Afraid of the operation? This company has a remedy against it
Adi Arthanareeswaran, Phuc Ho Thi and Manh Tu Vu founded the Leipzig start-up Meindoc to better educate patients before the operation
Those: Meindoc.eu
Pending operations can unsettle patients. A team of doctors from Leipzig wants to provide more information. They have become founders for their individual simulation videos. The first hospitals are already interested.
GPlanned operations can unsettle patients. Not only because doctors often speak in technical jargon, but also because it is difficult to imagine how the operation should go.
Phuc Ho Thi and Adi Arthanareeswaran are also familiar with these problems with the reconnaissance. You are practicing surgeon and recently also founders. Together with Manh Tu Vu they founded Meindoc. A start-up that simulates and visualizes upcoming operations for patients.
If, for example, a kidney stone is due to be removed, Meindoc can show the entire process in a video. For this purpose, the patient’s diagnosis is processed by an artificial intelligence.
The result is checked by a doctor and then made available to the patient as a video. In the video itself, the patient sees the reproduced kidney stone and how it should be removed. Cost: around 30 euros per video for the customer.
“We want our personalized visualizations to relieve patients of fear and give them more confidence and a better understanding of surgical interventions,” says Arthanareeswaran to “Gründerszene”.
This is intended to accelerate the healing process. Even insecure relatives should benefit from it, according to the founder.
Hospitals are interested in Meindoc
Arthanareeswaran was born in India and came to Leipzig about five years ago as a urologist. He had the idea for a visualization of operating theaters back in 2013 and implemented it together with his Vietnamese friend Ho Thi, who also practices in the Leipzig area.
In September 2020 the three of them found the GmbH with a sister company in India. This is where the developers of the AI and app are located.
In addition to the planned operations, the app should later enable patients to find out when, among other things, they have to stay sober, whether medication is being taken or how they can find their way around the ward.
Initially, the three founders wanted to sell their product primarily to patients. But now the demand from hospitals is so great that they want to concentrate more on B2B business with a licensing model.
Some hospitals have already had to be canceled due to capacity reasons. The medical institutions want to make the visualizations available to their patients as an additional service, says Arthanareeswaran. They are currently working with the University Hospital and Sana Kliniken in the Leipziger Land, says Ho Thi.
There is interest from several clinics. “We have initially chosen Wuppertal and Hamburg and are in talks with them,” said the founder. A health insurance company is also interested in the service, says Arthanareeswaran.
Further departments are to follow with the funding
The focus is currently still on the area of urology: bladder tumor, kidney stones, prostate and kidney tumor. In the coming year, other departments such as orthopedics, gynecology and cardiology will be added, according to the organizers.
So far it is bootstapped. “Together we have invested around 300,000 euros each.” Now they are looking for investors. Arthanareeswaran has recently started talks with a potential investor.
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