TECH-ING BETTER DECISIONS

Founder of Strides Software Solutions Denesh Mutha is mining technology to evangelize good practice and eliminate cognitive bias from the blood transfusion lifecycle.

MEET THE LEADER

Denesh Mutha is the founder of Strides Software Solutions. Strides is a Health Tech company providing integrated IT Solutions for transfusion medicine and Tissue Banks using latest tech tools and technology to help eliminate cognitive bias based decision making from healthcare and help assist in patient safety and fast recovery. Things the folks at Strides are excited about are the future of tissue banks, Biopreservation and BioBanking and the important role of information technology in it. Strides carries deep expertise in conceptualising , designing, developing and deploying technology solutions that address multiple pain points in Healthcare, CRM and Retail.

THE PERSONA 

We begin the session in introspective mode. How would Denesh Mutha describe his professional and personal profile briefly for our readers? Denesh obliges…

“I am Denesh Mutha, a BE+MBA with over 21 years of exposure to technology and product design. I am the Founder of Strides Software Solutions Pvt ltd. Through its innovative technology products, Strides is working on eliminating errors from the blood transfusion lifecycle and in turn enabling safe, effective and efficient blood transfusion services. Actively started in 2015, Strides is currently working with 265+ Hospitals and Blood centers across India enabling 3.5 Mln blood components and screening 2 Mln Blood donors annually”.

FILLING A LACUNA

“Our solution “Safetrans” tracks, records and acts at each stage of the blood transfusion cycle to support good transfusion practice and eliminate cognitive process based bias errors from blood transfusion lifecycle”, says Denesh, capturing the USP of his brainchild. 

THE BIG IDEA

So what is the one big idea, concept or philosophy that defines and drives Denesh? We turn the spotlight on the force that drives the man, and the idea leader divulges spontaneously..

“Everyone makes mistakes. But our reliance on cognitive processes prone to bias makes laboratory and transfusion errors more likely than we think. I believe building technology products with decision trees / rule engines aligned with work flows are key to eliminate assumption-based thinking from critical processes across sectors especially healthcare. This has been the key driving philosophy in my approach as well as the approach at Strides.

THE BUILD-UP

We coax Mr Mutha to share some snippets from the key moments of his journey. What were the A-HA! Moments and inflection points? Denesh gladly turns the clock back for us… 

“In early 2010, one of my close friend was admitted to hospital for illness. He was prescribed blood transfusion cause of anemia. What appeared to be a normal treatment suddenly became ugly as his health deteriorated after transfusion. He had a major transfusion reaction and succumbed to it in just 24 hrs. This was a big shock for us and me being a regular O-ve donor, couldn’t understand how such things can ever happen. This lead me to study the entire blood transfusion flow to understand the challenge. I realized that the human body is one of the most complex systems and so is Blood transfusion.

•    Multiple Flows, Rules, Regulation and Norms are involved into it.
•    Result outcomes are based on multiple parameters at various stages.
•    It was clear that serious, potentially fatal, issues exist at each step of transfusion process due to the ‘human factor’.

STRIDES: THE TIMELY DISRUPTION

Denesh Mutha continues tracing the evolutionary progress of his odyssey…

“That was the starting point of the Journey of Strides wherein after searching for quite a few blood transfusion lifecycle solutions to enable safe blood, I finally decided to build one on my own as a side project and latter turned into my full-time work.

After almost 3 pivots and 4 products, we have till time screened approx 70 lac donors, identified 1.75 lac ineligible donors and prevented them from donating blood, identified 5 lac + near missed events, enabled 100 lac+ component issued through our platform and inturn saved 25K+ lives.”

THE NEXT A-HA MOMENT!

What are the milestones up ahead for Team Strides? What is the one big goal or problem – if any – that this idea champion wants to solve in the future? Denesh takes us a few paces into the future…

“Diagnostics is the first step of patient treatment. The Doctors are dependent on diagnosis test results to determine the cause of patient health problem and accordingly define the course of treatment plan. However there are quite a few concerns in the accuracy of diagnostic results and traceability of the same.  Moreover there is lot of data which can be used for predictions and preventive healthcare. Technology has a key role to address this concerns and bring traceability in the diagnostics which will ensure accurate results, efficient working and proper treatment. I want to build technology solutions using AI/ML/CV to help in accurate diagnosis, predictive models to help achieve proactive healthcare.”

ABOUT VOH

An enriching and insightful session has run its time, and as wish Devesh the very best for his onward quests, we request him to share a slice of his mind on the Voice of Healthcare initiative. How, for instance, can tribute profiles such as Idea Leaders add important to add direction, inspiration and positive energy to the healthcare community? The passionate change-champion signs off with a generous quip…

“Healthcare is one of the most critical aspects of mankind facing frequent challenges. For healthcare individuals and communities to move ahead, get direction and be inspired to address the ever changing challenges, require knowledge and information on things happening in healthcare across different specialities and regions. VOH helps get invaluable information in a manner which is easy for healthcare professionals and community members to learn and connect the dots and work towards transforming this industry which is the crux of mankind. I thank VOH for such an amazing contribution to the healthcare industry and becoming the first choice of knowledge and information.”

*This story is published by VOH team.*