Why the man who built Practo to find doctors is now using AI to find disease first

Why the man who built Practo to find doctors is now using AI to find disease first

From Daybreak by The Ken

April 17, 2026 · 12 min · Episode 730

About this episode

The episode discusses how Cent, a startup founded by the creator of Practo, is using AI for early disease detection through full-body scans.

India's life expectancy has doubled since 1950. But 65% of deaths are still from diseases caught too late. Cent, the new startup from Practo's founder, thinks it has an answer: full-body AI scans that find risks before they become diagnoses. At Rs 20,000–30,000 a scan, it's already found critical findings in hundreds of patients — with zero false positives, it claims. But Cent doesn't diagnose. It doesn't refer. And it has no proprietary technology. So what exactly are you paying for — and what happens after it finds something? Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Topics covered

  • AI in healthcare
  • early disease detection
  • startup innovation
  • health technology
  • business news

Keywords

  • AI scans
  • disease detection
  • healthcare
  • Practo
  • Cent
  • India
  • life expectancy
  • full-body scans

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Practo, Cent

Places: India

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