Unique IIT-M medical startup to get $1 million from Singapore-based company

A Singapore-based company is all set to invest $1 million into an IIT-Madras based startup The start-up born at the IIT-Madras Incubation Cell will transfer technology used by its first two products which will focus on clinical training using virtual patients The two products — ‘Laparoscopy Surgical Simulator with Haptics Feedback’ and "In-Vitro Fertilisation Training Simulation with Haptics Feedback’ — are expected to change the way doctors are trained to make the patient safer

A Singapore-based company is all set to invest $1 million into an IIT-Madras based startup.

The start-up born at the IIT-Madras Incubation Cell will transfer technology used by its first two products which will focus on clinical training using virtual patients so that actual treatment becomes safer.

The two products — ‘Laparoscopy Surgical Simulator with Haptics Feedback’ and "In-Vitro Fertilisation Training Simulation with Haptics Feedback’ — are expected to change the way doctors are trained to make the patient safer, reported the Times of India.

While high-end simulators with haptics feedback cost around Rs 2 crore in the international market, these new technologies integrating virtual reality with haptics (interaction involving the sense of touch), home-grown in IIT-Madras' Touch Lab, will cost just about Rs 30-35 lakhs.

The start-up Merkel Haptics was formed in 2011 to convert lab work into products, and Touch Lab at the Applied Mechanics Department of IIT Madras was founded to research the sense of touch.

Speaking to TOI, the founder and principal investigator of the lab, Prof M Manivannan, said: "The Touch Lab is unique and the only touch lab in India. This project started when I visited CMC Vellore. I was watching how laproscopic surgery was done. The idea of a laparoscopy surgical simulator with haptics feedback was converted into a PhD thesis and a prototype was developed in the lab in five years. It was then taken to the company (Merkel) to develop it into a product to make it commercially viable."

The project received Rs 60 lakh from the government. CMC Vellore provided chemical advisory input and carried out the preliminary validation of the product. It was patented in 2012-13. "The second product - In-Vitro Fertilisation Training Simulation — has been commissioned by Innov4Sight Health and Biomedical Systems Put Ltd, Singapore," said Merkel Haptic Systems Pvt Ltd CEO P B C Paul to the Times of India.

"Our objective is go for an Indian company transfer so that the Indian customer can afford these products. We went for this Singapore-based company as it has a huge base in India and, also, the company got an order from the Singapore government for the In-Vitro Fertilisation Training Simulation product," Paul added.

Most of the times doctors are made to practice on real patients and that leaves scope for mistakes. The new technology will replace real patients with virtual patients and a doctor can practice on the virtual patient any number of times.