Spin-Off Spotlight / Dynaccurate / Meet Dermot Doyle, Founder
Technology Origin and Development
Dermot, what research or technology formed the basis of this spin-off?
We have a quite a long research history in fact, going back way before my involvement. There were several related research projects involving my co-founder Dr Silvio Cardoso which funded his PhD work. These projects were conducted by LIST and partners across Europe. Dr Cardoso had made an AI system which could standardise medical concepts. Then I arrived on the scene and we bid for a commercialisation grant from the FNR which was received in 2020. That was pretty much our starting point for the Dynaccurate.
Market Transition
What made the spin-off ready for launch?
Honestly, a lot of it was just sheer gung-ho determination. The technology really was not market ready at that point, but we knew it could be shaped for the market. Sometimes you just have to commit, roll up your sleeves and make a start. Specific areas of industry were definitely interested, but they needed a larger system. Also, we discovered that incumbent systems do not have to be the best, sometimes it is just enough to be the status quo purchase for an organisation, and it is difficult to break into that.
What were the biggest challenges in transitioning from research to business?
Your single biggest issue as a start up in the EU health sector is the following – the vast majority of health services are offered by public institutions, and they would not touch a startup company. Public procurement and simple hyper-caution by public sector buyers means they would not deal with you. At the same time, the very same institutions want to say how advanced and cutting edge they are, but in reality, they stick pretty rigidly to established market players when buying solutions. So, what you have to do is simply be willing to endure and bid for grants, smaller commercial contracts and funded challenges while you build up your tech stack and product maturity. And that takes time. Contrary to the accepted knowledge, most innovative health products require a lot of investment and time-to-market, and AI is no different. The idea that you knock out a great health app in six months and storm the market is not really representative of the market reality, and both the entrepreneurs and good investors in the sector know this.
“a lot of it was just sheer gung-ho determination”
Value Proposition
What problem are you solving? What is your value proposition?
We are solving a lot actually. The reality is that the existing Electronic Patient Record (EPR) is pretty bad… You have wealthy countries like Ireland who still have their patient data on paper, and just scan it, which is ridiculous, or you have US systems which are exorbitant to purchase (imagine a setup cost of 200 million dollars alone) and then you have a mix of legacy systems, absolutely not fit for purpose, and across the board, almost nothing communicates with anything else. Finally, nobody can get any data out to exploit for research. They can in the US, but not in the EU, or least not without great difficulty and cost.
We have incorporated data interoperability at the very heart of our EPR, so if you were to scale it – say across a global network of 50 clinics – all the data would be interoperable, so you would have very large medical datasets from the get-go. Plus, we can ingest data from any other system and ensure that it’s interoperable as well. This doesn’t exist in the public sector in the vast majority of Europe.
At the moment we are working on a funded project for Medications Data Interoperability, where we work with a Canadian company called Pillcheck to identify the medications in the European market which have pharmacogenomic flags. This is the proof that our tech stack works, because we can ingest all this medications data from across the EU and make it interoperable at scale. This was what the original research at LIST intended to do, and now we are proving it in the real world and demonstrating how it can help patient safety. Pharmacogenomic impacts can be fatal for some patients, so we are using cutting edge tech with cutting edge genomic knowledge to make the world a safer place.
“we have incorporated data interoperability at the very heart of our EPR”
Business Development
How did you identify the commercial applications and market?
Honestly, we had to pivot a lot. Part of the issue is that our tech is way more advanced than anything that the EU public sector understands. So we decided we would finesse the system for private sector use. The tech stack we are developing can do all the following: be used as a sophisticated Electronic Patient Record for a clinic, GP, veterinarian or small hospital. It can be used as platform for telemedicine or virtual care. It can be used as a sophisticated data warehouse, because of the data interoperability. It can be used as clinical trial software. And it can incorporate lots and lots of IoT devices. It is an all-rounder. Very, very different from the status quo of fragmented systems currently in use. This means that we can push the product in various directions because the base technology is simply that adaptable. It does not matter what the client vertical is, eventually we should be in all of them. The truth is the EPR is the prime real estate of the health sector, but it must have sophistication and be able to incorporate AI. Also, it needs a new business model. My view is that most of the EPRs on the market are grossly overpriced for what they offer.
What were the first signs of interest?
At an early stage, we got interested looks from people who were familiar with the health data interoperability challenges. But we had to keep developing to make a full-stack solution. We have been contacted directly by various VCs, including a very famous Silicon Valley outfit. Speaking to the General Partner there was eye-opening. He understood all of the tech stack and the markets because we at levels of sophistication that exist in the US market. In Europe, you would struggle to describe even one aspect of the tech stack to a public sector stakeholder, unless they are very clued in on the data side of things. Additionally, last year we conducted pre-sales with 75% interest from private clinics.
“last year we conducted pre-sales with 75% interest from private clinics”
Strategy & Team
How did you balance technology and business skills?
90% technology skills and 10% business skills are necessary in the early stages in terms of effort. Like I said before, Medtech has a longer development cycle. You cannot go to market with half a solution for patient data and just hack it from there. It does not work. The 10% business skills come into play regarding finding grants, sources of income, building the network and getting perpetual feedback. Now we are getting ready to invest much more into sales and fundraising.
“now we are getting ready to invest much more into sales and fundraising”
Funding and Outlook
What funding have you obtained and are you raising funds?
It has been a quite journey so far. The original research funding came to about €1.1M, and subsequent funding for the company from non-dilutive equity, commercial contracts, investment-in-kind and own funds has come to about €800K. Once we get traction with private clinics, I will be conducting fundraising. We already have warm relations with some investors who have indicated they will join a round at the right time. Normally, you are expected to have traction in the market, and that is fine by me. We have been working towards that for a long time.
“once we get traction with private clinics, I will be conducting fundraising”
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More information about Dynaccurate: https://www.dynaccurate.com/