Unim

UNIM (UNIM) was created to enable each patient from any corner of the country to receive high-quality oncological diagnostics.

The company provides a full range of services for digital cytological and pathomorphological diagnostics, conducts histological, immunohistochemical and immunocytochemical studies (data as of 2022).

UNIM is one of the startups supported by the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF). The company is a resident of Skolkovo.

Performance indicators

At the end of 2021, the revenue of the company "Yunim" amounted to 267 million rubles, and net profit - 12 million rubles.

History

2022

Appointment of Oleg Nesterov as CEO of Unim

The Russian pathomorphological laboratory Unim was headed by the former head of the Roche Diagnostics subsidiary in the Russian Federation, Oleg Nesterov. The corresponding entry was made to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities at the end of September 2022. Read more here.

Expansion of Pathology Laboratory Power

Expanding the area of ​ ​ the UNIM laboratory in Skolkovo will allow consulting almost twice as many patients - up to 450 diagnostic cases per day. The company independently collects, prepares, registers and digitizes biological material, and then issues a pathomorphological conclusion. The Fund announced this on September 12, 2022.

In December 2017, UNIM opened its own laboratory in the Skolkovo Technopark. This is a histological laboratory in Russia, where the diagnosis of each case is carried out digitally by two or more experts, using an interdisciplinary approach to exclude an erroneous diagnosis. The research is based on the company's developed cloud platform Digital Pathology.

In 2022, UNIM decided to expand the laboratory area. Now it is 270 m ², which almost doubles the diagnostic capacity: from 250 to 450 cases per day.

The expansion of the UNIM laboratory is a big step in the development of healthcare in Russia. The additional production capacity of the laboratory allows for high-quality diagnostics for more patients. They will be able to get health information without leaving their city limits. UNIM, since the opening of the laboratory at Skolkovo, has brought pathomorphological diagnostics to a different level, and the expansion only confirmed our expectations, said Kirill Kayem, Senior Vice President of Innovation at the Skolkovo Foundation.

The number of equipment will increase by 50%, which will also allow diagnosing up to 160,000 cases per year. The expansion of the laboratory will almost double the flow of incoming cases, and the number of unique patients per month will reach 8,000 people.

As of September 2022, as a result of the expansion, the UNIM laboratory is one of the most efficient pathomorphological laboratories in the world in terms of the ratio of the amount of equipment to the diagnostic capacity of the laboratory. At the start of the company in 2017, digital laboratories were in two places in the world - in the USA and the Netherlands. And by 2022, we not only demonstrated that digital pathomorphology is possible in Russia, but also made the UNIM laboratory a laboratory where Digital Pathology technology has become cost-effective in terms of payback, noted Aleksei Remez, CEO of UNIM.

Tashir Medica Purchase

On August 17, 2022, the Tashir Medica investment holding informed Zdrav.Expert about the redemption of 100% of the shares of Unim, the Skolkovo residency center, which develops digital tools for pathomorphological diagnostics based on its own laboratory. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.

Tashir Medica bought Unim, a developer of digital tools for pathomorphological diagnostics
Photo source: yandex.ru

Prior to the transaction with Tashir Medica, Unim's main share belonged to its general director Aleksei Remez. In addition to him, among the owners of Yunim LLC according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities were:

• Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF);
• Medme (Medmi), which specializes in investment in digital health;
• Gorkov Alexander Evgenievich;
• Alexey Nikolaevich Basov (BSF Capital);
• Kroman Nikolay Sergeevich;

"Having invested in Unim in 2014, IIDF has come a long way with the team from acceleration to a deal to sell to a strategic investor. The team managed to scale the business model and bring the startup to the stage of sustainable development, "- commented on the deal, IIDF Investment Director Maxim Steigerwald.

Unim is engaged in the creation of full-cycle solutions for organizing turnkey pathological diagnostics processes - from recommendations and methodology for the correct collection and fixation of biological material, its preparation and coloring, to registration in the system, digitization and issuance of a pathomorphological conclusion.

