Leaders

Today, as we move from one generation to another, the world holds a better place for equality among all human beings. Without a doubt, women today have made a notable mark with their presence in various professional fields. Sumona Karjee Mishra, founder of Prantae Solutions is one entrepreneur who is on a mission to create a healthy world.

In this interview with Women Entrepreneur magazine, Sumona Karjee Mishra shares her insights on her business value proposition and sheds light on creating a healthy environment.

Can you please talk about your journey with Prantae Solutions?

Our company is focusing on developing innovative devices and diagnostics tools. By merging frontier technologies in plasmonics and optofluidics, Prantae is committed to developing 'affordable molecular prognostics' for all irreversible diseases. It professes that 'Know it well before so that you can Prevent it'. How comforting it would be if we could anticipate when anything in our otherwise healthy life may trip and cause us to become ill or simply perform less than optimally. If we rely on modern diagnostics, which can only serve to confirm that we have a problem, is it not already too late? Or do you admire the power of contemporary genomics techniques that simply indicate a likelihood of developing a fatal illness but are given no indication of when?

Imagine the number of lives that could be saved if we merely knew when our health was heading toward the "dark side." How wonderful our health systems would be if only we had an 'affordable molecular prognosis' for every human on this planet. We brought this dream to reality through Prantae Solutions. A biotech start-up, Prantae Solutions is striving to create a 'Respectful Maternity' with its cutting-edge technological innovations in the domain of design, devices, and diagnostics.

What are some of the challenges present in the healthcare world?

We are the trailblazers in the healthcare market to develop feature-rich tools. Typically, in India, most of the diagnostics tools are imported from western countries. These tools cannot function to their utmost capability because they are best suited to the western countries’ conditions. Another major challenge we currently see in India is that in remote areas within three-tier cities there is a dearth of skilled technicians and powerful tools. We develop our products in such a way that it is easy to understand and operate for everyone.

Can you brief us about your latest tool for kidney disease?

To address issues associated with kidney disease, we have developed an innovative tool named ProFlo-U. It is a self-health monitoring device that enables you to keep track of your kidney function. If people already have CKD, they can keep an eye on how it is developing using ProFlo-U. Therefore, it helps in reducing the number of cases, which is gradually rising in India. The ProFlo-U system provides an unprecedented ease-of-use, clinically accurate method of identifying microalbuminuria.

"We are the trailblazers in the healthcare market to develop feature-rich tools"

We also have many new products in the segment of self-health monitoring devices that aim to enhance continuous health monitoring and compliance with therapy. To cite an example, we are very soon introducing a Respiratory Distress Monitoring System that is sensitive to the earliest signs of an asthma attack or respiratory infections that have become a necessity with increasing air pollution and emerging strains of viruses across the globe. We also have a pocket cardiac monitor with advanced analytics that is near accurate as a Holter monitor. Addressing professional health testing centres, basic and clinical research labs, and patholabs, we also have a range of high-precision instruments and nano sensor-based reagents under the brand name Eye Ra and Embar Go series.

Can you talk about your journey before establishing Prantae Solutions?

My personal experience has helped me reach the position that I am in today. It all began when our daughter was delivered by emergency C-section 72 hours after I was admitted to the hospital owing to high blood pressure as I was having a seizure.

Every form of prevention was unsuccessful. My daughter came to this world weighing just 900g. She was kept in a very clean NICU for the following 45 days. She survived the difficulties of the first few weeks and fought them bravely and successfully. But not every mother-to-be who lands up in a complicated pregnancy is fortunate. Had there been a way to know that Pre-eclampsia was building up during the pregnancy, there were well-defined ways to manage it and thwart the fatalities. Does that not resonate with so many other diseases of the modern day such as Diabetes, epilepsy, and cancer, to name just a few. By tapping on my skills in research and administration, my husband and I decided to solve over-looked problems the 'tech-way' in 2015. This was the genesis of Prantae.

If you had to give out advice to other young girls or young women in the industry who are just starting out in their careers, what would your advice be?

Well, I guess women should empower themselves with experience and education. Capitalize on your expertise because if you get into a venture where you don't have a basic understanding, it becomes very difficult. So, whatever you want to build, have the basic knowledge about that industry or product. Once you have that basic foundation in you, nobody can stop you, and be always bold.

Dr. Sumona Karjee Mishra, Founder, Prantae Solutions

Dr. Sumona Karjee Mishra, a woman-motherscientist- entrepreneur. She did her PhD in biotechnology from JNU, New Delhi and has published 11 peer-reviewed scientific articles in International Journals. She is also an alumina of Judge Business School, Cambridge University and IIM-B. She is a Preeclampsia survivor and started her entrepreneurial-journey in 2015 to-address the need of early-diagnosis for Preeclampsia and other disorders. In the journey, she has generated 4-patents, 3-platform technologies to revolutionize early-diagnosis. She has received various awards including Pride of Odisha, Rashtriya Swayam Siddha Samman and TiE- BIRAC WInER.