AUTOMATING THE MIRACLE OF HEALING 

SYNAPSICA is revolutionizing radiology with the power of AI, thereby ushering diagnosis and outcomes to unchartered new peaks. 

MEET BRAND SYNAPSICA  

It was CEO Meenakshi Singh - IIM grad, corporate leader (Goldman Sachs, Manhattan Associates, Google) and an active mind tinkering in the intersection of human and artificial intelligence - who brought a team of change-makers to transform the way Radiology reporting is done and the way patients are treated. The result, was Synapsica. Today, the organization empowers radiologists in introducing objectiveness and transparency to diagnostic reports, thereby measurably influencing the diagnosis cycle, and vastly elevating end outcomes.

FROM THE CEO’S DESK

“With our AI engine SpindleX, which evaluates ligament injuries in stress X-rays of the spine, we've been able to achieve full automation and radiologists need only to review AI findings and click a button to create the entire report automatically. Our AI engine, Spindle looks at MRI scans of the spine to give qualitative and quantitative descriptions of degenerative changes and creates semi-automated reports.” - Meenakshi, CEO

THE DISRUPTION 

The Synapsica team has created an AI-first PACS and radiology workflow solution that is fast, secure and automates reporting tasks seamlessly, helping radiologists generate high-quality reports quicker. Synapsica automates the clinical and back-office processes of Radiology reporting using AI. These automations take away mundane clinical reporting tasks from Radiologists with computer vision, help Imaging Centers improve their business margins with data-driven decision, and significantly improve accuracy and objectivity in patient reports for better clinical outcomes.

SPOTTING A NEED GAP…

India has 8 radiologists per million population, where the estimated average required to provide radiology services to all is closer to 80 radiologists per million. Several patients are suggested clinical management without a proper diagnosis. Even when the clinician asks for establishing diagnostic evidence, in the absence of a sufficient number of expert radiologists, under-diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and diagnosis created by unqualified personnel is fairly common. 

…AND ADDRESSING IT POWERFULLY

The big idea behind Synapsica is to fill this gap. The team - ruddered by the vision-first leadership of Meenakshi Singh - is taking the menial and mundane ‘chores’ out of the equation by automating them, allowing radiologists, for the first time, the space and time they need to take considered decisions and create higher quality output. Steadily and surely, the team is taking the industry benchmark to the next level - both in terms of quality and quantity. 

AN INDUSTRY REDEFINING PRODUCT-LINE. . 

RADIOLens

This is Synapsica’s AI-first radiology workflow automation solution. Unlike traditional workflow systems, which were developed before AI algorithms became popular, Radiolens is unique in its ability to use AI-generated information right at the time of image capture and apply it to various aspects of workflow even before the case reaches a radiologist. It not only automates clinical reading, triaging and allied activities, but also supports interactive report generation through AI - thus facilitating and accelerating back-office and administrative tasks to truly integrate the power of AI in the value chain.

SpindleX

This is the first algorithm globally to provide fully automated reporting for x-rays of the spine. This is a broad-based product covering a wide range of traumatic injuries in spinal ligaments and allows radiologists to create reports with a click of a single button. 

Spindle

This is the first algorithm globally to automatically report variations in spinal measurements due to trauma, disease or degenerative (age-related) pathologies in MRI scans of the spine. Degenerative changes are present in most MRI spine scans, and hence Spindle adds value to a significant portion of clinical reporting workload.

AN ANALYTICAL DEEP-DIVE INTO SYNAPSICA’S JOURNEY  

Meenakshi Singh takes us through a slightly more detailed ‘tour’ of the journey, the space, and the horizons ahead…

“Before Synapsica, case management decisions required several human interventions, case allocation decisions were not data-based and Radiologists would look for diagnosis and type down the entire report without assistance.
The medical imaging business is facing a significant shortage of radiologists. There are over 50k imaging businesses in India operating with less than 10k radiologists. The shortage of specialists is amplified with acute shortages viz. doctors on vacation, leaves, variability of businesses, etc. Due to this, the cost of good quality specialist talent to Imaging businesses is often high and unoptimized, which puts pressure on already thin margins for small to midsize practices.

At Synapsica we have clinical decision support algorithms that automate reporting tasks allowing the existing pool of radiologists to process more patient cases and with better quality reporting. Over the next couple of years, we will be able to automate 60% of all clinical radiology reporting. These are generally mundane reporting tasks that radiologists need to do in their regular workday. This would free up Radiologists’ time to focus on clinical correlations; hard to diagnose cases, and improve reporting accuracy by avoiding fatigue. 

Diagnostic centers would be able to run their businesses with a much smaller technical team and with fewer coordinators. We are already enabling centers in tier-2/3 cities to run their business without any in-house tech personnel.” - Meenakshi Singh, CEO, Synapsica

IMPACTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS 

Synapsica has launched an entire swath of unique AI products for MRI Spine (Spindle) and for X-ray Spine (SpindleX) in the record time of 15 months.

