Social enterprise StratifiCare is on an unrelenting quest to help healthcare providers more effectively manage Dengue patients, while alleviating the strain on global healthcare infrastructure and resources.
Ever been bitten by a mosquito? Your body responds with itchiness and swelling on your skin. Often, we forgot this once the itchiness subsides.
However, the bite of an infected mosquito can result in Dengue fever, which may become severe even for first-time patients, particularly the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions. While most cases are asymptomatic or mild, severe forms of the infection are considered emergencies and require immediate medical care as it can result in death.
There are four Dengue virus serotypes circulating in Singapore and worldwide. Hence, individuals can be infected up to four times. Repeat infections have been associated with a higher occurrence of severe Dengue.
According to WHO, Dengue's global impact is substantial, with 390 million infections occurring each year. Half a million progress on to severe Dengue and require hospitalisation. The disease poses a huge burden to human health, and the global population at risk is predicted to rise to 63% in 2080, as global temperatures rise.
Building StratifiCare out of a research lab
A shortage of hospital beds due to our ageing population has continued to plague Singapore. Back in 2014, Anthony Chua was pursuing his post-graduate research under the tutelage of Mary Ng, his then PhD advisor, when he became fascinated with the prospect of developing diagnostic solutions that can help healthcare providers identify optimal patient care and treatment for patients of arboviral diseases.
After years of collaborative research work, the duo, together with their colleague Tiffany Lin, established StratifiCare to develop innovative diagnostic solutions that integrate protein diagnostics with artificial intelligence (AI).
Today, StratifiCare is an award-winning company that has won the recognition of international institutes, corporations and investors. Not too shabby for a start-up that spun out from a research lab at the NUS Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
Challenge in identifying severe Dengue patients
Majority of Dengue cases are asymptomatic or mild, so the underlying challenge is how to accurately predict which patients will develop severe Dengue in the early phase of the disease. This will then determine whether the patient needs to be hospitalised.
Currently, patients are hospitalised if they exhibit one or more warning signs, with majority of hospitalised Dengue patients not developing severe Dengue. This results in unnecessary healthcare expenses and an increased burden to the healthcare system.
To better support Dengue patients in getting the right level of treatment that they need, the StratifiCare team developed StratifiDen®, a severe Dengue prediction test. After a patient is diagnosed positive for Dengue, the blood sample will be tested for specific proteins.
“By interpreting the protein data with our proprietary AI model, we will be able to predict accurately whether the patient’s condition will deteriorate into more severe forms of Dengue such as Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, and whether hospitalisation is required.” Anthony shared.
Experiencing socio-economic benefits takes substantial funds, and time
By predicting severe Dengue more accurately, the number of unnecessary hospitalisation can be reduced - easing Singapore’s bed crunch. Anthony’s immediate priority is to offer StratifiDen in Singapore’s hospitals and clinics with the help of DxD Hub to serve the “gold standard” model for developing countries to reference.
Dengue poses an even greater threat in developing countries with less-adequate healthcare facilities. Anthony is raising catalytic funding (e.g. donations, impact investments etc) for StratifiDen. Dengue is a major healthcare challenge for such countries and it requires significant support from philanthropic and impact communities for effective execution to even move a small step forward.
He is keen to collaborate with overseas clinical diagnostic labs to deploy StratifiDen locally. “We will need to set up the testing methodology in place during “peace time” such that we do not scramble when a large Dengue epidemic happens.”
Growing StratifiCare with a supportive start-up ecosystem at NUS
Anthony’s time in NUS has allowed him to scratch the itch of entrepreneurship. He signed up for the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme as an undergraduate and has been deeply plugged in to the NUS Enterprise ecosystem since 2006.
StratifiCare is one of seven social enterprise start-ups in the inaugural cohort of the Technology for Sustainable Social Impact (TS2) Start-up Accelerator, a collaborative initiative by NUS Enterprise and the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise, raiSE launched in 2024.
Sharing his personal take as a start-up founder in the healthcare industry, Anthony was candid. “Having a minimum viable product (MVP) is not possible for regulated medical products. There is no access to “early stage” investors who invest only when there is revenue, so you need to find creative ways to survive until then. It helps identify founders who have grit and commitment for the long haul.”
StratifiCare is set for an upswing. The team has developed a new product, StratifiREY, a prediction test for effective liver cancer treatment.
Dengue may be here to stay but StratifiCare is closer than ever to alleviating its adverse impact on patient care and healthcare systems worldwide.
Find out more about StratifiCare and the TS2 accelerator programme.
