The Roche Drishti Healthtech Challenge is an initiative by Roche Pharma India, a global leader in innovative healthcare solutions, aimed at accelerating breakthrough technologies that can transform patient care, with a strong focus on strengthening India’s retinal care ecosystem. The purpose of this initiative is to identify and co-develop cutting-edge digital and technological solutions in the healthcare sector. Its objective is to collaborate with innovative startups that can enhance Roche’s efforts in patient support, health system strengthening, ecosystem shaping, and data analytics through scalable tech solutions. The vision is to build a collaborative innovation ecosystem that addresses critical gaps in retinal screening, diagnosis, and care delivery. The expected outcome is to identify high-potential solutions that can be implemented and scaled to create meaningful, measurable improvements in retinal health.
Next-Gen Retinal Healthtech Challenge: Early Detection, Smart Referrals & Integrated Care
India faces a growing burden of preventable blindness due to retinal diseases such as Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) and neovascular Age-related Macular Degeneration (nAMD). Despite advances in treatment, delayed detection and weak referral linkages continue to limit patient outcomes, particularly in primary and community healthcare settings.
To address this urgent need, we are inviting startups, innovators, and technology developers to co-develop and pilot AI-powered and digital health solutions that can strengthen the retinal care pathway across the continuum—from early screening to specialist referral and treatment initiation.
Proposed solutions should aim to:
– Enable early and accurate retinal screening at the community or primary care level using AI-driven image analysis (identify high-risk patients), teleophthalmology, or smartphone-based fundus/OCT tools.
– Digitize and automate referral pathways to ensure seamless coordination between Health & Wellness Centres (HWCs), district hospitals, and tertiary eye institutes.
– Integrate with national digital health platforms such as ABDM, eSanjeevani, or NPCDCS registries to enable longitudinal patient tracking and data interoperability and improve follow-up adherence.
Integrated Real-World Evidence Capture & Analytics Software for Ophthalmology
There is a critical need in India for a digital solution that can capture, analyze, and generate real-world evidence (RWE) on the efficacy and safety of therapeutic interventions, particularly in ophthalmology and other specialty care domains. Currently, clinical data across hospitals and treatment centers remain fragmented, non-standardized, and difficult to analyze retrospectively.
We are inviting startups and health-tech innovators to develop a secure, interoperable, and regulatory-compliant software platform that can:
– Capture real-world data on patient demographics (age, gender, diagnosis, co-morbidities, concomitant medications) and treatment details (molecule name, regimen, number of injections per year).
– Record efficacy parameters such as BCVA, IRF/SRF, hard exudates, and HRF, along with safety data (adverse events or side effects).
– Analyze data retrospectively to derive insights on treatment outcomes, safety trends, and clinical effectiveness.
– Integrate seamlessly with existing hospital systems (EMRs/HIS) to enable smooth data exchange and interoperability.
– Ensure strict data privacy and anonymization, in compliance with national regulations, institutional policies, and ethical standards, with appropriate IRB/ethics approvals wherever required.
Awards:-
INR 35 Lakhs reward for the winner startup for each problem statement
Non-Fiscal Incentives
– Mentorship from Roche India leadership team
– Access to Roche India R&D team for technical feedback
– Co-branding and visibility via Roche India network
– Opportunities for partnerships and collaborations
– Pilot opportunity with Roche India, if selected for incubation
Deadline:- 31-01-2026
