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· Sep 1, 2022 5m read

Nanteo is one of the startups at InterSystems FHIR startup incubator

In this article, I’d like to tell you about a startup Nanteo which is one of the first batch of startups at InterSystems FHIR startup incubator —  Caelestinus. 

Who are we and what do we do? 

   

We are a small team from the Czech republic with a great vision. We aim to bring fast, easy, and enjoyable preventive care close to our home/work thanks to our portable lab called MALIA which enables early detection of disease. 🏠 Our goal is to change the approach to health care and we want to show you that taking care of yourself can be as easy as making coffee in a capsule coffee machine. Our solution will help to stop the underestimation of preventive care and it will make treatment less expensive and more effortless. Or even better, MALIA can help to prevent the treatment. Because prevention is better than cure. 🥰

We are developing a portable lab called MALIA which can evaluate various diseases (markers based on antigens and antibodies) from a drop of blood within 18 minutes. 🩸  MALIA is around the size of a bigger capsule coffee machine, and its accuracy achieves the qualities of high-volume random access analyzers (RAA) thanks to the use of specially modified magnetic particles and CLIA (chemiluminescence) detection. Thanks to its super ease of use, MALIA can be used for self-testing.

We expect MALIA to be placed in pharmacies, gas stations, or any other places and like this, we will create „MALIA points“. 📍 With us, preventive care doesn’t have to take place only at the doctor’s office anymore. 😎

Instead of trying to get you to the doctor’s, we aim to bring prevention close to you. 🏠 How does it work? If you feel like something is wrong or you just want to improve the quality of your life, you can choose the closest MALIA point, get self-tested and you are free to go. Within 18 minutes your health results will be automatically sent to your phone and also to your doctor. Through this, you’ll be able to track your health and analyze all of your previous results. This in turn will allow you to improve your healthcare and make your doctor's job easier. 👩‍⚕💙

 

Here you can watch a DEMO of our product to better imagine what your self-testing may look like. 👀

Our solution supports automatization, digitalization, and miniaturization and is also customer-centric = a portable lab for self-testing close to your home/work. 💙

How do we use FHIR and how is MALIA connected to FHIR? 

Our device has two QR/Line readers - for cartridge and patient identification. 🧑 So MALIAcan easily read the necessary information about the test and about the person who is tested. After 18 minutes, when the test is done, the results are automatically sent to FHIR Server. 🔥 Then the data can be shared with health apps, doctors, and other concerned individuals. Thus both patient and doctor can track health status and analyze the previous results. 📈 You and your doctor will have the results any time you need them, you can see your past result as well and track them over time. This would improve your health care and give you more control over your health as well. MALIA also aims to support doctors and give them more information about you for better and faster decisions. 💙

How do we collaborate with InterSystems?

Currently, we mostly use InterSystems cloud services and its FHIR API, delivered by InterSystems cloud native FHIR Server, therefore its role is primarily database and storage of HL7 structured data. ☁️ We also expect that InterSystems’s products will help us to integrate our system with other healthcare protocols and systems. 

Now, let's look at the process and workflow that we designed, how we interact with InterSystems services, and what resources we use. 😉

Our devices use the HL7 FHIR library to communicate and exchange data with our assigned FHIR Server deployment, each device is set up with an API key and FHIR backend URL. After boot-up it registers itself via Device resource and its unique persistent identifier and marks itself as ACTIVE.

The next part is measurement method/protocol definition, for which we use the ActivityDefinition resource nested together with RelatedArtifact and Attachment resources that contain protocol parameters and data that devices can directly interpret to carry out the specific measurement on an inserted cartridge. To be more specific, our biochemists design a measurement method and then store it in the cloud service so any of our devices can use it – cartridges could be marked with QR codes that specify methods to be applied to them. After the cartridge is inserted, the device scans its code, downloads the required method (if missing), and is ready to start performing the measurement. 

In cases where measurements are related to patients, we use Task resources to plan them.

Operators can create tasks for any registered device from our web application. At the same time, a user selects a patient for which the measurement is done, a cartridge code, a protocol to use (also by scanning cartridge QR), and an optional description. Each device is periodically checking for new tasks. So after the task is submitted and requested, an operator could insert the cartridge and execute that task from the device interface. Cartridge (QR) and task codes should match so this is used as an error-checking mechanism. This scenario is intended for medical or laboratory use. 🏥

If the measurement was executed based on a task, then the result is stored in the FHIR backend in the form of an Observation resource nested with Attachment and Media resources containing raw output data and also with a reference to the patient specified in the task. From the device perspective, patients are processed just as identifiers (anonymity) so other parties and applications can easily implement task submission into our system.

If you are interested, you can check out our testing app here: https://med.nanteo.cz/ 🤗

Right now we are searching for an investor so we can speed up the market entry process. Partners who like to join our journey are welcome as well! 🤝

If you could recommend some contacts or you have suggestions on how to improve our product – feel free to get in touch with us in the comments and contact us via email (monika.stepanova@nanteo.cz). We will be more than happy to answer your questions. 💬

We are also very happy we can be part of the Caelestinus incubator and cooperate with InterSystems. We got the opportunity to participate in the InterSystems Global Summit 2022 in Seattle and it was a great experience for us. We met many inspiring and motivating people and will be more than happy to stay in touch. 😍

Be safe and remember that prevention is better than cure! 💙

Discussion (5)2
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Hello Aasir, the biggest problem with Theranos was the strategy "Fake it, until you make it." Faking test results is a no-go. They also wanted to develop a pocket-size analyzer that would be able to detect any disease. That means that they either had to miniaturize all the proven methods and put them in one device or come up with their new one. And that didn't work.

We focus on the detection of antibodies and antigens thanks to a chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) which is a proven method. To sum it up, we are not trying to bring a new methodology but we can bring miniaturization, automatization, and digitalization into preventive care. 😊