Rohan Kalahasty and Sai Mattapalli, two high school students from Virginia, are breaking the mold of typical high school experiences. Instead of focusing on college applications or sports, they have co-founded a medical device startup called Vytal, with the goal of democratizing access to healthcare pre-screening capabilities using artificial intelligence (AI) and connected devices.
Their focus is on ocular biomarkers and how changes in eye movements can be linked to various brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The challenge they face is the high cost of the hardware required to calculate these biometrics. They wanted to utilize the proven usefulness of biometrics in a medical setting and make it more accessible.
To achieve this, Vytal has developed a smartphone-based product that provides a comprehensive evaluation of brain health in just 30 seconds. Similar to a blood pressure monitor, the product generates a set of numbers that give doctors valuable information about an individual’s overall brain health.
The key to making this technology accessible is the use of AI in the gaze tracking process. Through an AI model, Vytal can accurately track eye movements using just a video call on a smartphone. The gathered information serves as a pre-screening tool for brain diseases and can also be used for long-term monitoring of cognitive function.
The duo hopes that by democratizing access to pre-screening capabilities, early detection and diagnosis of brain diseases will increase, leading to timely interventions and treatments. However, there is skepticism surrounding the use of AI in healthcare. To overcome this, Vytal aims to educate doctors and patients about the technology, building trust in its accuracy and usefulness.
By making biometrics more accessible, Vytal is paving the way for a future where healthcare is efficient and inclusive, ensuring that everyone has access to the care they need.
Source: PYMNTS News