TERAL: Global healthcare revolution through real-time collaboration and AI
Biotech Blueprint's new series highlighting groundbreaking startups and their visionary founders
Welcome to Startup Spotlight on Biotech Blueprint!
In this series, I dive into the stories of innovative biotech startups and their visionary founders. Each post explores cutting-edge technologies, the challenges and triumphs of entrepreneurship, and the impacts these companies are making in the biotech industry.
In today’s post from the Biotech Blueprint Startup Spotlight series, we explore TERAL, a company dedicated to revolutionizing healthcare by developing secure, user-friendly technology for general practitioners, specialists, and other healthcare professionals.
TERAL aims to transform global healthcare through the creation of the world’s largest repository of clinical cases, enabling real-time collaboration to solve complex medical challenges. The platform utilizes advanced technologies like AI and big data infrastructure to facilitate instant communication among physicians worldwide, enhancing diagnostic accuracy, speeding up the identification of effective treatments, and ultimately improving patient outcomes.
During health crises, such as pandemics, TERAL’s centralized database and real-time information sharing can accelerate global response efforts, helping healthcare providers detect outbreaks early, swiftly share treatment protocols, and coordinate a unified response to mitigate public health impacts.
Founded on the principles of seamless and secure medical communication, TERAL is set to become the gold standard for real-time collaboration among healthcare professionals. Headquartered in Medellin, Colombia, TERAL was co-founded in 2022 by David Calderon Duarte, Meisser Alberto Lopez Cordoba and Alan Sepúlveda. The company participated in the prestigious Techstars 2024 accelerator in Miami, supported by J.P. Morgan. I spoke with David Calderon, TERAL’S CEO, to discuss the inspiration behind the startup and its potential to reshape the future of medicine.
The inspiration behind TERAL
TERAL’s impressive journey began with a simple yet powerful observation. David Calderon recalls a conversation with Dr. Meisser, TERAL’s chief scientific officer, who shared insights from his research in telehealth. Dr. Meisser had noted that general practitioners (GPs) around the world often struggle with limited access to specialists, which can lead to delayed or inadequate patient care. To tackle this, they had formed WhatsApp groups with over 700 GPs and 50 specialists, documenting over 2,600 cases where tele-support helped improve diagnoses and treatments.
This experiment revealed a major gap in the healthcare sector: the need for an efficient and secure platform that goes beyond what consumer apps like WhatsApp could offer. “While WhatsApp was great for instant messaging, it didn’t comply with patient data regulations and wasn’t designed to efficiently compile clinical cases,” Calderon explained. This realization was the seed that grew into TERAL, a platform designed specifically to address these challenges.
Transforming healthcare communication
TERAL is more than just a messaging app. It is a comprehensive platform designed to foster global collaboration among healthcare professionals. Calderon envisions TERAL as “the gold standard for real-time medical communication,” where professionals can access a secure medical community and a global repository of clinical cases. This allows doctors to share and gain insights from a wide range of medical scenarios, enhancing diagnostic accuracy and treatment outcomes.
To ensure the security and privacy of patient data, TERAL was built with compliance at its core. Calderon emphasizes that the platform uses advanced encryption standards and works with cloud service giants like AWS and Google Cloud to protect sensitive information. Furthermore, TERAL’s use of the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard ensures that data can be shared seamlessly across different healthcare systems.
AI as a medical copilot
A standout feature of TERAL is its integration of AI-powered tools designed to assist, not replace, healthcare professionals. Calderon likens TERAL’s AI to a “medical copilot,” providing doctors with relevant information at the moment they need it. This tool can suggest potential diagnoses and treatments, making it easier for doctors to make informed decisions. However, Calderon acknowledges that while AI cannot replace medical knowledge at this time, it will play an increasingly significant role in the decision-making process in the future.
TERAL’s AI models are continuously updated with new medical data, ensuring that doctors have access to the latest insights and best practices. This makes TERAL a dynamic platform that evolves with the medical community, constantly improving patient care.
Adoption and global scalability
One of the key challenges for any global healthcare platform is scalability, and TERAL has addressed this with innovative features like “Peer Verification.” This feature ensures that only verified healthcare professionals can join the platform, maintaining the quality and reliability of the community. Additionally, TERAL is exploring automated language translation and other tools to ensure smooth adoption across different regions and healthcare systems.
TERAL also aims to integrate seamlessly with existing healthcare workflows. “We designed TERAL to feel familiar to doctors, starting with simple features like instant messaging and a clinical case repository,” Calderon explains. The platform then gradually introduces more advanced tools, such as the AI-powered medical copilot, ensuring a smooth transition for users.
A game-changer for future pandemics
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical need for rapid, reliable communication among healthcare professionals worldwide. Calderon believes TERAL could play a pivotal role in future pandemics by enabling real-time sharing of symptoms, treatments, and outcomes. “Imagine if governments and healthcare systems could know in real-time about a new case, its symptoms, progression, and treatments—all in a secure environment,” he says.
Such collaboration could dramatically enhance our ability to respond to outbreaks. By consolidating global data, TERAL could help healthcare professionals identify patterns and trends more quickly, allowing for more informed decisions and faster implementation of effective treatments. This level of collaboration and knowledge-sharing would enable governments to craft management guidelines that are constantly updated with the latest evidence from around the world. These “living clinical practice guidelines” would evolve in real-time, providing healthcare systems with the most current and effective strategies to combat emerging threats.
TERAL likely has the potential to not only manage but also prevent pandemics before they fully develop. For instance, if a cluster of cases with unusual symptoms is reported in one part of the world, the network can facilitate immediate consultation with experts in relevant medical fields or in affected regions. This collaborative approach allows for swift identification of potential threats and the implementation of containment measures before the situation escalates.
Looking ahead: The future of TERAL
Looking to the future, TERAL aims to become the go-to platform for instant medical communication and collaboration. Calderon envisions a global medical community where doctors have access to the latest AI developments in healthcare, all within an easy-to-use interface. Upcoming features include a desktop version, dedicated spaces for hospitals and manufacturers, and enhanced payment and AI capabilities.
“AI won’t replace doctors, but it will help them provide better diagnoses and treatments,” Calderon predicts. “A doctor without AI may become obsolete.”
Join the revolution
TERAL is already making a significant impact, with over 2,000 documented cases where the platform has improved patient care. From saving lives to enhancing the accuracy of diagnoses, TERAL is proving that real-time, secure communication can change the face of healthcare.
Are you ready to be part of the healthcare revolution? Stay tuned for more updates from TERAL and other groundbreaking startups in Biotech Blueprint’s Startup Spotlight series.
A special thank you to TERAL, David Calderon for sharing his insights, and to all our readers.
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DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only. It should not be taken as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. The views expressed here are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any company or institution.
DISCLOSURE: I have no business relationships with any company mentioned in this article.