The PocDoc® digital platform was developed with the vision of allowing anyone with a smartphone or tablet to test themselves for a range of major diseases and conditions via a fingerprick, receive a full health assessment that puts those results in context and then be offered solutions to address any health-related issues that arise – all within the PocDoc app, all within minutes of taking the test.
How did you come up with the idea for the company?
Kiran Roest: When my dad was complaining about not being able to get a cholesterol test at his GP, I thought why couldn’t simple blood tests be done using a smartphone or tablet? Having done Natural Sciences at Cambridge and my Masters and PhD at Imperial in fields relating to infectious diseases, then worked in the innovation departments of major pharma companies and BioTech firms, I had a unique ability to combine the organic chemistry, device design, clinical requirements and commercial opportunity to sketch out the first version of PocDoc, which is very close to actually the final product.
We built a first version to demonstrate feasibility and from there, it’s been non-stop expansion.
What advice would you give to other aspiring female entrepreneurs?
Kiran Roest: Believe in yourself. I think women often downplay their strengths and are afraid of putting themselves out there for fear of failure. However, I believe the only real failure is not to try at all. So step out of your comfort zone, be ambitious and dream big.
I would also advise women to network, network and network some more. There are a number of great female-focused networking groups, events and funding opportunities opening up doors for women across the globe in Tech. I would urge women to get involved! I was fortunate enough to be voted Innovator of the Year at the Tech Excellence awards last month and I met some brilliant women through the awards. Networking with other women can open doors by accelerating development, helping raise finance or providing support and advice to your company.
What can we hope to see from PocDoc in the future?
Kiran Roest: In addition to now being one of the leading companies providing workplace testing in the UK for Covid-19 using PocDoc, our service will be trialled at a number of UK airports in the coming weeks, using rapid tests and the PocDoc platform to test departing passengers and issue “fit to fly” certificates in real time, via the app.
This will allow someone to be tested on the way to the airport to get their flight and receive their certificate to travel, just after they take the test, all via the PocDoc app.
PocDoc is a unique combination of tests and an app that provides the results and provides a full health assessment for each user, based on their results and a health consultation, all in real time via the PocDoc app.
Our proprietary products for Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes will hit the market and we are continuously looking at ways we can continue to scale the PocDoc platform by adding additional proprietary tests focused on other major diseases, chronic conditions and other areas of personal health, such as fertility.
We anticipate being able to announce partnerships with various NGOs that leverage the PocDoc digital platform to scale up rapid testing for other infectious diseases in low-resource countries in due course.
We have also started the journey to secure FDA approval for our technology which will allow us to launch PocDoc in the US.
Originally published on Techround.co.uk
