India’s wealthy populations have access to some of the best healthcare in the world, with highly trained doctors and state of the art facilities. But as you move down the economic pyramid, this access disappears rapidly. And in rural areas, healthcare available to the masses has not advanced much in 50 years. This creates a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs who are developing affordable primary healthcare solutions.
Primary healthcare infrastructure in India is mostly concentrated in urban areas. There’s a pressing need to provide the rural population with access to quality and affordable services.
Karma Healthcare is trying to bridge this gap with the help of technology. The company runs clinics in rural areas of the desert state of Rajasthan. It gives villagers access to specialised doctors through telemedicine as well as face- to-face follow-up consultations with local or mobile clinics. It uses tablet computers and medical devices which can transmit real-time data from patients to doctors located elsewhere.
Finding affordable primary medical care can be a headache for people in India. SeeDoc is one of the newest companies using technology to solve that problem. Based in New Delhi, its mobile app connects pre-screened doctors and patients through video calls. the startup’s goal is to provide on-demand service. SeeDoc also has partnerships with pharmacies, clinics, and labs so users can get prescriptions, follow-up care, or tests if SeeDoc also has partnerships with pharmacies, clinics, and labs so users can get prescriptions, follow-up care, or tests if necessary. SeeDoc’s competitors include Lybrate, which is backed by Tiger Global, and iCliniq.
Healthenablr India Pvt Ltd., a new entrant in the healthcare technology and services sector announced today that it had recently closed an $800,000 (Rs 5.5 Cr.) seed round. The startup plans on channelling this investment to further develop its patented Electronic Medical Records(EMR) technology and consolidate sales efforts. Based out of Mumbai, HealthEnablr was incorporated in September 2015 by Booth School of Business graduates Bamasish Paul and Avishek Mukherjee. Positioned as a data-driven telehealthcare company, it assists patients in connecting with healthcare services and practitioners worldwide through its proprietary web and mobile platform.
Manish Saraf formed Ujjeewan in West Bengal in January 2014,to address primary healthcare woes in rural parts of the state, where there is hardly any reach of medical facility/ services. A social impact business, Ujjeewan helps with last-mile medical services and care through telemedicine, fair price generic medicines, basic preventive pathological tests, women’s healthcare services, education and monitoring through women’s self-help groups (SHGs). The centre at Raniganj sometimes gets 350-400 patients in just three hours, and on an average, clears 100 prescriptions a day. Currently, there are two operational centres, and Saraf’s calculations say the bootstrapped company will have adequate cash flow after just five more centres, with two due to start this April.
MedGenome is a genomics-focused research and diagnostics company, on a mission to improve global health by accelerating drug discovery research for pharma companies by decoding the genetic information contained in an individual’s genome.The company says that it’s the only lab in India to provide a HiseQ 4000 NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) machine and the first to establish a facility for non-invasive prenatal testing for the chromosomal diseases in India.
India is far from Primary Healthcare to everyone, but these startups give us the hope that we are adapting to change and our healthcare services will be better in future.