Stamurai wins 1st ZS PRIZE for providing AI – enabled speech therapy for over 10 mn stammering individuals in India
The healthcare innovation program under the guidance of Ravi Venkatesan (Founder, G.A.M.E, ex-Microsoft, Board member Bank of Baroda), Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Biocon), Sangita Reddy (Apollo), Prof. Srinath Reddy (Public Health Foundation of India) among others
Mumbai, July 11 (FN Agency) Stamurai, a speech therapy app for stuttering recently won big at ZS’ inaugural healthcare innovation program – ZS PRIZE. The app, launched by a group of friends who wanted to help their own stuttering, have now been awarded Rs. 75 lakhs from ZS PRIZE to develop the solution further. India has over 10 million people who stammer and Stamurai’s accessibility can now reach remote regions of India where speech therapy solutions may not be readily available. Stamurai consists of instructional videos to teach speech therapy exercises, tools to help people practice those exercises catering to the community of users which acts as a self-help group. This can be provided at less than 5% of the cost of traditional speech therapy, and is available 24X7, resulting in lower chances of relapse. The founders of Stamurai have been working with a team of speech therapists and consultants both in India and the US who helped refine the offering in the healthcare space making speech therapy accessible and affordable even in remote regions.
While other countries have many initiatives to support their people who stutter, in India this movement is quite inactive, largely due to lack of awareness and majorly due to lack of resources. Speaking about the innovation Meet Singhal, Founder of Stamurai said, “The first version of the product was built for us to use ourselves, but soon the product started to see traction. After regular analysis and various surveys, we found that the primary drawbacks were affordability, accessibility, and relapse rate are the major concerns behind this. Hence analyzing the ongoing issue led to the invention of Stamurai which costs less than 5% of what a typical physical speech therapy would cost. Offline speech therapies are also immune to a high fall-through rate and eventual relapse to stammering.”
Commenting on the accessibility and affordability of the winning solution, Sanjay Joshi, Regional Managing Principal, and Asia head – ZS said, “We congratulate Stamurai, the winner of the first ZS PRIZE edition. The quality of the ideas along with the compassion to work for the greater good of the country is highly commendable. ZS PRIZE showcased many sharp young minds in India who are working hard to create innovations that can improve healthcare accessibility and affordability.”
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