Singapore health tech startup develops ‘digital twin’ to manage chronic diseases

SSingapore-based digital health startup Mesh Bio said Wednesday it has raised $3.5 million in a Series A funding round led by East Ventures, as investors tap into the growing market for high-tech solutions for chronic diseases across Southeast Asia. Announced.

Participating in the round were returning investors Elev8, a Singapore-based deep tech focused VC firm, and SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore. The six-year-old startup’s Series A builds on a $1.8 million seed funding round in 2021. Mesh Bio declined to disclose the total amount of funding raised and its current valuation.

“With the advent of microprocessors and advancements in wearable sensors, this huge amount of data is being collected from our lifestyles and devices. All of this data is actually stored in silos. ” said Willson Cuaca, co-founder and managing partner of East. Ventures said in a phone interview. “Mesh Bio will be a platform that will allow us to better connect our medical records with all these lifestyle records.”

The new funding will go into Mesh Bio’s digital twin technology, which generates a virtual model, or “twin,” of a patient’s health based on data. Mesh Bio plans to offer its digital twin technology to healthcare providers in Singapore while expanding into Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines, the company said.

For Quaca, the impact of Mesh Bio’s digital twin technology is far-reaching. “Digital twins do more than just connect the physical health care system,” he says. “In my opinion, that would twin the whole world.”

Founded in 2018, Mesh Bio applies predictive analytics to multidimensional patient data spanning blood test records, heart rate, height, weight, and other metrics to personalize treatment for chronic diseases. . The company claims its software will help doctors better prescribe precision medicine for chronic metabolic diseases such as diabetes.

“We have developed a software platform that works with digital twin software and medical devices to accompany patients along their journey from primary prevention and health screenings to chronic disease management,” said Mesh Bio co-founder and CEO. CEO Andrew Wu said. Video interview.

In October last year, the startup received regulatory approval from the Singapore Health Sciences Authority to sell its digital twin software, HealthVector Diabetes, as software as a medical device. Trial use of HealthVector Diabetes is underway in several hospitals and clinics in Singapore, the startup said.

While Mesh Bio’s DARA platform will start by targeting primary prevention, such as health screenings and health screenings, Wu said the startup’s digital twin technology will then move into “secondary prevention,” which reduces disease complications. claims to support. For example, by evaluating real-time data on a type 2 diabetic patient with HealthVector Diabetes, healthcare professionals can determine whether the patient is at risk of developing chronic kidney disease within her three years. “This is where the opportunity and value of digital twins is created,” says Wu, who earned his Ph.D. He holds a PhD in biochemical engineering from University College London.

Still, healthcare providers may be reluctant to adopt new systems that handle sensitive patient data. Wu added that one of the key challenges the company has overcome is gaining “provider trust” in digital transformation using predictive analytics. To ensure the quality of the data collected, Mesh Bio says it offers software tools that can be directly integrated (via API) with healthcare providers’ electronic health records.

Non-communicable diseases such as chronic respiratory diseases and heart disease caused nearly two-thirds of deaths in Southeast Asia in 2021, according to an academic review published in . lancet Last October. The World Health Organization said preventive measures such as hypertension, diabetes management and cervical cancer screening need to be “scaled up” in its 2023 roadmap to combat non-communicable diseases in Southeast Asia. .

Other Asian startups are also targeting chronic diseases. ChromX health, which was named to Forbes magazine’s “Asia 100 to Watch” list last year, develops bedside testing devices that it claims can screen and diagnose various chronic diseases, including lung cancer, from breath. Another winner, Hong Kong-based Gense Technologies, has developed a medical imaging device and accompanying app that can monitor chronic diseases that affect vital organs.

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