Dec. 26, 2024

NEC Supports U.S.-based Startup Addressing Rare Disease Monitoring with Patent Transfer

NEC Corporation is dedicated to addressing societal challenges by supporting the growth of startups through patent transfers and related utilization initiatives.In November 2024, NEC transferred a pivotal patent, anticipated to have significant applications in the healthcare field, to Parrots Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Parrots”), a U.S.-based startup developing advanced AI-driven solutions for monitoring and providing care for patients with rare diseases.

We spoke with David Hojah, the CEO of Parrots Inc., to discuss the background of this initiative, the motivations behind his company’s interest in NEC’s patent, how the patents are specifically being used in product development, and his vision for the future.

About Parrots Inc.

Improving Diagnostic Accuracy and Expanding into Global Markets

Why were you interested in NEC’s patent?

Because we get a lot of benefits from acquiring NEC patent. This patent offers advanced marker generation and detection methods, which is crucial for our development, especially how we develop our product Polly, the features and the capabilities, in patient tracking and data accuracy, by integrating this patent and other patent as well. This will give us more advantages, especially in market differentiation and unique, system enhance, patient, monitoring precision, reducing error, especially when in the era of AI, there is a lot of inaccurate information.We have the competitive advantage by integrating this patent to reduce error and be more accurate, and that's what sets us apart. We're in healthcare, and it’s critical for us to stay on top of that and provide the best precision, accuracy. The patent will also help us adapt to new markets and serve different markets - we're starting with the US, and then eventually across diverse healthcare setups and even go international into many different regions.

Three Approaches to Product Advancement

How do you plan to integrate the patent into your product?

We can break this down into 3 developments: First, this will add an advanced layer to building a robust tracking markers, especially for detecting, physical and cognitive changes. We're dealing with a lot of patients with neuropathy conditions, who have progression of the disease and go through a lot of changes.

Secondly, adding this advanced layer will help to detect these changes, and on the other hand, enhance our telecare and the remote, margin features by accurately identify patients' interactions and behaviours. This margin part is crucial for our development.

Thirdly, we are going to be addressing the critical needs for real time assessment and how to improve the early intervention, especially in healthcare, by identifying assessments with the patients or their changes, and how we can provide early intervention. All these are pretty much aligned with our mission to provide predictive analytics and personalised care for all these different patients with different needs.

Rapid Implementation to Address Societal Challenges

How will acquiring NEC’s patent impact your brand and societal contributions?

Regarding the patent and the branding and development, we do have the experience and the background to build different patents and different technologies.Acquiring this patent allows immediate integration and will save us time for development, where we can focus on other areas. Another factor is when you apply for a patent, there's a period that you are just waiting until you hear from the patent office. Being able to integrate this piece of proven technology really does give us an edge.Another valid consideration is on how to leverage this immediate integration with our existing technology already. Nowadays, entrepreneurs need to be ready at a fast pace, and everyone is racing to be the best, or providing the best service. It is very critical to have immediate implementation right away, not having to wait for 1 year or 2 years until the patent is issued.Another advantage is brand credibility. We love to collaborate with big corporations, and in this case, our collaboration with NEC highlights our collective commitment to leveraging pretty much different innovations to solve different challenges, especially in our mission as a healthcare company. From the social impact perspective, we understand it is important to have rapid development to solve urgent needs, especially as a social impact and in healthcare, which is what we are looking to achieve by providing better care for the patients, as soon as possible. So, this collaboration with NEC helps us to grow even further, faster together.

Vision: Becoming a Global Leader in AI-Driven Healthcare Solutions

What is your long-term vision?

Our vision is to become a global leader in AI driven healthcare solutions. We will certainly leverage this partnership with NEC and IP Hatch to facilitate faster innovation cycle and strengthen our R&D framework for future technologies. This program opens a plethora of partnership opportunities for us to network with key global players, where we can drive growth together and enhance our ability to tackle global healthcare challenges.This really is such a great opportunity, and we are very pleased to have this partnership, and we look forward to growing faster, further, wiser together.

NEC remains committed to addressing societal challenges and to creating new value by supporting startups with access to its patents. Moving forward, NEC will continue to actively promote the transfer and utilization of its patents across a wide range of fields, including healthcare, to assist in the rapid implementation of innovative solutions.

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