The UCI startup and Wayfinder graduate’s deep learning technology helps guide gastrointestinal disease diagnosis and has propelled their team to startup success.

What started out as a simple phrase to describe bringing intelligence to inanimate objects in 1956, artificial intelligence (AI) would later be responsible, in the form of IBM’s Deep Blue computer, for defeating Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, according to Live Science. In fact, AI can now be found in every field of science and can claim more than just chess wins.

Thanks in part to their own AI, UC Irvine (UCI) startup Docbot has also been winning and they’re not playing around.

As one of UCI Beall Applied Innovation’s first startups to come out of the Wayfinder incubator, Docbot uses AI predictive technology to detect polyps in real time to help guide disease diagnosis, prevention and healthcare decision-making. The company has experienced the quintessential peaks and valleys of the startup journey and has catapulted into a new stage of growth.

 

docbot doctor wearing blue scrubs faces a computer monitor that shows a person's colon
Using Docbot’s A.I. platform, a doctor conducts a colonoscopy at UCI Medical Center. During the procedure, a colon polyp is found, which is indicated within a blue box on the computer screen. Photo: Julie Kennedy, UCI Beall Applied Innovation

 

THE FIRST VALLEY
Shortly before his 18th birthday, Andrew Ninh, Docbot co-founder and chief strategy officer, was hospitalized for a spontaneous pneumothorax. While in the hospital, the nurses had learned to ignore the hospital system’s constant alerts since they were so common. It was in this inefficiency that Ninh saw an opportunity in improving healthcare’s interfaces between patients and clinicians. After meeting Dr. Bill Karnes, clinical professor of medicine at UCI’s School of Medicine and Docbot co-founder and chief scientific officer, who created an extensive database that collects high-quality data from colonoscopies, the two combined their skills and datasets to develop the foundation for Docbot’s deep learning system.

“Andrew [Ninh] is all about solving a problem with the interface between a physician and a patient, and collecting the data and creating beautiful pieces of software that could make it so easy,” said Karnes. “This was a marriage made in heaven.”

In 2018, they set up shop at UCI Health and joined the Wayfinder incubator at UCI Beall Applied Innovation. Additionally, they took advantage of the program by utilizing Applied Innovation’s office space to conduct business and gain access to the Innovation Advisor network.

docbot quote with man wearing glasses and a bright blue collared shirt smiling outside

“I think the most valuable part [about Applied Innovation] is plugging the companies into the Innovation Advisors,” said Ninh. “It’s finding the people who want to help and nurture young companies and getting connected to those companies. How else would you do it in Orange County? You’d have to go to these events and it’s kind of like empty networking, but when you have a trusted source like UCI bridging that gap, I think that’s the biggest value UCI brings.”

CLIMBING THE PEAKS
Since launching their startup, Docbot has experienced much success, climbing each peak with calculated ease.
Not shortly after their days in Wayfinder, Docbot was accepted into Y Combinator, a seed money startup accelerator located in the Bay Area, and after the three-month program, exited in 2019 with multiple interested investors at their side and $2.045 million in funding in their pockets. During the 2019 Orange County Business Journal Innovator of the Year Awards ceremony, the team was recognized as one of three innovators of the year.

docbot team wearing masks inside an office walk towards the screen holding a folder while another man in a black blazer and tan slacks leans against a door talking to another man sitting at desk in an office
The Docbot team works out of the Cove @ UCI and, after graduating from the Wayfinder program, is now a Cove partner. Photo: Julie Kennedy, UCI Beall Applied Innovation

 

A few weeks prior to California officially shutting its doors, Ninh spoke about his experiences pitching to investors at the inaugural Orange County Celebrates Entrepreneurs event held at California State University-Fullerton. Ninh emphasized that entrepreneurs need to treat every pitch like it’s the first pitch, though he says these days, he is more intimidated when he pitches to customers.

“Ultimately, that’s the money that makes the company long-lasting,” said Ninh. “Anyone who gives you money, you have to have your best foot forward all the time.”

Toward the end of 2020, the Docbot team published a collaborative study with Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical company based in the U.S., in the leading journal “Gastroenterology” that was the first to show deep learning AI can be trained to automatically predict levels of ulcerative colitis severity using endoscopic videos.

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
With continued success comes growth and in January, Docbot brought on Andrew Ritter, MBA, as CEO to lead the company. Ritter aims to commercialize the company as well as raise Docbot’s Series A funding round by the end of 2021.

“Andrew [Ninh] has done a really great job of creating a foundation for the business and building it from the ground up with his passion and determination – that’s what launches companies,” said Ritter. “In addition, UCI Beall Applied Innovation was a key component of our company’s foundational launch and success. We wouldn’t be where we are today without their continued support and relationship.”

docbot quote with blue lines and blue quotation surrounding a white man smiling in a suit

Not new to the startup world, in 2007, Ritter established and grew Ritter Pharmaceuticals, a leading biotech company that focuses on the microbiome of the gut and gastrointestinal diseases. He took the company public in 2015 and in May 2020, the company was acquired by Qualigen Therapeutics, Inc., a biotech company that develops therapeutic products for cancer and infectious disease treatments.

“I’ve always been interested in the cross-section between healthcare and innovation. When the company was acquired and I exited, I really wanted to look for an innovative healthcare company that I could help operate and grow,” said Ritter. “Docbot hit a lot of boxes – it’s GI, innovative and I thought the team was great.”

docbot startup three men in black blazers, tan slacks and bright blue collared shirts sit outside on a blue couch looking at the camera smiling
The Docbot team: Dr. Bill Karnes, co-founder, chief medical officer,  Andrew Ritter, MBA, CEO and Andrew Ninh, co-founder, chief strategic officer, sit outside the Cove @ UCI. Photo: Julie Kennedy, UCI Beall Applied Innovation

 

JETSETTING THE INNOVATION SKYWAYS
The pandemic may have temporarily paused travel, but not for Docbot. With Ninh splitting his time between Orange County and the Bay Area, private planes have literally brought the team together.

“Our COO has a small plane that he flies Andrew [Ninh] down to Southern California and we meet in my backyard,” said Ritter.

The Docbot team now has a national, multicenter study that aims to prove their AI actually assists physicians in finding more polyps. The team hopes to realize the dream, as Karnes references, of their technology providing a perspective equivalent to sitting on the doctor’s shoulder and collecting high-quality data in the process.

Docbot tackles gastrointestinal disease white male doctor wearing glasses, dark blazer and bright blue shirt pull quote on intelligence based medicine

“By having the data, then we can do what’s truly valuable and that’s predictive modeling,” said Karnes. “Applying machine learning and having all of those factors we may not even have a clue play a role in your risk, like genetics and lifestyle. It’s not evidence-based medicine, it’s intelligence based medicine.”

Learn more about Docbot.

All Photos and Graphics: Julie Kennedy, UCI Beall Applied Innovation


Produced by UCI Beall Applied Innovation
Directed, filmed & edited by Julie Kennedy