high energy radiation limits its application in screening masses for detecting hemorrhages on site. To solve problem, Bioscan Research has developed Cerebo® , a fast, handy, non invasive brain hemorrhage detector that can detect an intracranial bleed within 2 minutes.
It can be operated by even unskilled personnel. interpretation. Since it is non-invasive, based on NIR Spectroscopy, it can be used multiple times without causing any harm to the patient. Such a device when deployed in trauma centres, emergency departments and ambulances will save the lives of millions of patients whose brain injuries go undiagnosed today.

More than 50 million suffer from traumatic brain injury each year and 50%-90% of patients with mild traumatic brain injury go unidentified or undiagnosed. No one purposely leaves a traumatic brain injury untreated. Unfortunately, it is hard to diagnose symptoms in the beginning and know what symptoms the patients may suffer. Also many of the symptoms with traumatic brain injury can be misdiagnosed for other symptoms. Compounding this problem is another factor, that CT scan is the only way to diagnose hemorrhage at present but it’s huge costs, non portability and exposure to high energy radiation limits its application in screening masses for detecting these hemorrhages on the site. This delays the detection, and hence the treatment. That is why traumatic brain injury is associated with a very mortality and disability rate. WHO predicts that TBI will be the leading cause of disability in the world by 2020.

Our solution, Cerebo®, is a fast, portable, non invasive brain hemorrhage detector that can detect an intracranial bleed within 2 minutes in traumatic brain injury patients. It will detect the intracranial bleed at very early stages among the patients of traumatic brain injury like bike riders, sportsmen, children (likely to hurt themselves during play), elderly people, disaster hit population to name some. Cerebo will be very beneficial in remotely located areas where access to CT scan or MRI imaging is not adequately available.

CEREBO®'s novel application of near infrared spectroscopy makes it possible to detect intracranial hemorrhage non invasively. It is an established science that correlates optical density of near infrared light with hemoglobin concentration.
The advanced mathematics based algorithm eliminates the need of expert data interpretation. Hence the algorithm makes it usable by a common man with minimal usage training.
The self calibration, intuitive user interface makes the device very easy to use.
The miniaturized hardware is designed to bridge the limitations of traditional tools that are bulky, expensive, need much greater infrastructure support like air conditioning to provide point-of-care detection that will assist in triaging suspected TBI patients in military, sports, emergency or urgent care environments both in India and internationally

Every minute, more than 50 people are either dying or becoming disabled in the world due to traumatic brain Injury. With Cerebo, we would impact close to 3500 lives per hour. A large proportion of these people are in their most productive age of 25-40 years & more often, sole bread earner of the family. Assuming a four-person dependency, the device would impact the livelihood of more than 13000 people per hour.

Our device can be utilized through first response sites including trauma centres, emergency departments in hospitals, ambulance networks, evacuation vehicles, general physicians or independent clinics, defence, schools, sports academies and retirement homes.

Currently, CT Scans are used to detect brain hemorrhages even for screening. This requires the patient to visit the centre. These scans are unaffordable and exposes the patient to harmful radiation and require medically trained professionals to interpret the scan.

Our solution- Cerebo, is a hand held device that can be carried on the site of the incident and can be used by a layman with just 10 minutes of training. Also it displays results instantaneously. The solution is designed according to ergonomic requirements and has been tested for the same.

Research shows that victims of road accidents, falls, violence or natural calamities may sustain traumatic brain injury (TBI), leading to disruption in the normal functioning of the brain. In India, nearly 2.5 million people are injured annually, 100,000 die due to TBI .As predicted by WHO to surpass several diseases as a major cause of death and disability by 2020. Timely detection of intracranial bleeding can significantly reduce the burden of TBIs. However, lack of availability of CT/MRI scans limits fast screening onsite.Our solution will equip communities by being ready for detecting hemorrhages within ‘golden hour’.

As we have automated the calibration, emission, detection and analysis of the signal used o the device so that has made the device user friendly and fast. This has eventually led to following benefits as compared to the existing Gold standard for detection of brain hemorrhages i.e CT Scan.

Fast detection: Takes <2 min to scan the head and indicate the presence or absence of hematoma 

Periodic screening without any side effects: The radiation used is non-ionizing and the power density is so low that multiple scans be done without any side effects 

Operating ease: The product is intuitive to use. With minimal training, any volunteer (from villages or small towns) could be trained to use it 

Portable: Since it is battery operated, the device would be easily carried around 

Fully computerized: The device does not require any result interpretation, so it can be utilized by common men to test one another 

Affordable for mass adoption: The evolution and availability of laser diodes and integrated circuits at an affordable price has made it possible to make these devices for masses

The optical method used for neuromonitoring are based on emission of near-infrared light (NIR) at the surface of the head and detection of remitted light at a distance of a several centimeters. The emitted light undergoes two main processes: scattering and absorption. The strong scattering and good transparency of tissue layers of the head for NIR light result in sufficient reemission of photons back to the surface to allow for detection of photons that penetrated the brain cortex. The absorption is mainly associated with the interaction of photons with substances inside the brain and are agood indicator of presence of hemorrhage. Application :Our device is based on Near Infrared Spectroscopy, where a light beam shines on head surface. Some of this light goes beneath the surface and is reflected back. This reflected signal is then captured and analysed to see what it interacted with. 

