Here's how Purple Butterfly Technologies is helping parents with the early detection of Autism!

This Bengaluru-based health tech start-up aims to help parents with the early detection of Autism spectrum disorder as well as the timely intervention of the same. They are already in touch with 160 parents from different cities in India.

According to a recent report, approximately 1% to 1.5% of children aged between 2 to 9 years are affected by Autism, which is the world's third most common developmental disorder. It is estimated that we currently have around 18 million autistic people in India, and 10% of school-going children are among them. But what is more worrisome is the less awareness about this neurological disorder, with very few therapy & help centers and medical professionals available. It's not like we are not doing anything about this issue, but the extent to which it should be done is the problem. And thus, something revolutionary was needed, and that's where Purple Butterfly Technologies comes into the picture!

Struggling to get the right intervention for his autistic son in India, Debganshu Gupta founded Purple Butterfly Technologies in 2020 with two of his friends, Subhrojyoti Mukherjee and Vijay Ramamoorthy. It's a social impact organization dedicated to meeting the need for early detection and intervention for children at risk of ASD in India using cutting-edge technology.

Vijay Ramamoorthy, Debangshu Dasgupta, and Subhrojyoti Mukherjee

"As a young parent, it was pretty challenging for me. There were a handful of doctors, and getting their appointment was a big task. So after struggling for a while, I shifted to Canada, but when I returned after five years, nothing had changed. People were still not aware, there were no channels for authentic information regarding ASD, and there were very few therapy centres present. So, I decided to start Purple Butterfly Technologies with a motto to provide a holistic platform for the early detection and intervention of autism for children between the age of 1-5 children", he told Local Samosa.

Gupta formed the company in October 2020 with his two friends and started doing research. The trio and their team spoke to around 500 parents from all across the country, got in touch with 60 doctors, and finalized the problems they were going to solve. He later created a website and came up with a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) through which parents can not only detect ASD in their child for free but can also find the nearest clinic, medical expert, and therapy centre and can book an online as well as offline appointment to take it further.

"We aim to become a one-stop solution for Autism detection and intervention. We have created an e-platform where parents can register for free and detect if their child has ASD with the help of an instrument (a set of questions made by a team of doctors in St. John's Medical College and Dr.Ashok Mysore, an ASD expert)", said Gupta.

However, the team is doing beta testing of this MVP ( Minimal Viable Product), i.e., testing the user journey and comprehensive testing in a controlled environment. "We have been working with 30 doctors, ten therapists, and 160 parents, and the feedback has been great. A lot of the parents told us that they wish they had something like this when their child was young and had such an opportunity for early detection and intervention", he further added.

It should be noted that early detection can be beneficial as, from birth to age 5, a child's brain develops more than at any other time in life. It has a lasting impact on a child's ability to learn. "So, if detected and intervened early, the child's life can be saved up to 23%", said Gupta.

Also Read: World Autism Awareness Day 2021: Indian organizations that are spreading awareness and helping autistic people!

The journey was quite challenging, from doing research to meeting parents, doing an end number of meetings with medical professionals, to creating an AI platform, generating funds, and a lot more. " It was extra difficult because A- we were working on an area of mental health, and B- we were building this for kids, which required us to be five times more conscious," mentioned Gupta.

But at the same time, they were fortunate to receive enough funding at the right time. Purple Butterfly is currently working with DERBI Foundation, the largest healthcare incubation hub in India, and has recently been recognized and awarded a grant by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. The team will officially launch its final e-platform in June and is very optimistic about the feedback and has also tied up with many kindergarten schools in different metro-cities. As far as the revenue is concerned, Purple Butterfly will be taking up 20% of the transaction between the patient and the specialists after each appointment.

Also Read: Meet India’s first model with Autism, Pranav Bakhshi from Delhi, who’s walking the ramp like a boss!!

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