We answer your questions
About Devellyn
Coupled with this Indoor Mapping expertise, the emergence of Ultra-Wideband (UWB) and Artificial Intelligence has opened up new opportunities. These two recently matured technologies are the cornerstones of an accurate understanding of the Behavior Patterns of people and equipment within buildings.
In 2017, Devellyn joined the scientific incubator Incuballiance of the Paris-Saclay University Campus (N°14 in the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020). In this context, Devellyn benefits from the ideal intellectual environment to attract top world talents and to develop our high-precision indoor geolocation solutions.
We hold 7 patents resulting from spatial research in collaboration with the Centre National d’Études Spatiales and one Seal of Excellence from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 funding program.
Devellyn ‘s potential impact in most dimensions of people ‘s lives has caught the attention of numerous businesses in industries such as: Construction, Pharmaceutical, Insurance, Smartphones, Advertising, Digital Signage and Hospital Services.
We have been immensely lucky to win the trust of the French largest hospitals. In terms of Public Health, France is really a special case, with only 30 teaching hospitals totaling over 40% of all hospital activity in the country. This gives Devellyn an unfair advantage that we will use to fuel our international expansion.
Right from the start we have favored Team Members with high international exposure. Our founders, Laurent and Olivier have accumulated 20+ years of business experience in China and in the United States. They have already opened offices in New-York and Shanghai.
To start developing our international team, our primary objective is to replicate and adapt our initial successes with two or three very large hospitals outside France. We are already discussing with several hospitals in Europe, but we are still open to any opportunity to start a fruitful and constructive relationship anywhere in the world.
In the 90’s, we have discovered that Chaos Theory could help understand and hence improve very large organization such as hospitals.
Everyone has personally experienced some variation of the “Butterfly Effect”, when some apparently insignificant decision explodes totally out of control. This proves true with human decisions, with information systems and with health issues.
To prevent these outbursts and streamline operations, the correct information has to be distributed to the right person at the perfect time. In order to do this, we need to “predict the present-time”. Predicting the future is theoretically not possible but understanding Behavior Patterns allows us to anticipate people’s needs and propose some potentially relevant information to the decision makers (all of us!).
This is like the weather forecast. It is never 100% correct but helps deciding whether to bring an umbrella or sunglasses.
We have created a brand new identity that reflects our vision and our values in all our Apps and documents
Here is a brief description of the “hidden” meanings. We hope you like them too.
About Our Technology
Combined with a proprietary synchronization system created by Devellyn (patent pending), UWB technology allows for high-precision distance calculations with almost no latency (only a few milliseconds). The UWB radio waves we use do not present any health risks, and do not interfere with any other microwave (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc…) or with any medical device (pacemakers, hearing aids, syringe pumps, etc.).
Therefore, their use does not require prior regulatory authorization. UWB is also very energy efficient. This is why our tags and badges can last several years with a very small battery.
Once the whole hospital is fully “location ready”, all our Real Time Location-Based Services (RTLS) can then be activated all at once or one by one, according on the hospital priorities. The price of our monthly invoice is a function of the number of RTLS deployed and of the number of monthly users.
Moreover, an ever-growing part of the global population has now access to a high-speed internet connectivity, allowing real-time positioning to be associated to value added services.
Whenever possible, the accuracy of GPS is increased using local positioning systems based on GPRS and Wi-Fi.
However, GNSS-based positioning is not adequate for all scenarios because of accuracy requirements and degraded satellite signals. For instance, the materials and structures of buildings is a known cause of deterioration. As a consequence, for indoor applications, these signals reach receivers with a level of degradation that makes GPS accuracy too low. Furthermore, indoor environments are usually crowded with fixed and moving obstacles, including people, causing undesirable reflections and absorptions and multipath issues. In such cases, local positioning systems are absolutely required to make up for these limitations. Finally, even if GPS signals were not significantly degraded by buildings and obstacles, these local systems would still be needed because of the accuracy required for some indoor applications, which are far beyond what GPS can provide. For instance, the vertical precision offered by GNSS is of several meters, making it impossible to separate two consecutive floors.
Devellyn has developed its solution to tackle these issues. We provide our clients and users with a technology that seamlessly extend the GPS experience indoors.