In 2017, Unim launched its own laboratory, where research is carried out and an opinion is issued with the involvement of two or more experts from Russia and other countries, based on the company's own cloud platform Digital Pathology. By 2022, more than 4 thousand narrow-profile specialists were connected to the platform, who in their daily practice make diagnoses to more than 250 patients.

"In 2014, the professional community around the world believed that this was impossible - to create a laboratory in which Digital Pathology would be the only approach to diagnosis. We not only implemented this approach in practice, but also showed that this approach is more effective both from a clinical and economic point of view, "said Aleksei Remez, founder of Unim.

The Digital Pathology platform also allows you to conduct educational events for pathologists, build work in the laboratory using the concilium method, and accumulate your own archive of digital images, which is further used in the medical decision support system.

According to the Arsena Galstyana managing partner of Tashir Medica Group of Companies, the main direction of the holding's strategy is patient-centric medical services and digitalization of processes in. health care

"We have long watched the development of Unim and see significant potential in scaling the company's experience in creating an innovative model of pathomorphological research using the Digital Pathology cloud platform," he said.

According to Alexei Basov, BSF Capital, Tashir Medik's experience and capabilities inspire confidence in the further active scaling of Unim and the introduction of the company's solutions into the Russian healthcare system.

"Having become the first investor to believe in the project, I am glad that I was not mistaken. The team demonstrated outstanding success not only in developing the business, but also popularizing the very idea of ​ ​ window diagnostics based on artificial intelligence. Thousands of people, thanks to Unim, were able to get a correct diagnosis and avoid mistakes in the treatment strategy. This is an excellent example of how technologies literally save lives, "added Alexey Basov.

2019: Opening an online residency for cancer doctors

On March 21, 2019, the Skolkovo Foundation announced that UNIM, a resident of the Skolkovo Foundation's Biomedical Technology Cluster, had opened an online residency for doctors involved in cancer diagnosis. The non-profit educational project is intended for those who want to professionally develop their competencies in the field of modern cancer diagnosis.

Until April 1, 2019, two Russian doctors will be selected on a competitive basis, regardless of their place of work and city of residence. They can be graduates or students of the last courses of the medical university in the specialty "pathological anatomy," residents or practicing doctors-oncodiagnosts. Selection criteria - resume and motivational letter, as well as Skype interview.

For two months, under the leadership of Russian and international oncodiagnosts, residents will investigate the materials of patients with suspicions of all types of cancer. Thanks to the Digital Pathology system, you can learn remotely. The company plans three online residencies and 12 graduates annually.

We will train doctors with little experience who have recently graduated from a medical university, cancer diagnostics on real data, give access to modern diagnostic technologies, the opportunity to work side by side with leading cancer specialists. This is a good opportunity for cancer diagnostics.

Online residency in 'YUNIM' is a project with great prospects. The digitalization of medicine allows you to bring innovation to the educational process. Working in teams with experienced doctors, access to difficult cases, training from the best professionals in the industry become possible for any young specialist.

According to the Russian Society of Pathologists, as of March 2019, there is a shortage of cancer diagnostics in our country: 3132 doctors at 8037 rates. At the same time, insufficient qualification often does not allow detecting cancer in the early stage. As a result - long-term diagnosis, errors in diagnoses and the choice of wrong methods of medical care.

2018

Neural network for the diagnosis of cancer

The Russian company UNIM (a portfolio company of the Internet Initiatives Development Fund) has developed and trained a neural network that automates one of the stages in the diagnosis of cancer - counting the Ki-67 index that determines the tumor growth rate. This was reported to TASS in the press service of the IIDF^[1]

"We made a neural network that counts the total number of cells in a material and, by determining how many express Ki67, gives that information to the doctor. Before the advent of neural networks, it was extremely difficult to do this using classical mathematical methods. The drugs were not standardized, the results could differ, "the press service told TASS, citing the words of UNIM founder Aleksei Remez.

