That technology is helping professionals in the medical sector to make a leap forward is undeniable. Almost every day we hear about some new application or tool that helps patients to better monitor their disorders, a new type of test developed thanks to advances or news about impossible operations done by robots. However, it is all focused on the patient, but shouldn't doctors also expect improvements to their working environment? To remedy this, four entrepreneurs have created a platform called Iomed, complementary software for doctors that allows them take a much faster reading of a person's medical record.
More time for the patient, less with the computer
"When it comes to working with data, doctors are used to writing out everything in plain text, the usual text on Word. And when another doctor has to see the patient, they have to read a pile of records from their colleagues to get a good idea, a process that is too long and burdensome." That is the experience of Gabriel de Maeztu, a doctor by profession, when he began practising.
His answer was to create, along with three other partners, a new programme that fills the gaps in the tools used by doctors. "Iomed is an assistant that allows you to make a report on the patient quickly," he says, "it structures the data while the doctor is writing in a way that it identifies that 'pain' is a symptom; 'arm', an anatomical area; and 'two hours' is how long it lasts."
Through key words like these, a classic report with all the information is drawn up, but it highlights these elements so that if the doctor has to look back a few days later, they can take a diagonal reading and pick out the essentials. It even navigates solely by test, the notes from a specific specialised doctor, missing out the notes from other areas. In other words, it searches "in a way that is much more intuitive," he points out.
"We offer a 21st-century tool that allows for working in a much more dynamic way," says the startup's cofounder, because one of his main criticisms is that health professionals waste vital time in reading everything, minutes that can be devoted to interacting more with the patient.
Generating data for research
Apart from being a tool to make the work of doctors quicker during surgery, Iomed is also capable of becoming a management tool for mass data. It has the capacity to extract information like the name of patients who suffer from a specific disorder in a certain centre, how many have had success with a specific medication or for how many people a certain test has proved to work on.
All these data are essential to know the population and that, according to De Maeztu, "no other system offers immediately." He insists that the tools that exist so far "are out of the doctor's range" and that the team wants "to return them to the professionals so that they can research and publish more easily." "Medicine is a field that is sometimes difficult to get into due to the difficulty of working with medical data, but it is time to take a step forward. We need to go from medicine based on evidence to medicine based on data," he concludes.
First incursion in the market
The startup already has its first prototype that they are showing to different health centres. They are talking to clinics and hospitals, but also to consultants devoted to the development and implementation of programmes for the health sector. "For the moment it is all about tests, but tests that help us to see how the tool works on the ground," he says, and the truth is that the tool is at a first software stage that will improve as health professionals test it out.
Despite everything, the first reactions from their guinea pigs are positive: "Doctors are working with tools that do not fit with their everyday experience. What has happened until now is substituting paper and pen for computers, which in the end only makes the process of writing quicker. With Iomed they have found a way of reading just what they need to know."
For De Maeztu, the health sector has made the mistake of focusing on digitalisation without including important advances. "The key is not in understanding what was done in the past five years to make progress," he insists, "what is needed is a tool for the next 30 years that allows us to enter the world of artificial intelligence and the analysis of mass data."
A lot of work still to do
All of this is possible due to the work and curiosity of the four entrepreneurs. Two of them are doctors, a third is a biotechnician and the fourth is a graduate in Administration and Company Management. It is a team with different profiles that covers the basic needs: they know what the medical sector needs and have someone with knowledge of the business world. And the programming? "When I finished my degree and I saw what there was in the sector, I decided to do a post-graduate degree in scientific programming and then a second in Data Science and Big Data," says the startup's cofounder, who adds that one must always be prepared to learn to cover the gaps in the market.
The company has been up and running for only six months and is now looking for investors who can also act as mentors: "We want someone who is interested in technology, who brings in money, knowledge of the field and contacts. We do not need this person immediately, but we are working on it because we know that first trust has to be built and that requires time."
Until now, they have investigated and grown thanks 110,000 euros from a grant from the European Space Agency – because the original technology was developed for space and is now being transferred to the medical sector- and with the support of people close to them.
