Our project has a complete idea and experience to prove its effect. The commercialization and distribution of the biochip–explained in this project-will lead heart failure patients to ubiquitously get health care. No such regulations are existing, which enables us to easily commercialize and industrialize our product. 

1. Business Model

1) The Problem

BNP diagnosis every 2 to 4 weeks is impractical to the current medical environment. In Korea, most heart failure patients visit the hospital every 2 to 3 months and get a treatment for 3 minutes. This leads the doctor to inaccurately acknowledge the patient’s health indicator, objectively. Current diagnosis of heart failure patients takes considerable time from initial sampling to detection results due to sample transportation time and operating costs. Also, there is no convenient and affordable service system for continuous monitoring of patient status.

The proposed model of BNP based the heart failure treatment (Troughton & Januzzi, 2014)

2) Solution

Patients with heart failure can carry out self-examination of BNP concentration in the blood with a portable self-diagnosis system (without visiting the hospital), transmit the result to the hospital through the internet function of the smartphone, and periodically monitor the result and utilize it as basic data of drug control. Development of U-healthcare based on remote monitoring system to determine treatment policy is needed. In addition, by using this system together with the alarm system according to the rise of BNP, it is possible to minimize the visit of the emergency room due to the symptom deterioration by inducing the outpatient visit by the alarm function when the BNP level is elevated even before the regular outpatient examination of the heart failure patient, and reduce hospitalization rate and mortality rate. 

2. Schedule

3. Business Model Summary

Minimized electrochemical biosensor will be marketed with smartphones. It enables heart failure patients to efficiently get diagnosis through constant monitoring. Through mobile applications of each patient’s smart phones, NT-proBNP concentration in blood will be self-tested and have the data analyzed. The data analyzed will be directly sent to the doctor or even to their guardians. This U-healthcare system will be the new key to the healthcare industry.

Effective immobilization of anti-proBNP antibodies on the gold electrode surfaces

U-healthcare system for diagnosis and monitoring of heart failure

4. Current Market Condition

U-healthcare is an ideal system for ensuring the healthy life of human beings through organic connection of patient, medical institution, government institution, solution development, and device company based on wired and wireless network. Integrated with monitoring, counseling, treatment, and reservations, it is predicted to receive the spotlight as a next-generation new growth engine business.

In particular, modern society exposed to various illnesses can not meet the needs of diversified medical market with the medical infrastructure that is currently being built. Therefore, current medical technology is required to develop new IBNT fusion technology that meets market conditions beyond simple medical service.

Big smartphone companies such as Samsung and Apple are able to check electrocardiogram, measure blood pressure, analyze ultrasound image, and measure blood sugar with smartphone.

5. Marketing & Future

1) Publicity

Heart failure is a major public health problem, with more than 5.8 million patients in the United States and 40 million worldwide. Common causes of heart failure include heart attack, hypertension, a trial fibrillation, excessive alcohol use, infection, and myocardial infarction. Early diagnosis of heart failure is essential for successful treatment of the disease.

2) Marketing

Since our product is connected with the mobile application, advertisement will be progressed in a type of a banner in a website. The product will be distributed in a indirect way, such as making a company website. This will let people from worldwide to consume our biochip.

3) Future – About Nanoparticles

Nanotechnology has become a growing concern in a wide range of fields: biology, chemistry, mechanical engineering, etc. In biomedical sciences, nanomaterials have been investigated over the past years, followed by a host of papers associated with drug delivery, disease treatment, diagnostic kit, and stem cells differentiation. One of the most important peculiarities is the large surface area of the materials, easily and massively binding to various types of substances, which allows to enhance the sensitivity of biosensors by improving reaction frequency and detection signals when applied to the development of nano-biosensors.

Nanoparticles

6. References

[1] Braunwald, E. (2013). Heart failure. JACC Heart Failure 1(1), 1-20.

[2] Frost and Sullivan (2005). https://ww2.frost.com/

[3] Goetze, J.P. (2005). Coronary artery disease, heart failure, and cardiac natriuretic peptides in the middle. Eur. Heart J. 26(24), 2603-2604.

[4] Kalorama Information (2004, 2008). https://www.kaloramainformation.com/

[5] Ko, S., Kim, B., Jo, S.S., Oh, S.Y., Park, J.K. (2007). Electrochemical detection of cardiac troponin I using a microchip with the surface-functionalized poly (dimethylsiloxane) channel. Biosens. Bioelectron. 23(1), 51-59.

[6] Kim, A.R., Park, T.J., Kim, M.S., Kim, I.H., Kim, K.S., Chung, K.H., Ko, S. (2017). Functional fusion proteins and prevention of electrode fouling for a sensitive electrochemical immunosensor. Anal. Chim. Acta. 967, 70-77.

[7] Park, T.J., Lee, S.Y., Lee, S.J., Park, J.P., Yang, K.S., Lee, K.B., Ko, S., Park, J.B., Kim, T., Kim, S.K., Shin, Y.B., Chung, B.H., Ku, S.J., Kim, D.H., Choi, I.S. (2006). Protein nanopatterns and biosensors using gold binding polypeptide as a fusion partner. Anal. Chem. 78(20), 7197–7205.

[8] Troughton, R.W., Felker, G.M., Januzzi, J.L. (2014). Natriuretic peptide-guided heart failure management. Eur. Heart J. 35(1), 16-24.