2024-09-02 16:27:00
Medical deserts result in a lack of doctors but also reduced access to various health services, such as medical biology tests. In October 2023, the Independent Biologists warned the government about the consequences of a policy of reducing spending on routine medical tests: ” Fewer local laboratories and more medical deserts.”
At the same time, a study commissioned by Roche Diagnostics France (an Isère-based company specializing in products and services in medical biology, tissue diagnostics and sequencing) from the consulting firm Spin & Strategy explored the potential of outsourced biology in improving access to medical diagnosis. With this figure: 12.1% of the French population has no access to a medical analysis laboratory, or 7.8 million inhabitants.
Partnerships with the CEA or ENS Paris-Saclay
Several companies and start-ups have positioned themselves in this niche, including Montpellier-based Magentine Healthcare. Created in 2017, the deeptech claims scientific partnerships with the CEA Biology entity, the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay and the École nationale supérieure de création industrielle (ENSCI). It has thus developed a solution allowing healthcare professionals such as pharmacies, nurses or care centers to perform remote medical biology procedures.
« In France, there are only 3,000 to 4,000 laboratories that carry out analyses, the others only take biological samples, which lengthens the time taken to obtain results and therefore the administration of care, explains François Dupoteau, president and founder of Magentine Healthcare. However, in medical deserts, there are pharmacies, nurses or care centers that could do delocalized biology. Some pharmacies already have dedicated spaces. Our Peseshet solution allows patient registration and a universal rapid test reader can perform flu, Strep A (group A streptococcus angina, editor’s note), urinary tract infections, Covid, and soon dengue or chikungunya, and to transmit the results with data tracking in a completely secure manner, this medical device being ISO 13485 and IVD-R certified (European regulation for in vitro medical devices, Editor’s note). We make the medical device available free of charge to pharmacies, which pay for each test, and which are then reimbursed by social security.
Tested with Covid
According to the manager, to date, few players offer a global solution for delocalized biology, the most advanced being positioned on interpretation in medical imaging in particular. The first version of this solution was tested in 2020 with Covid and equips 800 customers for some 3 million tests carried out. The new version, currently being deployed, is already installed in around fifteen pharmacies.
“A solution will arrive by the end of the year, allowing blood samples to be taken, in collaboration with analysis laboratories,” announces the leader.
Doesn’t the solution take the bread out of the mouths of these laboratories? François Dupoteau does not deny a certain concern on their part, ” more through incomprehension”. Convinced that the sector will evolve very quickly, he responds that with the samples taken in pharmacies, the laboratories will thus increase the volumes to be processed.
“Understanding your health”
Magentine Healthcare currently employs around fifteen employees for a 2022 turnover of 1.4 million euros. A volume of activity that will be slightly lower in 2023, the year of the transition between the old and new versions of its solution. In 2024, the company will adopt a new approach, both BtoB and BtoC, as it launches a new product, this time aimed at patients.
“We are launching these days an “AI video companion” to allow patients to better understand their medical biology analysis results, says François Dupoteau. Thanks to generative AI, the solution facilitates faster and simpler access for the patient to a detailed explanation of the data in their medical test results report… We realized that there is real anxiety when patients get their test results, especially when they are not within the norms. They then rush to request an appointment with their doctor or call the biologists, while these “out of the norm” results are often insignificant and not serious. But they need explanations. We are convinced that the patient must understand their health. The video AI companion will provide them with information, validated of course, and formatted to diagnostic standards. Obviously, if there is suspicion of a serious illness, the AI refers to a healthcare professional.
4,99 euros
In concrete terms, the patient registers on the Peseshet website or mobile application, downloads their test results report and pays 4.99 euros to access, fifteen minutes later, explanations delivered by a video avatar.
“In France, people are willing to pay 4.99 euros to avoid wasting time going to the doctor, and internationally, in countries where there is no coverage of health costs, the price of the AI companion is not an issue,” assures François Dupoteau.
Magentine Healthcare is also targeting the healthcare markets in the Maghreb and the United States: “ There are problems of medical deserts and access to care in the Maghreb, and in the United States, the regulatory environment is already stabilized on the use of AI in health. In Europe, there is the AI Act (European regulation which introduces a common regulatory and legal framework for artificial intelligence within the European Union, Editor’s note) but it’s more complicated, and we waste time.”
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