Revolutionizing Prenatal Care

Spurred on by a unique and diverse set of challenges, the African healthcare scene has witnessed a burst of innovation over the past few years. In fact, COVID-19 alone triggered the development of more than 120 health technology innovations across the continent.

Most recently, a critical area of focus for problem-solvers in the healthcare space is that of access to quality prenatal care. According to UNICEF more than 417 newborn babies die every hour, and 814 pregnant people die every day. The challenge is most significant in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest neonatal mortality rate in the world.

Fetal ultrasound, an effective, safe and cost-efficient imaging modality has been shown to lower fetal mortality by up to 20 percent. However, there is a global shortage of trained healthcare workers, making it difficult to meet the increasing demand for fetal ultrasound. Moroccan-based startup, Deepecho believes tech can play an important part in democratizing healthcare and ultimately saving lives.

Deepecho uses artificial intelligence and deep learning to mimic functions typically performed by a trained sonographer, helping radiologists and clinicians to conduct fetal ultrasound biometry automation and quality control. The measurements performed can then play an important role in detecting defects, addressing preterm birth, fetal growth restriction, and the potentially dangerous outcomes with which they are associated. This is critical in areas where hospitals are generally understaffed and under-resourced.

“In developing this solution, our priority was to create direct and impactful support for doctors. Ultimately Deepecho is designed to decrease their workloads, improve their efficiency, and provide them with peace of mind that they have the tools needed for accurate diagnosis,” says Saad Slimani, Chief Medical Officer at Deepecho.

The technology is also a great fit for the global market, including in developed countries where there are radiologist shortages and there is pressure on health access in under-represented communities.

Already the reliability of Deepecho as an effective diagnostic tool has been validated through a prospective clinical study with more than 170 patients.

Startups are driving healthcare innovation in Africa

The company’s story highlights the critical role that startups continue to play in the African healthcare space, as well as the importance of providing local innovators with access to much-needed financial and technical support.

In fact, through its partnership with the Microsoft Africa Transformation Office (ATO), Deepecho has been able to take its product through different stages of development, such that it is now ready to be deployed.

“There is a lot of important work that needs to be done before a product is ready for deployment. This not only includes data gathering, pre-processing, models training and validation, but also industrialization by design whereby we create the actual physical product that will be mass produced. This was a key function that we improved tremendously when we began working with Microsoft,” says Slimani.

The formidable backing of the cloud

Before its journey with Microsoft began, Deepecho had been seeking the support of a strong cloud and tech partner. The startup knew that in order to take its product to market it would need to be able to deploy Deepecho seamlessly across a large number of different hospitals, mobile physicians and remotes health centers. This meant it needed formidable engineering capabilities, not only to create a scalable product but also one that was secure – a must for products used in healthcare.

This is where the formidable power of Microsoft Azure came into play. And a big part of the reason why Deepecho began working with Microsoft. The cost per use opportunity provided by Azure enables startups to maintain careful control of IT resources and business scalability. As a result, Deepecho has deployed some of Microsoft’s most advanced technologies, implementing true serverless AI infrastructure, while also maintaining the ability to deploy its solution wherever it is needed in a matter of seconds.

There were also two specific capabilities the company was looking for in a cloud partner. The first was a solid understanding of its unique support requirements as a startup and the second was a solid healthcare network and expertise.

“Microsoft ticked both these boxes, having developed great partnerships in healthcare and giving us access to a huge network of partners and hospitals. At the same time, the team we worked with at Microsoft for Startups demonstrated deep knowledge of how startups operate, enabling them to provide us with tailored support,” comments Youssef Bouyakhf, CEO of Deepecho.

The assistance provided by Microsoft ATO took the form of both financial and technical support. Through Microsoft, Deepecho gained access to key stakeholders, sponsorships and investor programs. Top executives within the tech company gave guidance around product improvement and a specialist team came alongside Deepecho as it progressed through different audit phases of the product architecture. This served an important purpose, helping the startup to double its security checks and accelerate product and models processing time by two- to three-fold.

Though Deepecho has achieved a great deal since embarking on its journey with Microsoft, the team knows this is just the beginning of a game-changing venture. “We’ve begun working on extending features for the full automation of the mid-trimester routine ultrasound scan and are also working with Microsoft to develop our go-to-market strategy. Through Microsoft Azure and the Azure Marketplace, we’ll have access to hundreds of partners while being able to smoothly integrate with healthcare resources worldwide, enabling us to help millions of people throughout Africa,” concludes Bouyakhf.