Web Summit, in Lisbon, ended on Thursday, Nov 4
Foto: Divulgação
PUCRS, through its Science and Technology Park (Tecnopuc), brought Henrique Dias, former School of Technology student founder of startup NoHarm.ai, to one of the major technology, innovation and entrepreneurship events all over the world, the Web Summit, in Lisbon. The event ended on Thursday, Nov 4.
Henrique’s graduate research gave life to his project, which was jointly designed with Ana Helena Ulbrich, pharmacist at Grupo Hospitalar Conceição. His study materialized an artificial intelligence model that can scan 800 drug labels and analyze 500,000 prescriptions in seconds, thus bringing more agility and security to pharmaceutical decision making. The idea was developed at the University through Track Startup, a track of opportunities for entrepreneurial students, as Henrique. Now, NoHarm.ai is expanding within the market, bringing the system to every part of Brazil and overseas, including his presentation at WebSummit.
So far, the system has already impacted more than 70,000 lives. It is currently being used in 27 hospitals, including 500 beds at PUCRS’ São Lucas Hospital. At Santa Casa Hospital, NoHarm.ai has already generated savings of more than R$ 2 million for the institution, impacting more than 20,000 lives.
It is clear to Henrique why he joined one of the world’s biggest events alongside Tecnopuc: “We have the technology to expand the market. We want to be globally connected with the area of health care, artificial intelligence, and purpose economics, which is one of the areas that I’m really interested in right now and which I hope to hear a lot at the Web Summit”.
Leandro Pompermaier, Tecnopuc’s Business and Relationship Manager, joined Henrique in the trip. The way Pompemaier sees it, this is another step forward towards the expansion of Tecnopuc. “We call it Tecnopuc Anywhere, because the Park is omnipresent. How do we do that? By bringing our essence and our entrepreneurs to all corners of the planet, and also having entrepreneurs from around the world connected to our ecosystem”.
According to Henrique’s research advisor and School of Technology professor, Dr. Renata Vieira, the student always wanted to connect his research with the real problems in hospitals, looking for solutions that could bring positive differences in the
area of adverse event management. Another highlight of the work was the effort to seek partnerships, which reveals the interdisciplinary nature of his research. “One of these partnerships was established with Prof. Janete de Souza Urbanetto and her research team in the Graduate Program in Biomedical Gerontology. Janete is an expert in adverse events related to falls”, Renata adds.
Noharm.ai developed two algorithms for automating pharmaceutical screening. While one of them prioritizes non-standard prescriptions, the other identifies critical patients. The system indicates the location of potential prescription errors, and so, increases the quality of assistance and hospital efficiency.
When Henrique and Ana Helena conceived the startup, they were joined by seven other volunteers to finish the system’s development and put the research into practice. Mãe de Deus and Santa Casa Hospitals, both in Porto Alegre, embraced the project and decided to implement the system in the everyday clinical pharmacy practice. As of today, there are more than 27 hospitals and 6,000 beds being monitored every day.
