Mendelian gets £500,000 for rare disease screening tech

UK health technology startup Mendelian has received a £500,000 grant from a government agency to build products that will help GPs identify patients with rare or hard to diagnose conditions and diseases. Mendelian will use the grant from Innovate UK to get a specialized screening system for rare diseases off the ground. The technology uses data analysis to provide fast, accurate, and automated identification of patients who may fit the rare disease or difficult to diagnose categories. Once the technology has analyzed the symptoms, the system notifies the GP with various options, including referring them to a specialist or recommending further analysis and testing.
Mendelian cited research by rare diseases pharma Shire, now part of Takeda, saying that in the UK it takes on average 5.6 years, eight clinicians including four specialists, and three misdiagnoses before the correct rare disease are identified. The company’s own health economics report released in November revealed that over the last 10 years, rare disease patients living undiagnosed with their conditions have cost the NHS more than £3.4 billion.