During his days at IIT Bombay, Mudit Dandwate designed and built race cars with relentless passion. So it was a natural career choice for him to take up the job of vehicle dynamics expert at Altair Technologies, where he pushed the limits even further. Mudit designed and built four full-scale race cars, including India’s first electric race car. But on February 1, 2015, his 24th birthday, as he sat alone at Frankfurt airport, Mudit found himself at a crossroads.
Reflecting on his life, he gave himself high marks for innovation, excitement and achievement. Yet when it came to making a real impact on the lives of others, he felt a glaring emptiness. Mudit gave himself six years to change that.
Within two months, he began discussing his ideas for meaningful innovation with his colleague, Gaurav Parchani, who was part of the multi-physics team at Altair. Soon, they became housemates, turning their late-night conversations into intense brainstorming sessions. One evening, after watching an animated superhero film, a spark of inspiration struck: what if they could create an AI-powered device that silently monitors health parameters and sends an alert when something is wrong?
Personal tragedy also played a key role in shaping the idea behind what would eventually become Dozee. “My uncle suffered a mishap in a hospital, and it got me thinking: ‘Why aren’t patient beds monitored like we monitor every component of a car’?” Mudit recalled while speaking with THE WEEK. “In cars, we take pre-emptive action to prevent accidents or damage. Why not apply the same principle to human health?”
That marked the genesis of Dozee―India’s first AI-based, contactless Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Early Warning System (EWS). “I am the kind of person who dives into everything that comes my way, but my strengths naturally lean towards creativity―developing sensors, designing new structures and so on. So, I focus on the product side of things, managing the go-to-market strategy, building alliances, and driving innovation,” said Mudit. “Gaurav stands out with his logical, methodical approach. He oversees our clinical research, innovation and engineering, ensuring everything is solid from the ground up.”
In April 2017, Dozee had its first life-changing impact. A 22-year-old woman, part of their alpha testing cohort, received an alert from the Dozee system about her unusually high respiration rate. Concerned, her family consulted a doctor, and she was diagnosed with asymptomatic tuberculosis. Thanks to the early intervention, she made a full recovery. She later completed her master’s at IIT Bombay and went on to secure a job with a multinational company in Bengaluru.
Two months later, Mudit would face a near-death experience that would profoundly impact Dozee’s mission and vision. Before sharing the story, he showed this writer his brain-controlled prosthetic left arm―that he himself designed―and with a smile, remarked, “Half of me is a machine.”
Mudit was out for a walk with his dogs, including Potato, his Labrador, near a lake on the outskirts of Bengaluru. “Potato, who loves water, jumped into the lake and swam pretty deep. Suddenly, he started to panic. When I saw this, I thought he was drowning, so I jumped in after him. But what I saw next shocked me―a full-grown crocodile was heading straight for him. I quickly pushed Potato aside and came between them. The crocodile grabbed my left arm and began pulling me under. I had to break my arm to free myself, which gave me just enough time to get out of water. I wrapped my arm in cloth to stop the bleeding, but we were far from the city, and it took nearly two and a half hours before I received my first morphine shot. In the ICU, I started designing the structure for my prosthetic arm, and within seven days, I was back to work.”
Dozee’s flagship product, currently deployed in over 280 hospitals in India, the US and Africa, is a contactless remote patient monitoring system that fits under the mattress. It detects vibrations produced by each heartbeat and respiratory cycle without ever touching the patient. “Through AI and deep learning, we convert this data into various biomarkers like heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and bed occupancy. It can also connect to additional accessories to monitor oxygen saturation, temperature and ECG, covering all key aspects of a patient's health. It is similar to what is monitored in an ICU, but now available for every bed,” said Mudit. “It is contactless and wireless, making it incredibly convenient for both patients and nursing staff. It is easy to use, remotely manageable and provides a continuous stream of real-time data. Traditionally, patient vitals are checked every four to six hours, but with our sensors, you have minute-by-minute data, enabling the detection of even the smallest changes in trends.”
During the pandemic, Mudit’s company rapidly upgraded its product and developed the Dozee Pro, which could convert any bed into a step-down ICU in under two minutes. This innovation provided a real-time dashboard and alert system for doctors and health care workers, enabling them to monitor thousands of patients from a safe distance. Dozee Pro supported over 14,000 Covid patients, saving more than 21,000 nursing hours and, most importantly, over 250 lives.
Last month, Dozee launched a remote health monitoring service designed for NRIs concerned about their parents’ health. The contactless technology is easy for the elderly to use, and securely shares health data with families and health care providers. “Shravan captures the essence of parental care in Indian culture,” said Mudit. “With Dozee Shravan, NRIs can now be reassured that their parents in India are being continuously monitored, giving them more peace of mind and quality time.”