According to the press service, the developed neural network provides 95% accuracy, which is higher than the doctor's diagnosis rate. At the same time, the neural network reduces the amount of working time of the doctor spent on the process of determining this characteristic and increases the accuracy of the result. Usually, the doctor took 15 minutes to work with the picture, the neural network reduces this process to 30 seconds, the company's press service noted.

The company noted that at the moment the neural network is used in the startup laboratory in test mode. Using the technology, the materials of more than 200 diagnosed patients were viewed and evaluated. In 2018, the number of examined can reach at least 2 thousand people, explained TASS in the press service of UNIM. At this stage, the company cooperates with 30 state and private medical centers and oncological dispensaries in ten regions of Russia.

Opening of a digital laboratory for cancer diagnosis

On the eve of World Cancer Day, the Skolkovo company UNIM is opening the first digital laboratory in Russia. The project, where all research is conducted digitally on a cloud platform, will eliminate the risk of misdiagnosis, reduce research time, and also involve the best international specialists in working on complex cases.

2017: Medme becomes UNIM shareholder

A strategic investor in the digital medicine market Medme has invested in the capital of the startup company UNIM. The negotiation process for the upcoming deal began in the fall of 2016. UNIM was valued at 2 million. dollars USA Investors attracted to the startup earlier supported the arrival of a strategic partner in UNIM in the person of Medme. As a strategic investor, Medme plans to be deeply involved in UNIM's business, to contribute to the development and implementation of the company's development strategy.

2016

Launch of a free cancer diagnosis service for oncologists

In May 2016, Unim opened doctors around the world with free access to its commercial IT platform for remote diagnosis of cancer, thanks to which oncologists will be able to conduct remote training consultations on the diagnosis of cancer.

Within the framework of the project, called Pathology Puzzles, specialists will access a set of clinical cases from real medical practice, which will be able to work collectively through a cloud platform developed at Unim for online cancer diagnosis.

Unim has opened doctors around the world with free access to its commercial IT platform for remote cancer diagnosis

Participants in the training will be able to find out the correct diagnosis only at the end of the month and compare it with their own conclusions. Diagnostic cases will not be invented, the medical history will be provided by international clinical centers and laboratories.

Unim's proposed platform for online cancer diagnosis opens up new opportunities. For example, doctors will be able to study one case of cancer from different parts of the world (previously, this required a physical presence in one laboratory), conduct virtual consultations, consult with foreign colleagues, have access to a large archive of digitized data on the disease, etc.

According to Unim CEO Aleksei Remez, the use of specialized software in cancer telemedicine is due to the large volumes of digitized analyzes (up to 20 files of 3-4 GB each per case), as well as the fact that the software must process images on the server, providing the doctor with the required level of usability.

According to research by American oncologists, over the past ten years, there have been 20% more cases of cancer worldwide than in the previous millennium. Cancer today affects people more than AIDS and tuberculosis. But technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer are also constantly developing. One of the key factors in the success of oncology treatment is to make the most accurate diagnosis. All over the world, the gold standard for oncodiagnosis is pathomorphological research. The improvement in the quality of morphological diagnostics is inextricably linked with the continuous development of professional qualifications of pathologists, cytologists and laboratory assistants of morphological laboratories.^[2]

Geography of application of Digital Pathology

As of May 2016, the platform Digital Pathology is used to diagnose diseases in a number of countries Europe and, CIS as well as and. USA To Canada The company offers immunohistochemical tests, histological tests, revision of histological glasses and glasses abroad. In the future, the company plans to train computer neural networks analytics in such data in order to facilitate the work of doctors.

2014: Introduction of Digital Pathology Cloud Platform

In 2014, the company introduced the cloud platform for remote diagnostics of oncology Digital Pathology.

2013: Founding of the Company

Unim was founded in 2013 as a project for the physical diagnosis of cancer.

Notes