Nalagenetics Startup Creates Early Warning System for Spike in Corona Cases

Indonesian health startup Nalagenetics and the Center for Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI) launched machine learning to map the risk profile of health workers.

It aims to build a data-based early warning system that can detect the trend of spikes in positive cases of the coronavirus.

The learning machine is named COVID-19 Likelihood Meter 2.0 for Healthcare Provider (CLM 2.0HP). This innovation is expected to be the basis for mitigation efforts in health facilities.

CISDI and Nalagenetics involved 20 health facilities and 4,270 health workers and support staff in Indonesia in developing the CLM 2.0HP.

The artificial intelligence (AI) system functions to assess the risk of health workers and staff in health facilities against Covid-19 infection.

In addition, it helps determine the priority of PCR tests based on the risk profile of people who are symptomatic or suspected of being infected in the event of limited resources.

Middle-Income Countries are Often Constrained in Conducting Tests

Prof. Dr. dr. Akmal Taher, SpU(K), the Professor of the Faculty of Medicine from University of Indonesia also said that middle-income countries such as Indonesia are often constrained in conducting tests.

“Health facilities require an accurate, affordable, and accessible method of detecting Covid-19 with minimal equipment for health workers,” Akmal said in a public discussion on the Urgency of Data Collection through CLM 2.0HP:

Early Detection of the Risk of Covid-19 Infection for Health Workers, quoted from a press statement, Thursday (28/10).

He considered that screening methods through machine learning, such as the CLM 2.0HP, could ease the burden on the health system. CISDI Policy Director Olivia Herlinda assessed that HP’s CLM2.0 targets the protection of health workers and staff in health facilities.

Product Data Scientist Nalagenetics Shreyash Sonthalia said the company developed HP’s CLM2.0 platform from validity testing to data analysis. People can access the algorithm via covidmeter.id. It’s currently being developed in an app so it can be accessed by the health workers.

Clinical Research Associate Nalagenetics Kathleen Irena Junusmin added, CLM is a diagnostic tool as well as predicting the disease severity of individuals infected with Covid-19 online and continuously.

According to him, proper and sustainable data collection must still be implemented even though the corona pandemic is under control. Therefore, Nalagenetics opens the opportunity for anyone to adopt and/or co-develop the CLM 2.0HP.

The chairman of the Satriabudi Dharma Setia Foundation, dr. Vincentius Simeon Weo Budhyanto said that the CLM 2.0HP initiative was widely supported by non-government actors.

This shows the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration in solving epidemic problems, especially in health facilities. Representative of the Diponegoro National Hospital (RSND), dr.Rebriarina Hapsari, M.Sc., Sp.MK(K) also assessed that the presence of CLM 2.0HP is crucial to protect health workers from the risk of infection.

“Through the CLM 2.0HP screening, health workers have the opportunity to find out the potential risk of being infected with Covid-19,” he said.

Chosen as Top 10 Featured Startups

Two startups from Indonesia, Nalagenetics and Ruangguru, were selected as the Top 10 featured startups in the 2021 G20 Innovation League Forum which will take place on 9-10 October 2021 in Sorrento, Italy.

Nalagenetics won first place in the Mobility and Healthcare category. Meanwhile, an edutech startup Ruangguru won second place in the Artificial Intelligence category.

The Director-General of Information Applications at the Ministry of Communication and Information, Semuel A. Pangerapan, appreciated the implementation of the 2021 G20 Innovation League.