FastSense Diagnostics: The Next-Gen Technology for Swift and Efficient Care

Today, as technology is making advancements, the world is also progressing with an exponential rate. This advancement has also taken the healthcare space to a different dimension. Yet, there are many diseases and disorders that are untouched by emerging technological advancements.

Currently, it is estimated that approximately 2.3 million people are living with cancer in India. Approximately 12 lakh new patients get registered per year and 8 lakh deaths occurs in a year.

While there are many brilliant minds in the world working towards changing the devastating scenario of current cancer care, very few have been successful in implementing it. One such visionary startup FastSense Diagnostics (FSD) has taken the responsibility to bring the change which the world is looking forward to.

The company is led by three dynamic personalities. Dr. Preeti Nigam Joshi is the Founder of FastSense Diagnostics. While Harish Joshi and Dr. Saildendra Mishra are the Co-founders of the company. The reason behind the genesis of FastSense was when Preeti’s mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Growing with the Company’s Vision

It is known that most of the times lives are lost to late diagnosis of diseases when no treatment is possible. At FastSense Diagnostics the primary focus is to develop portable, easy to use, early-stage detection devices and models for complex diseases. It focuses specifically on deep tissue cancers and neonatal sepsis as these are the untouched segments but deeply affecting many lives.

Dr. Preeti says, “Our company is driven by the vision of affordable healthcare for all and the ability to develop the indigenous technologies to bring the cost down and take the benefits of scientific advancements to the last man in society.

Revolutionary Products

FastSense is targeting to build point of care devices for early detection of fatal diseases, drug delivery systems for deep tissue cancers and AI-based modules for disease prediction. The company majorly focuses on complex diseases segment including cancers (liver, pancreatic, GI tract, oral, lung), neonatal sepsis, Alzheimer’s, etc.

Their premium product L-Sens which would be hitting the market soon is a handy device for diagnosis liver cancer (Hepatocellular Carcinoma). The advantage of the system is that it can be used to screen a large population prone to liver cancer.

The next product in the line is Sepsis-S for neonatal sepsis. According to Preeti, in an estimate, India alone reported sepsis cases in 17,000/1,00,000 live births and that data itself shows the gravity of the situation. These cases are comparatively high in the rural parts of the country.

“Currently, there is no portable detection method available to identify the cases timely and we are filling the gap by our kit “Sepsis-S”. It’s a state-of-the-art minimally invasive device to identify sepsis onset within 72 hrs. Our products are compatible with smartphones so data can be easily transferred to doctors and healthcare providers to get a timely assessment in critical cases like sepsis,” expresses Dr. Preeti.

Overcoming the Challenges

As a startup, there are many obstacles that a company has to face. The challenges increased when it came to fundraising for FastSense. Being a non-IT startup, all these obstacles seemed more challenging. Nevertheless, the company, through its innovative thinking and goodwill, received funding.

Dr. Preeti mentions, “The biggest problem with technology start-ups (in non-IT domains especially in health tech) is fundraising as many times the product development takes a long time from 3-10 years for medical devices to come into the market and to sustain during such long duration is a big challenge. Although government policies are creating a positive environment for start-ups still it’s a long way to solve all problems that startups face.”

Recently, FastSense has received the Bio Ignition Grant and NIDHI Prayas award by the Department of Biotechnology – BIRAC, Government of India. Apart from this, the company made a special news appearance in BioVoice under “Special Startup Series: Affordable diagnostic kits for early-stage cancer detection.

Creating a Mark on the Society

In the current times, it is necessary to develop oneself while taking each other along. Intermixing of different fields of expertise has been proven beneficial. Dr. Preeti herself has a background in biotechnology but she now works in the field of nanotechnology.

Preeti mentions, “We believe the future to be bright as our products have got good responses among experts and clinical validation are on and we are confident of hitting the market at earliest. We will continue to strive for developing products that are in sync with our vision of affordable healthcare. We are developing different in-house facilities and gradually working on team building to bring likeminded people under the umbrella of FastSense so that we could sail full throttle to bring new products and technologies for all.”

In the forthcoming years, a combination of numerous information technology like AI, ML, 5G, computing efficiency and chemical sciences will help tackle problems that were otherwise not easy to crack to date. It will further be possible to interlink telemedicine, remote surgery, personalized or customized treatment regime. This will ultimately turn the tables around as the medical healthcare will become distinctly affordable.