From the Himalayas to Hospitals: Machine Intelligence can Improve Patient Care

An elderly woman was recently brought to our emergency department (ED) from a rehab facility. Though not her name, we’ll call her “Ms. Davis.” She was confused, with no available medical records or context about her recent illness. Her vitals were initially stable, but in the chaos of a packed ED, Ms. Davis remained on a gurney in the hallway, awaiting reassessment, and slowly deteriorated while we tended to other critically ill patients. By the time I could attend to her, she went into cardiac arrest. It took prolonged resuscitation efforts to get her heart beating again, and she was ultimately transferred to the intensive care unit.

I am Pranav Koirala, an emergency medicine doctor based in Maryland and the co-founder of MTN. My journey in medicine began in Nepal, where I completed medical school and worked as an expedition physician in remote, high-altitude environments. Those experiences not only solidified my passion for emergency medicine but also exposed me to the challenges of providing care in austere settings with limited resources, where access to timely interventions can mean the difference between life and death. Motivated by this, I came to the U.S. to pursue advanced training in emergency medicine, seeking to expand my knowledge and skills in managing critically ill patients.

Now, working in a busy emergency department, I see firsthand the gaps in the healthcare system—gaps that often lead to preventable adverse outcomes. Patients like Ms. Davis fill my workdays, and frontline healthcare workers everywhere encounter similar situations daily. Hours later, her workup results and medical history finally trickled in. She had diabetes and because of her mild dementia, she frequently forgot to take her medications, likely precipitating a life threatening condition called diabetic ketoacidosis, which almost took her life. An intelligent monitoring system with real time alert would have cautioned not only her rehab team but also her ED providers early enough as she started deteriorating leading to better prioritization and prevention of her near death experience.

I co-founded MTN to help find solutions for high-altitude illness, but as our research evolved, we recognized its potential for a much broader range of applications. The ability to continuously monitor vital signs—now feasible with modern smart wearables— and combine that data with health records can transform patient care by enabling early detection of deterioration and preventing avoidable emergencies.

What excites me even more is the potential of this technology not only in advanced healthcare systems but also in resource-poor settings, where I have worked extensively in the past and where even basic healthcare remains a luxury. Millions of people in remote villages, underserved communities, and low-resource hospitals struggle even in modern times with limited access to doctors, diagnostic tools, and real-time monitoring.

The possibility of bringing cutting-edge solutions to both high-tech hospitals and under-resourced clinics drives my passion for advancing healthcare innovation. At MTN, we are working to bridge these gaps, using machine intelligence to empower healthcare workers and provide patients with the care they deserve—whether in the crowded halls of an urban emergency department or in the most remote corners of the world.