A Good System is not about not Making Mistakes, it is about Responding to Them
Aleksey Remez, UNIM’s founder.
UNIM is working to offer improvements in pathomorphological diagnostics. Our goals is to make diagnostics less time-consuming and reduce the number of mistakes. Within the three first years our company was a technology-based business, and since 2017 we’ve been a medical company. We chose Skolkovo as a site for establishing our laboratory.
We wanted our lab specialists to handle digital data. When we were just establishing our laboratory, this appeared something fantastic. We were told it was impossible, so we can say for sure today: what we have done, is unprecedented. It is important that we have never feared the unknown, we were guided only by professional interest. As a result, after five months we opened Russia’s first digital lab. It was then the world’s third lab working with digital data.
Now we have about 150 employees. By the way, we had opted for distant work before this online format became a popular trend. IT staff were the pioneers to go online. In Moscow we have two locations: in Skolkovo and in downtown Moscow.
Skolkovo is offering links
The rent rates were one of the key factors for us. As a shared use center we got a discount, but the price was still rather high. Another issue was the problem with communications and connectivity. Transport accessibility was also a question - Moscow Central Circle lines were not yet built at that time.
We are not simply a medical company offering diagnostics services. UNIM is making something new in diagnostics, and Skolkovo is one of the best locations for innovations.
Communications! This is where Skolkovo is unparalleled. You never know which link will work to help you. This place has a certain atmosphere to meet potential partners and customers. Before the pandemic, we had 2-3 excursions per week. I believe we had most of the diplomats visiting us as our guests - the President of Armenia, ambassadors from the USA, Israel, and Italy.
The reason is clear. The diagnostics area is rather specialized, and it raises much interest. I often make a bet with people from other industries who come to visit us. I tell them: if I fail to make you interested, you’ll get a bottle of gourmet wine. And I have never lost.
Community
I don’t come to Skolkovo every day. My main office is in downtown Moscow. But we still feel a part of this community. I’m a member of the Skolkovo Community Council, I know many residents, and we have relationship beyond business. So it turns out that Skolkovo is really a point of attraction. When I make new contacts among the technological entrepreneurs outside Skolkovo, after some time their companies also become Skolkovo residents.
Our community is rapidly growing: we have our leisure spaces, our traditions. For example, we meet on Fridays. It feels nice to be among people who do their best to change something around them. This is the greatest value of Skolkovo.
Skolkovo’s Biomed Cluster is large; I believe it includes hundreds of companies. I only know some of them, but those whom I know are really great! It was a Skolkovo startup which was the first Russia’s company to have their solution FDA approved. There are cool players engaged in endoprosthetics, dentistry, development of test systems for the diagnosis of pre-stroke conditions.
Probably, if you live in Skolkovo, you’ll enjoy even more benefits. There’s a synergistic effect when you’re discussing some current issue having a cup of coffee, and suddenly a new idea dawns upon you. I haven’t had a chance yet to experience this effect. But I know for sure: if I need a specialist in, for example, engineering, it won’t take long to find them here. This is even not about ‘one handshake’ theory. This is really cool!
Our company’s future
From a certain point of view, we are already what they call a ‘success story’. We have done what was considered impossible in the professional and expert community.
On the one hand, we managed to reach the goals we had set. On the other hand, that does not mean you cannot strive for more. You can and you should! Today we have to find the model of faster upscaling than we have now. Nobody in the world has managed to digitalize 100 laboratories within one year. It has never happened, and we are working on that.
Globally, there are no reasons for UNIM not to become the leading player in that field. It is critical for us to expand our outreach. Unfortunately, due to special circumstances of the last two years, we didn’t manage to implement a part of the scheduled plans, but we keep on moving forward.
Now we are opening a clinic in Skolkovo - there should be a medical office in the Technopark. There we want to have therapy and psychotherapy, facilities for primary diagnostics, any types of tests, opportunities for remote consultations with specialists. This means that through a small medical office in Skolkovo you will be able to access doctors from any point of the world. Highest level of standardization and technological nature of the process, application of various guidelines. Use of various tools outside the evidence-based medicine, but having a very strong effect on our health. We’ll have specialists in dietetics, mental health, food technology, and sports. All innovations will be concentrated within one unit, and this will all be accessible in one medical office. This is a new startup I’m currently working on.
Perfection has no limits
Skolkovo is both the ground and the platform. Here you can rent premises for offices, warehouses, production workshops and laboratories. And you get more than rent services, you get services in fund-raising, attracting investments, community, HR-support. This is a good environment to grow in.
It would be great to have more housing facilities, since there is high demand for housing in Skolkovo, but this is rather expensive. And I wish we had more events like TED Talks. This is what really helps building up a community. I incredibly enjoyed the TED session which was held in the Technopark.
And I would like to have more bicycle and pedestrian paths. They are under construction, but people want them already now, and the rest is just fine!