RADIOLens, an AI-powered PACS, is being used by 500+ sites and handles the flow of nearly 800,000+ cases annually, providing real-time performance dashboards in different formats. 

The team is currently present in several geographies across Asia, the US, and Africa. In the next couple of years, the plan is to further expand in the US and Africa while simultaneously building a customer base in the UK, Australia, and Dubai.

BRAND PERSONALITY 

CORE VALUES 

- Empathy: Sensitivity towards both co-workers and patrons.

- Technology-first: The power of AI is being democratized by implementing it in all internal and external tasks.

- Responsibility and accountability: The team prides in taking complete ownership of everything it does. 

- Commitment to work: A robust ethic of honest and dedicated work - where folks are inspired to punch above their weight and take leaps into the unknown - drives the collective spirit. 

- D&I: The team champions a diversity-first and people-driven culture policy. Every employee has an equal opportunity to rise, and an equal stage to shine. 

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK 

The Synapsica phenomenon is, really, all about collective conviction. The team is truly at the centre of the transformative odyssey the company is engineering, and the CEO unhesitatingly turns the spotlight of credit where it’s due… 

“When a Diagnostic Center or a radiologist is struggling with an issue, either in our system or tangential, it is not just our sales and support teams that get involved, but even our tech leads and the senior management come together to solve the problem. Our team makes sure that every client knows that we care about their business and are with them every step of the way. 

We have an amazing team that truly cares about improving healthcare. We encourage crosstalk among different teams to bring out ideas. Many of our non-obvious approaches to solving problems have come up over chai/ ice cream breaks.” - Meenakshi, CEO

IMPACT AND LEGACY

The team is busy creating its own ‘ding’ in the healthcare universe (to borrow a phrase from Apple’s iconic leader, Steve Jobs), and has no time to count the feathers that are being steadily added to its cap. That said, there is little doubt that Synapsica is leaving prominent footprints on the healthcare terrain, and will be defined by future generations as the pioneers who cared, and dared, enough to make a difference.  

“We want to ensure that good radiology healthcare access is available to each and every person even in the remotest areas of the world. We are building an ecosystem wherein the lack of radiologists per million people can be supported by the technological advancements in radiology processes and workflows so it becomes easier and quicker to report with better accuracy and easy access to specialists for better decision support anywhere”, says Meenakshi with inspiring candor, capturing the outlines of the legacy the Team Synapsica is building. 

RECOGNITION AND AWARDS

-    "Best AI-enhanced Radiology Workflow Solution Provider 2021" by Corporate Vision. Link

-    42 Top Indian Predictive Analytics Companies and Startups of 2021 Link 

-    101 Most Innovative India Based Artificial Intelligence Companies Link

-    Top 10 startups in the first cohort by AI4Biz Link

BRAND LEADERSHIP: A brief profile

Meenakshi (CEO, IIM Ahmedabad)

Meenakshi possesses a powerful track record of implementing technology-led change in multiple businesses. In her last role as Vice President at Goldman Sachs, she built and led a global team that introduced new tech stacks to build machine learning models using quantitative finance and stochastic calculus to detect fraud in complex derivatives (Barrier options, CDS, commodities, etc.) in the US/UK/Singapore market.

Kuldeep (CTO, IIT Kharagpur) - Kuldeep (CTO, IIT Kharagpur)

In his last role as Vice President at Goldman Sachs, was leading a global team building compliance analytics software leveraging Big Data technologies, processing over 20TB data daily. He has expertise in artificial intelligence and building scalable system architectures that can process large volumes of data without performance downside.

Dr. Cherian (COO, MBBS, AIIMS, New Delhi)

Proven Leader, having established and run multiple teams with Customer focus, in his last role as Vice President at Zolostays. Cherian led pan-India operations with a team of 120 and established business in multiple new geographies, looking after the hospitality of 7000 customers and close to 25 Cr of revenue.

WHATS’ NEXT? 

Future milestones…

- Raising the number of cases from 2 million to 5 million.

- Elevating the number of AI algorithms from 3 to 6 in 24 months.

- Multiplying the number of imaging businesses to 3,000.

- Increasing the number of associated radiologists to 2,000.

- No. of Research / Publications = 15

Events coming up…

- The team expects FDA 510(k) clearance for SpindleX, the product designed for fully automated reporting in motion x-rays of the spine within 6 months.

- The launch of automated reporting of degenerative pathologies in MRI Spine is being planned in the next 6 months.

- The team has secured ‘Pilot confirmation’ from Australia's largest Radiology chain : The agreement is expected to happen within the next couple of months.

- Several other late-stage proposed pilots are lined up for NHS Trust hospital, and the largest Radiology chain in the US.

 - Plans are on to open an office in the US over the next 3 quarters.

*This story is published by VOH team.*