[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith the advancement in technology simplifying everyday activities and bringing almost everything at the palm of our hands, it was just matter of time healthcare, which is a primary need in our daily lives, would enter the realm.
Thanks to Healthenablr, a telemedicine healthcare service company, people can now have access to specialised doctors of international repute on their smartphone.
“The idea behind Healthenablr is that falling ill doesn’t necessarily have to put a spoke in your everyday schedule. You don’t have to wait for a doctor to become available, or languish in a waiting room till a doctor is available. All you have to do is pick up your smart phone and consult your doctor via video chat or web chat, on the go,” says Bamashish Paul, Co-founder, Healthenablr Pvt Ltd.
It is the outdated model and the way India approaches its healthcare needs that gave Paul the idea to come with Healthenablr.
“This concept of poccare first struck us during a project we were during our final year at the Chicago Booth School of business. We noticed that while other sectors seemed to be evolved rapidly and technologically simplifying the process, the healthcare sector still remained rooted in its traditional brick and mortar model. There is still roughly one doctor for every 1800 people in India. Healthenablr is an effort to bridge this gap.”
One of the biggest aims of Healthenablr is to connect the patients with doctors worldwide for second opinion consultancy, said Paul.
“Very often doctors or patients feel the need to reach out to other doctors, who are specialists in a particular field, like oncology, cardiology, rheumatology and many more, when it comes to particularly unique cases. Today, accessibility to international doctors who specialise in particular critical disease areas is a big challenge, unless there is a personal reference.”
The fees for second opinion consultancy will depend on the experience and specialisation of the doctors. It will range between $100-200.
He continued, “Using our tele-health platform, patients in India can consult with a panel of international doctors in US and South East Asia. Patients and their family can now share health records, clinical reports, and blood investigation reports, with our panel of highly established and qualified doctors and get second opinion instantly.”
The total Healthcare Technology market is over 65 Billion USD. By 2017, the total Health market is estimated to be approximately 23 Billion USD, says Paul.
“India is one of the fastest growing economies with lowest healthcare expenditure vs. GDP. India spends 4% of its GDP on Health expenditure vs 9% by UK and 17% in U.S. With 17% of the Worlds Populations residing in India, it is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years benefiting of the mobile/ digital health market.”
“The market size of the sector of India was estimated to be $ 75 billion during 2012-13 and is projected to reach $280 billion by the year 2020, while hitting the $160 billion milestones in the year 2017.”
Healthenablr is currently operational in Kolkata and Mumbai and plans to launch operations in Bangalore followed by Hyderabad and Pune in the near future. Having over 60 employees, it has opened its first development centre outside the US in Bangalore.
“We do not, at this point have any major competitors in the market, but players like Practo and Lybrate are in the close vicinity,” said Paul.
Healthenablr has recently roped in renowned oncologist Dr Ajith Puthillath from US. He has joined as the Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO) of the company. In his capacity as CMIO, Dr Puthillath will take on advising and overseeing the clinical operations of the company.
Healthenablr currently has over 10,000 doctors verified and listed on its platform, and intends to bring this number up to 50,000 by the end of this year.
“We select doctors on the basis of their experience, qualification and depending on what speciality we are looking for. This includes doctors who have paid for and use our software. The network doctors set their own fee,” said Paul.
Healthenablr has a patented Electronic Medical Records (EMR) technology, which allows doctors to generate online invoices and prescriptions and also enables them to keep track of their patient vitals, medications, follow up appointments etc.
Healthenablr has recently raised a seed round funding of at 800,000 USD. The round was raised by a mixed group of undisclosed professionals, including investors from Silicon Valley and Hong Kong.
