Could you please give a brief introduction about American Megatrends India Pvt Ltd and its business in healthcare solutions?

American Megatrends India Pvt Ltd (AMI) is a leader in high-tech engineering and computing innovations worldwide. AMI has more than 200 patents awarded globally on innovative engineering solutions and AMI products are shipping in more than half a billion of computers in the world today. AMI are specialty leaders in embedded services, BIOS customization and porting, mobility solutions, IP SAN/NAS Data storage solutions, Infrastructure Asset Management, Telematics Solutions, Knowledge Management System, Healthcare IT solutions, Platform Validation Services and Android Services.

At AMI, we promote 'Prevention is better than Cure' and we firmly believe in it. Our healthcare products and services are designed to bring awareness of individual's health to palm of their hands. Our lifestyle products AMI B.O.L.T and AMI VitalsFit are designed to address these requirements by supporting individuals to measure the key health parameters in comfort of their homes. The ability to maintain trends and share the health records instantaneously with quality healthcare providers makes our solution unique and first of its kind.

AMI's VitalsFit is the only Indian entrant for the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, which is quite an accomplishment. How was this planned and achieved?

Even before we came to know of this competition, AMI had an internal team working on a solution similar to this to meet the key supply-demand challenges of the current healthcare system. Currently, telemedicine systems are restricted to video conferencing facility between patients and care givers. It does not address the importance of sharing key health parameters with care providers. Also, the healthcare is more oriented towards cure and symptom-based diagnosis than prevention.

In today's scenario many of the individuals do not know that they have a chronic condition, till the condition develops into a disease or organ damage. Many souls have departed us with out knowing what has happened to their health in their primes. We wanted to put a stop to this and find a solution for it.

Hence, we felt the need of developing quality healthcare devices that could be a 'lifetime companion' and could be used by any individual to know the status of their health and share it with care givers for affordable, reliable and quality healthcare.
We came to know of XPrize competition through Linked-in. Once we knew that Xprize is involved, we got the affirmation that we are on the right track and got ourselves enrolled into the competition. We believe the success we achieved so far is because of the conviction we have as a team that we could do something to better the healthcare system and bring quality care to individuals to live their life to fullest without compromises made.

Do you believe that your product can beat 9 other competitors and win the XPRIZE in 2016?

As stated earlier, we didn't join the competition to beat the other competitors. Our intention is to change the healthcare system from 'Cure and Symptom' based to 'Prevention'. Involvement with XPrize helps us to accomplish this mission. All the top ten finalists are working hard to bring a positive change to this field. For us, the success is marked by the day when we have positively impacted the healthcare system and increased the life span of and individual at least by a day with healthy and happy life.

AMI is working on portable life companion healthcare gadgets. Could you elaborate on how such gadgets can change the trend in future healthcare management?

Today, we go see a healthcare professional when we get sick. By the time we consult a healthcare professional, the sickness would have gone worse because of chronic conditions. Chronic conditions like hypertension, blood sugar, cancer and many others don't show any symptoms. They are known as 'Silent Killers' as their presence is not signified by any symptoms until the time the complications have reached to the level of organ failure.

To detect the susceptibility to chronic conditions, one should regular monitor their vitals like BP, Blood Sugar, SPO2, Respiration rate and others, to check whether they are within the optimal range. If consistent abnormality is detected, once should immediately consult a qualified caregiver to bring health back on track. Many of the chronic conditions could be avoided by making small changes to lifestyle habits.
Our portable gadgets are aimed to be a lifestyle companion that would help individuals to keep track of their health. Our health tracker would help individuals to record their key vitals regularly in the comfort of their homes. With trend data, it could analyze the susceptibility to chronic conditions and let the individuals on the health status to take informed decisions. The goal of our healthcare solutions is to put the control of the health in individual's hands.

What would be your GO TO market strategy for the product after complete development?

To have a quality healthcare system both individuals and experts should have access to health data with the consent of the individual for better care. Hence, our solution links individuals with caregivers and professionals for preventive, quality and affordable healthcare. We are partnering with several healthcare providers across the globe to have our product available as a packaged healthcare solution with caregiver's integrated services. Many of our products would be white-labeled with caregivers' brand and their integrated services.

What is your take about mobility solutions in healthcare and how do you perceive its future especially in India?

India has close to 800 million living in rural areas compared to only 400 million in urban. The doctor to patient ratio is way skewed and availability of specialists and quality care providers are limited. Interestingly, mobile penetration in India is very high and it is across the country. Slowly smartphone penetration is also increasing. With Government initiatives of fiber-connectivity across villages is going to help India digitally connected and aid digital revolution. Hence, connectivity and reach would become a mute issue. However, the last mile of collecting the right data and sharing with the quality care providers would become the need of the day.

Definitely, mobility is the way to go and it is the inexpensive way to provide quality healthcare. Today, a mobile comes with all the elements required for audio/visual communication and transmission. Companion portable devices like AMI B.O.L.T and AMI VitalsFit extends the value of the smartphone by taking the quality healthcare to doorsteps of the individuals. The health parameters are not only accurately collected but it is instantaneously transmitted to the caregiver for quality care.

What would be the revenue generated by AMI's healthcare business?

The estimated medical devices market in India is around $3bn and is growing at CAGR of 15%. We are expecting a decent share of the market over the years.

Are there any plans to collaborate with other healthcare IT companies?

Yes, we do. We are partnering with key healthcare providers and many of our products would be integrated with their services and to be made available in the market.