Atharva Tyagi

University of California, Berkeley

Haas School of Business

Overview

At the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, I served as CEO and co-founder of Diagnosify, an AI-powered diagnostic tool that helps physicians identify potential diseases based on electronic health records (EHRs). The product functions as a plug-in for EHR systems, analyzing patient data to generate possible diagnoses, associated biomarkers, clinical trials, and relevant drugs. The startup was incubated through the Berkeley Business Academy for Youth (BBAY), where I led a cross-functional team of seven students to develop the minimum viable product (MVP), pitch deck, and financial model.

Diagnosify: AI-Powered Pediatric Diagnostic Software (Berkeley Business Academy Program)

Business Focus

Diagnosify addresses the high rate of pediatric misdiagnoses, a problem that costs billions of dollars annually and delays critical treatment. Our goal was to create a clinical decision-support system that improves diagnostic accuracy while reducing costs and physician workload.

My Contributions

  • Led market research, financial modeling, and stakeholder interviews with 130+ physicians, parents, and medical students.
  • Designed the AI-assisted diagnostic algorithm and user workflow for the MVP.
  • Managed all business development components, including TAM/SAM/SOM sizing, CAC–CLTV analysis, and pricing strategy.
  • Delivered an investor-style pitch that advanced to the Top 3 startups in the BBAY cohort
Golden Bear Award - Student Always

Outcomes & Impact

  • Projected $13.4 million in revenue and $4.8 million EBITDA by Year 3, achieving break-even by Year 2.
  • Defined clear KPIs including CAC, churn rate, and ARPU to measure long-term scalability.
  • Built one of the first physician-oriented diagnostic SaaS tools designed specifically for pediatric care.
  • Received strong feedback from Berkeley faculty and healthcare professionals for its potential to lower misdiagnosis rates by up to 97 percent in MVP testing simulations.

Reflection

Diagnosify marked the first time I truly saw myself as a physician innovator. The startup could have explored any industry, but I chose medicine because misdiagnosis is a problem I have witnessed up close. Working with rare disease patients through the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network and responding to emergencies as an EMT showed me how uncertainty in diagnosis can change the course of someone’s life. I wanted to turn that frustration into action by building a tool that helps physicians make more accurate decisions. Through Diagnosify, I learned that innovation in healthcare begins with empathy and ends with execution—the process of turning a clinical problem into a working solution that makes care more precise and humane.

Diagnosify Medical Database

S/No Disease Very Frequent Symptoms Frequent Symptoms Occasional Symptoms Misdiagnosed As Overexpressed Biomarkers Underexpressed Biomarkers Biopharmaceutical Companies ICD-10/11 Codes Current Clinical Trials (Summation)
1 Bacterial Meningitis Pyrexia, nuchal rigidity, cephalalgia Photophobia, emesis, altered sensorium Seizures, bulging fontanelle, irritability Viral upper respiratory infection, influenza CSF neutrophilic pleocytosis, elevated CSF protein Hypoglycorrhachia Pfizer (Trumenba), GSK (Bexsero) G00.9 NCT03480191 – Daptomycin adjuvant therapy
2 Appendicitis Abdominal pain shifting to right-lower quadrant Anorexia, myalgia, rebound tenderness, guarding Constipation, diarrhea, abdominal distension Gastroenteritis, mesenteric adenitis Leukocytosis, elevated C-reactive protein None N/A; standard surgical intervention K35.8 NCT02800785 – CODA trial
3 Pneumonia (community-acquired) Productive cough, tachypnea, fever Pleuritic chest pain, wheezing, fatigue Hypoxemia, emesis, decreased oral intake Bronchiolitis, asthma, viral URI CRP, procalcitonin, leukocytosis None Pfizer (Prevnar), Merck (Pneumovax) J18.9 NCT04642079 – PCV20 pediatric trial
4 Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy Neonatal seizures, hypotonia, apnea Jitteriness, hypotonia, poor feeding Abnormal Moro reflex, hyperalertness Neonatal sepsis, metabolic disorder Arterial lactate, base deficit >15 mmol/L Apgar score, cord pH <7.0 Natus, Amgen (Erythropoietin) P91.6 NCT02811263 – HEAL study
5 Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH) Decreased hip abduction, asymmetrical gluteal folds Galeazzi sign, waddling gait, leg length discrepancy Limp, delayed ambulation, pain Physiologic laxity, toddler’s fracture N/A (diagnostic via imaging) None Pavlik (orthoses), Smith & Nephew (surgical) Q65.2 N/A – imaging-based diagnosis standard