Russian start-up launches web-based cancer diagnosis service

Russian start-up Unim (United Medicine) has launched the Unim Histology Internet service, which will make it possible for cancer patients to send analyses remotely to the Dmitri Rogachev Federal Clinical and Research Center for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Immunology in Moscow,  reported  East-West Digital News, the first all English-language online resource dedicated to Russian digital industries. 

Backed by state-owned investment fund FRII, the project has received the personal support of President Vladimir Putin, who has requested that the government consider setting up a remote diagnosis system for oncological diseases based on the start-up’s technology. 

“A patient becomes our potential client at the stage when a neoplasm has been diagnosed (and no determination of its malignant or benign nature has been made), or else at the stage when the necessary investigation cannot be done in time at the patient’s medical facility, or when clinical data do not agree with the morphological investigation and further investigation is necessary (there are many cases like this). Biopsy material is obtained on location, as a rule, and we have it delivered by air to our laboratory (in Russia, it takes 1-2 days, on average),” project founder Alexei Remez explained. 

The delivery cost “from door to door” for residents of the European part of Russia will reportedly be no more than $15, and $30 for those living in the Far East, Mr. Remez said. 

“If Unim Histology takes on just 10,000 of the 800,000 morphological investigations performed annually in Russia, it will be quite a large-scale business,” he added. 

Launched in February, Unim Histology raised approximately $41,000 from FRII last month. Now the company is in talks with business angels.