Detecting Disease Before Diagnosis: How a Young Sri Lankan Team Is Revolutionizing Cardiovascular Care

Cardiovascular diseases – a term for conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels – remain the world’s leading cause of death, claiming an estimated 17.9 million lives each year. Often progressing unnoticed for decades in individual cases, eventually, inflammation sets in, the arterial walls begin to harden, and tiny plaques form inside blood vessels. The result is, in many cases, strokes, heart attacks, and life-threatening blood clots. For some patients, including young people, the first symptom could potentially be life-threatening.

As in many countries, this issue is on the rise in Sri Lanka. Most people discover cardiovascular disease only after it has advanced significantly. Often times, people learn about it during a routine check-up, yet preventive care remains out of reach for many. Diagnostic equipment may be expensive, often invasive and uncomfortable, and not readily available in many regions.

But what if the first signs of disease could be detected early, cheaply, and without pain? That question led to the creation of Jendo Innovations, a Sri Lankan med-tech startup. Jendo is building a new kind of cardiovascular screening tool that identifies problems early, which, in turn, helps patients to stay healthy and avoid hospital visits.

An idea that wouldn’t go away

“I always wanted to challenge the way things were done,” says Keerthi Kodithuwakku, Chief Executive Officer at Jendo, “And once I figured out a way forward, I knew I had to leave something behind for the others.”

It started with a conversation which led to another, then many more. As an undergraduate engineering student, Kodithuwakku began speaking to classmates, professors, and young doctors about the idea of using engineering tools to detect early-stage cardiovascular disease. Slowly, a team began to form.

They had no funding, no blueprint, and very little support. But they had a vision: a diagnostic tool that can detect endothelial dysfunction long before it turns into a serious health risk. Endothelial dysfunction is a condition in which the inner lining of blood vessels starts to fail. People with this condition are at a higher risk of cardiovascular death.

The Jendo team set up their lab in a university campus and got to work – testing sensor combinations, writing software codes, and building prototypes. “Most investors here aren’t interested in med tech,” Kodithuwakku says. “They want something that can hit the markets sooner.”

Instead, the team entered local and regional startup competitions. They used the prize money to fund development: salaries, lab equipment, patent filings. Every win gave the team at Jendo the hope of getting closer to a working product.

When their prototype was ready, they launched clinical trials. Four years of rigorous testing followed, accompanied by intense scrutiny from physicians, engineers, and regulators. In the process, they secured Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification – which demonstrates the minimum standard that a drug manufacturer must meet in their production processes – and have partnered with a Swiss manufacturing company to scale up production.

A different kind of diagnostic

At the heart of Jendo’s solution is a small, non-invasive device with sophisticated technology that uses Photoplethysmography, a technique used to detect blood volume changes in the microvascular bed of tissue, and Digital Thermal Monitoring, a technique which uses temperature sensors on your fingers to measure changes in blood flow, helping to assess how well your blood vessels are working, to scan the body for vascular abnormalities in just 15 minutes.

In simple terms, it works by analyzing pulse and temperature signals to assess blood vessel condition and predict the likelihood of heart disease, detecting early signs of endothelial dysfunction. Endothelial dysfunction is one of the earliest indicators of cardiovascular disease.

Currently, many diagnostic methods only detect dysfunction when the damage is advanced, but Jendo’s device has the potential to change that. Linked to a cloud-based artificial intelligence system, it analyzes sensor data in real time and offers patients a personalized cardiovascular risk assessment. It also provides simple, actionable lifestyle recommendations delivered through a user-friendly interface.

The system is especially valuable in regions with limited access to specialist care. Unlike traditional diagnostic tools that require trained technicians or invasive procedures, Jendo’s solution is scalable, portable, and easy to use. It can be deployed in primary care clinics, wellness centers, and even corporate offices as part of workplace health initiatives.

IP is central to Jendo

Once Kodithuwakku and his team at Jendo completed their initial prototype for detecting early-stage cardiovascular disease, the next step was to secure intellectual property (IP) rights. “After making a breakthrough, we wanted to secure the patents”, Kodithuwakku said.

During their patent search, the team discovered that firms in several countries had filed patents related to similar non-invasive vascular monitoring technologies. Academic publications were also appearing from researchers working on similar topics. These findings made it clear that the field was becoming competitive.

Some people advised Kodithuwakku not to pursue the patent, saying it would be too difficult to stand out and prove novelty. But he decided to move forward. With no background in IP law, he worked with a law firm to draft the patent application in a way that would meet global standards. In parallel, he also familiarized himself with how to draft patent applications. Subsequently, the patent application was granted in Sri Lanka. Then, using WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) system, a US patent was granted (USPTO Patent 10,912,464 B2), and a Japanese patent (P7045084).

Building more than a business

“We had to figure everything out from scratch,” Kodithuwakku recalls. “How to file patents. How to meet regulatory standards. How to pitch to health ministries. There was no roadmap.”

Kodithuwakku began to build one – for himself as well as for others. He began delivering presentations at universities. Then he built an entrepreneurship society and advocates for clearer IP policies, better technology transfer mechanisms, and more institutional support for young inventors. Today, as the secretary of his university’s alumni association, he is leading efforts to create public-private partnerships that embed innovation into the university structure itself.

“We don’t lack good ideas,” Kodithuwakku says. “We just need a way to harness them.”

Role of WIPO in supporting innovation

Sri Lanka has strong potential to lead in deep-tech innovation, especially in biomedical engineering and digital health and Kodithuwakku believes that WIPO can play a key role in helping the country realize that potential.

“Many local inventors have promising ideas but face gaps in understanding IP systems, international standards, and the patent filing process”, Kodithuwakku notes.

Through WIPO’s training and knowledge-building programs, Kodithuwakku believes that researchers can learn how to draft patents, navigate international classification systems, and use the PCT filing route effectively.

As the founder of Sri Lanka’s first locally developed biomedical engineering patent, Kodithuwakku also continues to work with WIPO to build a stronger ecosystem for health innovation. He was a presenter at the first meeting of the IP Working Group of the Global Initiative on Artificial Intelligence for Health (GI-AI4H), which was was launched by the International Telecommunications Union, the World Health Organization, and WIPO, on March 17-18, 2025.   

Jendo’s journey illustrates a shift underway in global health innovation: solutions are increasingly emerging from the places that need them most, where young inventors with few resources but deep local insights are building tools the world has never seen.

About WIPO’s IP for Medical Innovation and Manufacturing Centre of Excellence

The WIPO IP for Medical Innovation and Manufacturing Centre of Excellence (CoE) is dedicated to enhancing medical innovation ecosystems by enhancing innovators’ and manufacturers’ ability to harness IP and promoting collaborative medical technology manufacturing initiatives.

Harnessing WIPO’s work across relevant divisions and working with governments, donors, industry and universities, the CoE aims to develop and deliver IP-related capacity building programs and training tailored to the needs of LMICs.