Furthermore, the emitted power of UWB is very low compared to other radio wave-based systems. This implies that our solution does not interact with existing signals in buildings such as Wi-Fi or medical equipment. It is therefore completely safe to use in hospitals.
Finally, UWB works at very low energy levels. The reported power consumption per transferred bit is far lower than other systems based on Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy or ZigBee. This makes UWB very energy efficient for high data rate applications.
We share the values announced in the Global Forum on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity (1) : « Notre responsabilité commune est de faire face à nos responsabilités, faire face à cette peur de la technologie, la confiance dans l’Intelligence Artificielle implique d’avoir une Intelligence Artificielle que nous puissions comprendre. Il va nous falloir travailler sur la transparence et sur notre capacité à suivre cette IA. Il nous faut une IA qui utilise les données personnelles de façon juste avec le consentement de chacun. Nous allons donc devoir travailler sur les données personnelles et sur la souveraineté individuelle. (Emmanuel Macron, Paris, october 2019, closing speech on responsible AI )». [Facing our responsabilities is part of our common responsability, facing the fear inspired by technology. Trusting AI implies having an AI we can understand. We have to work on transparency and our ability to trace that AI. We need an AI using personal data in a fair way, aligned with anyone consent. We have to work on personnal data and individual sovereignty].
The French National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) recommends algorithms to be designed in order to respect human rights and serve freedom, in order to counter a « black box effect »(2). In the meantime, the worldwide partnership on AI has been founded by 15 countries, including France, and promote a responsable, individual rights compliancy use of AI (3). A constitutionnal law on AI and algorithms project (n°2585) has been proposed by Mr Raphan in january 2020, to be confirmed yet (4).
Sources : (1) https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2019/10/30/cloture-du-global-forum-on-artificial-intelligence-for-humanity-par-le-president-emmanuel-macron(4) https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/15/dossiers/charte_intelligence_artificielle_algorithmes
About The Hospital Market
Deterioration in work conditions since covid 19 pandemia occured: among the 60 000 responding nurses, 57% declared a lack of time in patient care, 2/3 stated a deterioration in their work conditions, 57% have burn out symptoms, 43% stated they don’t know if they will last in their actual job in the coming 5 years (French National Nurse Council, 2020). This is confirmed among EU workers : 45% of doctors are suffering from depression, anxiety, stress, burnout or other mental health conditions relating to, or made worse by, the COVID-19 crisis (BMA, 2020).
Impact on patient health : health care givers work conditions are considered « bad » or « poor » in 9/12 EU countries, 50% have declared having insufficient support service. This increases patient mortality after admission : +7% added mortality for 1 additionnal patient to take care of (RN4CAST european study, 2015).
Intra hospital flows and stocks can be rationnalized to target financial balance through «intelligent» supply chain: time can be saved up to 20%, productivity can enhance up to 20% (French General Administration for care organisation report, 2011).
Insufficient service to users : whereas delays and informations are considered to be the key point for patient and relatives, as a national top priority, 30% of the patient still get lost in hospital (Pulse report 2010, and Deloitte digital 2016). This can lead to the next point…
Violence : 20 330 intra-hospital violences have been reported in the 2018, 50% being physical violences or weapon threatening, 94% of which are targeted against care givers, 72% due to patients themselves, 12% by their relatives. The main cause is linked to care process, the 2nd reason is due to waiting time (National observatory for healthcare system, ONVS, 2019).
For example, 2 890 hospitals are installed in France, 3 409 in Germany, 1 296 in Italy, 741 in Spain, 264 in Austria. A total of 10 583 can be counted out of 14 EU countries (Great Britain not counted) (French National Authority for Health, HAS, 2009).
In 2017, France has reported 1 364 hospitals for the public service, occuring for 246 395 beds (inpatient care). University- affiliated or « regional » hospitals accounted for 178, general hospitals for 947. Their global budget is around 80 B €. 60% of them face deficit, rising up to 1,1 B€ in 2017. Investments accounted for 1,1 B€ but still declining for 10 years now.
In 2017, 12 millions hospital stay have been conducted in full time hospitalization, plus 16,8 million as part time hospitalization stay (Direction for research, surveys, evaluation and statistics, DREES, 2019).