Symptoma, Better Diagnosis for Patients with Rare and Complex Diseases

Objective

"OUR MISSION is to save 1.5 million lives globally each year by delivering the right diagnosis. SOCIETAL PROBLEM: To err is human. But in medicine, errors cost lives. ""The delivery of health care has proceeded for decades with a blind spot: Diagnostic errors - inaccurate or delayed diagnoses - persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients."" - Institute of Medicine. Studies have shown a devastating rate of misdiagnoses ranging from 10 to 40%. Diagnostic errors cause 10% of patient deaths. +20k diseases cognitively overwhelm doctors. Only 3% of doctors are satisfied with existing research tools. Misdiagnoses account for €446 billion in wasted costs in the EU and $750 billion in the US. Solving misdiagnosis could free up 30% of total healthcare budgets globally. Patients with rare diseases suffer most. 22 of 30 million patients with rare diseases in the EU don’t have their diagnosis yet, and 8 million had to wait 10 years in average. This leaves doctors and patients with a high unmet need. SOLUTION: Symptoma.com is a free search engine for diseases. Users enter symptoms and receive a list of matching causes – sorted by probability. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: Symptoma’s diagnostic accuracy has outdone all competitors’ raising the bar for this field as first and only viable solution. We have demonstrated (1) technological success, (2) high demand, and (3) willingness to pay for our solution operating at a profit with pilot customers. OUR GOAL is to improve diagnostic quality while reducing cost and time spent. We will attain this goal by pushing Symptoma to the next level by (deep) learning from search behaviour, asking questions (cognitive intelligence), and overcoming language barriers. This project is the first step towards a new paradigm of diagnostic decision making. We will fully capitalize on the business opportunity counteracting misdiagnoses for companies dealing with rare diseases."

Fields of science

• natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabases
• medical and health sciencesclinical medicineinternal medicine

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs Main Programme
• H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
• H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies

Topic(s)

• EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020 - SME instrument

Funding Scheme

Coordinator