Byonyks: Pakistan’s indigenous Peritoneal Dialysis Machine
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Intro
If you go to their website https://byonyks.com/, it starts with statistics. Seems like a slide deck out of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).
The machine was built from funding from Ministry of IT&T’s fund called Ignite Seed and angel investors.
The Byonyks website doesn’t have much details on it but Parhlo says it is Automated Peritoneal Dialysis (APD)
A simple google image search for APD it shows tons of such machines
The Team
No medicinal doctor in the team, not that having a doctor would have helped. We can go by the LinkedIn bios of each. It is hard to search for such accomplished personnel if only their first name is mentioned.
First let’s take the CEO
The above summary above just doesn’t fit the below experience of software engineering.
This is from the LinkedIn page of Dr. Frank
The head of Business Development from his LinkedIn page
Dr. Frank youtube video on Byonyks homepage says nothing about technology of the device. Just a lot of mumbo jumbo about how it will help a developing country like Pakistan.
I like Michael Wollowitz’s presentation the best. He doesn’t have an original idea as he is reading from a prepared script (his eyes keep moving to the script).
The Byonyks youtube channel has 5 videos and is a train wreck especially the hand drawn ones.
The employees
The employees of Byonyks as per LinkedIn
With no doctors on the team (probably doctors serve as advisors/consultants or may be just don’t have a LinkedIn presence), it is no mean feat that talented engineers of Pakistan have developed such a device.
The Endorsements
Endorsed by Minister of Science and Technology, no less
And Pakistan’s most famous investment banker
“They will come and do the dialysis at home”. Hmm….
The Technology?
As per Mayo Clinic website, APD method initially requires insertion of catheter into the stomach which is done through surgery under local or general anesthesia
The news coverage
It received coverage in local and international news
BOTTOM LINE
No doubt, a great achievement by the Pakistani engineers and Harvard/MIT alumni.
Post Script
The focus on “bloodless” reminds me of Theranos that invented a device that could do deep blood analysis with a fingerprick without extracting sizeable quantity of blood.
