Three years ago, scientists Dr Sritharan Venkatraman, member secretary of the Global Medical Education and Research Foundation, Hyderabad and Dr Shalini Gupta from IIT Delhi, set out to develop a low-cost, bedside device to diagnose sepsis. Today, their innovation is helping save time as well as lives.
“World over, 40 to 50 per cent of patients who are admitted to ICUs are affected by sepsis, a disease that is acquired in the hospitals and causes thousands of deaths per year. In India, no statistics are available,” says Dr Sritharan, adding, “I wanted to explore how we can minimise the number of casualties.”
Currently used methods to diagnose it are too time consuming. “Although the doctors tending to the patient will start them on an empirical treatment if they suspect sepsis, it takes days for the results to be back from the blood work. And if the patient’s condition has deteriorated during that time, the blood work will give a false report. Another method that is used is a surrogate biomarker system, an indirect indicator of sepsis. The sample has to be sent to a lab for testing. It takes hours to get the results,” he says.
The device that was developed
“With the new device, the test will be conducted at the patient’s bedside and the clinician will get the results immediately. Also, any deterioration can be quickly detected through monitoring. Our device will detect the molecule that is responsible for causing sepsis,” he adds.
Describing the usage, he says, “It consists of a specialised microscopic slide, treated with gold nano particles. If sepsis causing bacteria is present in the blood sample, that area will turn pink.” The process of patenting the technology is underway and once hospitals are happy, the company will scale up the production.
Originally from Tamil Nadu, Dr Sritharan has been in Hyderabad for many years. “I’m a Hyderabadi at heart,” he says, adding, “It’s not about commercial success. I like to give back to the society, and if this is the way, I am very glad.”
