3Nethra – An intelligent pre-screening Ophthalmology device

The Problem

• An estimated 12 million classified blind people are in India (25% of 45 million worldwide) and over 80% is needless.
• Diabetic Retina, Cataract, glaucoma, cornea and Refraction problems constitute 90% of blindness.
• Only 14000 ophthalmologists practice in India and a mere 800 ophthalmologists graduate every year. Ophthalmologist to patient ratio is approximately 1: 60000. This is much worse in a rural environment.
• Only around 7-10% of people at various stages of blindness are screened and treated as of today.
• Current system needs expensive diagnostic devices for screening (single device for every problem) coupled with the availability of high skilled ophthalmologist during screening. This increases cost of service substantially and hence limits scalability. As a result rural market remains grossly under serviced.

The Solution

• 3nethra – A Single, portable, Intelligent, non-invasive, non-mydriatic eye pre-screening device that can detect the above 5 major ailments.
• Provides an automated “Normal – Need to See a Doctor” Report.
• Ecosystem completed by connecting primary care centres to secondary or tertiary care centre through telemedicine for remote diagnosis
• Device is low-cost and hence greatly reduces direct and indirect cost of screening by making it available at the doorstep of a rural population and is useful especially during early onset of an eye disease when patients do not experience symptoms.

Value Proposition

• Doctors: Ophthalmic Doctors will spend their time only on needy patients. Telemedicine connectivity will help doctors offer remote diagnosis for a rural patient from the comforts of a hospital.
• Hospitals: Screening in rural areas will help hospitals identify patients at early stages thereby increasing inflow of “needy patients”. This will not only be a business proposition but also a great social cause. Hospitals can also serve their “outreach” market better thereby increasing their funnel.
• Patients: Pre-screening at low cost, integrated with remote diagnosis and other models can help a patient get screened for a problem right at his doorstep in a remote Indian village.
• Government: A lot of money is spent by Governments all around the world for Blindness eradication. Our product will be a great value enabler.