Category: Science

• Rimads, health care startup, is using artificial intelligence and advanced computer science techniques to diagnose patients, cut waiting time and deliver over-the-counter drugs.
• Rimads has launched their home delivery application for over-the-counter drugs but two applications are still being developed.
• Rimads hopes to reimagine patient’s health care experiences.

Around the world, machine-enabled health care has swept the industry.

Here in Qatar, Mohammad Hammoud, Assistant Teaching Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), is hoping to save lives through his artificial intelligence (AI) system. Hammoud is developing an AI system that will provide patients with an initial assessment of their condition and eliminate the need for patients to make the first visit to the hospital to see a general practitioner. Instead, patients will be informed of potential conditions and then, if needed, they will be directed to a specialist.

This the first part of Rimads’ ecosystem.

Next, Hammoud hopes to cut waiting time and directly connect patients to doctors. The application will allow patients to make appointments with the best possible doctor to treat their condition at a hospital or medical clinic near them.

Last in this process is an application that delivers over-the-counter products to your home. This recently launched application by Rimads allows users to order products ranging from pain relievers, supplements and skincare to baby products.

In an effort to promote the platform, Rimads held a “Dermatology and Skin Health Day” at Qatar Science and Technology Park. The event offered the public free dermatology and medical checkups from Ryhan Medical Complex and Marble Medical Center. Skincare and beauty brands like Bioderma, Clarins, The Face Shop and Qatar based brand, Karisma, offered free skin consultation and samples of their products.

“We are hoping this event both promotes the app and establishes a relationship with these brands because we would like to have their products on the app,” said Faisal Mir, Operational Lead at Rimads.

Rimads is not the only company offering home delivery for over-the-counter medicine in Qatar. Wellcare Online Pharmacy also offers home delivery for both prescribed and over-the-counter medicine.

When asked what makes Rimads different, Mir said, “Rimads is specialized and customer centric. First, we offer products that you won’t find on other apps. We also offer consultation with a licensed pharmacist. You can ask them any question and they will recommend you a product from the app.”

Although the delivery app is available to the public, a large part of Rimads ecosystem is still in the developmental stage.

Youssef Kanbour, Computational Medical Specialist, is working on Rimads sister application. For now, they are calling it “Phoenix”.

“My job is to make sure that the questions we are asking patients on the app are written in a way that reflects what we are trying to find,” said Kanbour. To help achieve this, Rimads employees a full-time doctor and biologist.

Finding employees to work on the application with him was a large struggle for Hammoud. However, as a professor at CMU-Q, he scouted for many of his employees at the university. Mir and Kanbour joined Rimads as fresh graduates.

Why work at a struggling start-up? Part of the answer is the opportunity to build something from the ground up, says Mir. He was interviewing for multiple jobs when he was approached by Hammoud. Mir now leads a team of six.

Hammoud hopes that “Phoenix” will make doctors work with patients quicker and easier. He explained that the application will gather information on the patient’s symptoms so doctors can focus more on the patient’s experience.

However, doctors are still worried that incorporating AI systems in hospital rooms will lead to their insignificance. However, Mir hopes that the AI systems will make the doctor’s role more important.

“The view of people is that technology is trying to replace general practitioners, take away the human experience with people. I think that at Rimads, we’re empowering patients with accurate data and increasing communication between them and doctors,” he said.

Rimads will start rolling out “Phoenix” next month. “The idea is that we will launch parts of the ecosystem one after the other,” said Hammoud.

Until then, Rimads is working on making the application’s AI system more accurate than their competitors.