In order to achieve this, various configurations of optomechanical assemblies and also a disposable cap is designed. Optomechanical assemblies are mainly focussed on maximising the efficient transmission and detection of light.

Additionally, a cap is designed for preventing any transmission of contagious diseases. This cap is disposable and has to be used only once as it comes in direct contact with the patient’s skin.

Social Impact: Every minute, 57 people are either dying or becoming disabled in the world due to traumatic brain Injury. If we diagnose the injury early through Cerebo, we would impact 3424 lives per hour. A large proportion of these people are in their most productive age and many a time, sole bread earner of the family. Assuming a four-person dependency, the device would impact the livelihood of more than 13000 people per hour. In India alone, we would impact 180 lives per hour directly and 720 lives indirectly whose livelihood is challenged because of the victim's injury.

Employment: we would create jobs for hundreds of engineers and doctors for development of these devices. We would give thousands of jobs to the unkilled people by training them to operate these devices in remote and rural India. Also, many jobs would be created for sub parts supplier.

Society: Every minute, 57 people are either dying or becoming disabled in the world due to traumatic brain Injury. If we diagnose the injury early through Cerebo, we would impact 3424 lives per hour. A large proportion of these people are in their most productive age and many a time, sole bread earner of the family. Assuming a four-person dependency, the device would impact the livelihood of more than 13000 people per hour.

Environment: Usage of our device would reduce radiation generated by CT scan machines. The indirect impact includes reduction in the electricity consumption in usage of CT scan/MRI machines. CT scan machines consume 700w to 1900w in low power mode and between 2.3 to 6.25 kw in stand by power mode and power consumed by air conditioners. Whereas, our device does not need any air conditioning and the power needed per scan is in the range of .01w which is negligible as compared to CT scans.

The solution is currently deployed in one hospital where we have scanned more than 50 patients, and in next four months, it will be deployed in three more hospitals. In the coming year, we plan to serve 100 sites and scan more than 1 million people. In five years, we plan to serve 100,000 sites and serve more than 10 million people every year.

The solution is currently deployed in one hospital where we have scanned more than 50 patients, and in next four months, it will be deployed in three more hospitals. In the coming year, we plan to serve 100 sites and scan more than 1 million people. In five years, we plan to serve 100,000 sites and serve more than 10 million people every year.

Also, we have developed some development tools that will help photonics researchers to design solutions for humans. We plan to serve more than 1000 researchers and professionals in first year and more than 100,000 within five years. These tools will help the researchers to bring their solutions to market faster. 

Barriers that exist for us to accomplish our goals are sufficient funds to support operations, recruitment of right team members as we scale, timely regulatory compliance that aids in commercialization and identification of right partners for distribution and support.

For funds, we are planning to raise capital through a combination of equity, awards, grants and revenue from sales. For recruitment of right team members, we are consulting our advisors. For timely regulatory compliance, we have identified the main inflection points and are working towards them with professionals who have vast experience in respective geographies. For commercialization partners, we are currently working with those who have shown interest in our solution. However in the future, we plan to devise a qualification criteria and shortlist potential partners who satisfy those criteria. 

Full time staff - 7

Part-time staff - 5 

Contractors- 3

Our team includes people from scientific, commercialization and financial background. The team is led by two co-founders - Shilpa Malik and Anupam Lavania. Shilpa is a former scientist from Defense R&D in India and who has vast experience in military sensor system design and development. Anupam is a technopreneur with a decade experience in new venture development and technology commercialization.

1. We have partnered with IIT Kanpur to deploy the devices among the underprivileged

2. We have partnered with India’s leading hospitals to pilot the solution in trauma centres.

Our business model is pay per use where the customer pays a small amount in the beginning and then pay as they use. We have three sources of revenue from Sale of Products, Sale of consumables, revenue from AMC contracts

For financial sustainability, we will be raising capital through a combination of equity, awards, grants and revenue from sales of product and services. 

Referring to the question about barriers above, 

• Solve can get us access to intellectual capital - Solve can help us in Collaborations with tech partners in optics, electronics and AI) departments of universities for R & D activities and development of various innovative devices,  hospital/medical facilities and government agencies that will give us access for early testing and pilots.

• Solve can also help us secure grants that will enable us to reach the profit stage.

• Solve AI tools to improve the quality of analysis

Since our flagship product is ready. We are planning to work with scientific people to further develop solutions for targeted geography and population. For this, we need guidance on legal structuring, Intellectual property management and regulatory compliances. Also, we would like to work with people who have commercialized medical technology earlier via distribution and licensing to expand the reach of our product.

We would like to partner with the MIT photonics and bioengineering team to develop more devices based on our core technology. Also, we would like to partner with an MIT affiliated hospital to do a pilot trial in the US. We would like to work with Solve Members to deploy the solution in Africa.