They are also part of the IQS Tech Factory entrepreneur centre, which they see as a shop window for future investors. Nevertheless, their participation in the Mobile World Congress 2017 and at Health 2.0 –both in Barcelona- are two events that they hope will provide a definitive boost to the project.
More time for the patient, less with the computer
"When it comes to working with data, doctors are used to writing out everything in plain text, the usual text on Word. And when another doctor has to see the patient, they have to read a pile of records from their colleagues to get a good idea, a process that is too long and burdensome." That is the experience of Gabriel de Maeztu, a doctor by profession, when he began practising.
His answer was to create, along with three other partners, a new programme that fills the gaps in the tools used by doctors. "Iomed is an assistant that allows you to make a report on the patient quickly," he says, "it structures the data while the doctor is writing in a way that it identifies that 'pain' is a symptom; 'arm', an anatomical area; and 'two hours' is how long it lasts."
Through key words like these, a classic report with all the information is drawn up, but it highlights these elements so that if the doctor has to look back a few days later, they can take a diagonal reading and pick out the essentials. It even navigates solely by test, the notes from a specific specialised doctor, missing out the notes from other areas. In other words, it searches "in a way that is much more intuitive," he points out.
"We offer a 21st-century tool that allows for working in a much more dynamic way," says the startup's cofounder, because one of his main criticisms is that health professionals waste vital time in reading everything, minutes that can be devoted to interacting more with the patient.
Generating data for research
Apart from being a tool to make the work of doctors quicker during surgery, Iomed is also capable of becoming a management tool for mass data. It has the capacity to extract information like the name of patients who suffer from a specific disorder in a certain centre, how many have had success with a specific medication or for how many people a certain test has proved to work on.
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All these data are essential to know the population and that, according to De Maeztu, "no other system offers immediately." He insists that the tools that exist so far "are out of the doctor's range" and that the team wants "to return them to the professionals so that they can research and publish more easily." "Medicine is a field that is sometimes difficult to get into due to the difficulty of working with medical data, but it is time to take a step forward. We need to go from medicine based on evidence to medicine based on data," he concludes.
First incursion in the market
The startup already has its first prototype that they are showing to different health centres. They are talking to clinics and hospitals, but also to consultants devoted to the development and implementation of programmes for the health sector. "For the moment it is all about tests, but tests that help us to see how the tool works on the ground," he says, and the truth is that the tool is at a first software stage that will improve as health professionals test it out.
Despite everything, the first reactions from their guinea pigs are positive: "Doctors are working with tools that do not fit with their everyday experience. What has happened until now is substituting paper and pen for computers, which in the end only makes the process of writing quicker. With Iomed they have found a way of reading just what they need to know."
For De Maeztu, the health sector has made the mistake of focusing on digitalisation without including important advances. "The key is not in understanding what was done in the past five years to make progress," he insists, "what is needed is a tool for the next 30 years that allows us to enter the world of artificial intelligence and the analysis of mass data."
A lot of work still to do
All of this is possible due to the work and curiosity of the four entrepreneurs. Two of them are doctors, a third is a biotechnician and the fourth is a graduate in Administration and Company Management. It is a team with different profiles that covers the basic needs: they know what the medical sector needs and have someone with knowledge of the business world. And the programming? "When I finished my degree and I saw what there was in the sector, I decided to do a post-graduate degree in scientific programming and then a second in Data Science and Big Data," says the startup's cofounder, who adds that one must always be prepared to learn to cover the gaps in the market.
The company has been up and running for only six months and is now looking for investors who can also act as mentors: "We want someone who is interested in technology, who brings in money, knowledge of the field and contacts. We do not need this person immediately, but we are working on it because we know that first trust has to be built and that requires time."
Until now, they have investigated and grown thanks 110,000 euros from a grant from the European Space Agency – because the original technology was developed for space and is now being transferred to the medical sector- and with the support of people close to them.
They are also part of the IQS Tech Factory entrepreneur centre, which they see as a shop window for future investors. Nevertheless, their participation in the Mobile World Congress 2017 and at Health 2.0 –both in Barcelona- are two events that they hope will provide a definitive boost to the project.
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