The US-based Inspirata, a digital pathology workflow solution company, has invested $3 million to set up the Indian development centre. In the next two months, the company will hire 50 high-end software product development engineers, scientists and informaticists from the healthcare domain.

The Indian development centre will support the company’s three business units: Digital pathology workflow solution, companion diagnostics and the cancer information data trust. Currently, strength in Bengaluru is 20 to facilitate data mining, data analytics and predictive software algorithms.

Over the next 2 decades, cancer incidence would rise by 70 per cent from the current 1.4 million cases globally and 1.8 million in India reporting high fatal rates which indicates need for advanced cancer detection, prognosis and treatment.

“Preempting this need gap, we have already developed an end-to-end digital pathology workflow solution that enables high-resolution viewing and sharing anywhere in the world. The advanced viewing cockpit employs computational image analytics algorithms ‘companion diagnostics’ that pre-screens and highlights suspicious cells on digital images of glass pathology slides, helping to  rapidly diagnose cases. These novel diagnostic algorithms are at the leading edge of oncology research and would transform treatment in India. The turnaround time for cancer detection and diagnosis is shortened from 12-13 days to 2-3 days. Additionally, patients will have affordable access to second opinions and consultations from a worldwide pool of cancer specific pathologists”, Satish Sanan, chief executive officer, Inspirata told Pharmabiz.

The company would remain independent of VC and PE funding to focus on development of its intellectual property. “Our focus is to streamline cancer diagnostics by digitizing biopsied tissue samples, using computational diagnostic tools algorithms to analyze the digital images and automate other aspects of the pathology workflow, thereby helping pathologists to diagnose accurately,” he added.

While Inspirata does not perform expensive genomic tests, it does identify and quantify genetic mutation. Its diagnostic predictions are similar to those provided by genetic assays which are fraction of the cost compared to genomic testing. The market and pricing structure of its offerings are still being evaluated for India, he said.

Current scene for pathology needs an overhaul. Digital pathology could increase efficiency and ensure accuracy. Genomics is another visible trend, but unaffordable for the average Indian. This is where Inspirata is working to be a game changer, if it is able to lower diagnostics costs, said Sanan, adding that the company is yet to install its solutions in Indian hospitals where oncologists and pathologists are eager to access its solutions.

Inspirata’s founder, Mark Lloyd, has been working on these solutions for about eight years and the company has been building the algorithms for two years.