‘’SHL adopts the strictest rules and standards regarding patient confidentiality’’

SHL Telemedicine has been associated with telemedicine for more than a quarter of a century. What have been the major drivers of the uptake of telemedicine globally?

Yossi Vadnagra

The major drivers of the uptake in our opinion are: the ageing of population, the rise in economic healthcare burden, the adoption of new technologies and increasing awareness of consumers who want to take more control on their condition. Those drivers helped the market to understand that, by using advanced telemedicine technology and services people can dramatically improve their condition. Our subscription-based service stands on the pillars of comfort, peace of mind and security as professional help is a call away, when it might take an ambulance over an hour to reach the patient.

How has the company dealt with some of the perceived drawbacks of telemedicine solutions? For instance, since SHL’s products are self-use products for monitoring heart beat, ECG etc., is there a chance that the doctor-patient relationship will suffer over a period of time?

Yariv Alroy

According to our experience doctor – patient relationship does not suffer at all. On the contrary, the doctors get better information for managing their patients. Also, patients feel that their doctors are in line with the newest technology. Patient’s real-time information on the current medical condition can be accessed online via secured web access within seconds by the subscriber and his medical professional if authorised.

Another fear is of confidentiality of patient information when telemedicine solutions are used for patient records, etc. How does SHL take care of this aspect?

SHL adopts the strictest rules and standards regarding patient confidentiality and has passed inspections in strict markets like Germany and Israel.

How do the medical teams of SHL ensure consistency and relevance of health information across geographies?

Our medical management and advisory board is responsible of being up to date and assuring that all SHL teams globally will be updated on the advanced protocols. Our qualified and experienced teams at the international telemedicine centre in Tel Aviv will be training the Indian medical professionals that will provide the services to our Indian subscribers.

Since SHL’s products require some familiarity with medical devices and technology, do the technology teams at SHL factor this into the design of the products?

Sure! Our products have been designed in a way that elderly subscribers do not really need to be tech savvy to operate them. The 12 lead ECG devices are very easy to strap on, since most of the leads are actually on a single strap that can be easily strapped around the subscriber’s chest. On the user interface they are simple and friendly and any person can easily use them without any assistance or consumables,which pours a lot of confidence to our subscribers.

What has been the revenue growth of the company over these years?

SHL is in continuous growth and expanding activities to other territories as we are doing in India. In second quarter of 2013 we had a ~10 per cent growth compared to second quarter of 2012.

What are the major products and services of SHL?

Our main products enable monitoring and transmission of top quality ECG and other vital signs parameter related to cardiac and pulmonary conditions to a highly qualified and technologically advanced medical monitoring centre. SHL monitors Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) for thousands of patients, the largest CHF monitoring programme in the world. We also have the most advanced monitoring programme for COPD patients with numbers that run into thousands. Each of the above, the CHF and COPD programmes stabilises patients while improving their quality of life. SHL remotely monitors Arrhythmia using most advanced cellular devices, the only service in the world that allows the patient to send written messages of his symptoms.

In terms of disease areas served, SHL has chosen heart health and COPD. Any plans to expand this to other high burden areas?

Yes, we believe that in the visible future many conditions will be monitored through usage of telemedicine technology and services and SHL plans to take a leading role.

What is the cost:benefit ratio of SHL’s products and services compared to existing/competing brands and services? What is the USP of these products and services?

In Europe and Israel we have proven to save around 50 per cent of the cost related to admission of CHF and COPD patients. This works out to significant cost saving of millions of euros for the insurers ,which proves to be very economical for the insurance providers especially in a time when all are struggling to justify their premiums while providing good services to their insured patients.

Which countries is the company active in? Since when and who are the partners?

We are active in Israel for 25 years and in Germany for several years and starting activities in the UK and again in the US after the termination of the non-compete agreement that we signed five years ago.

What kind of strategic partnerships has the company set up over the years? (hospitals, insurers, doctors)

We are trying to work closely with all the relevant strategic stake holders in the medical market. We believe that they are all very much important and they all get a lot of value, having the relevant patients that can benefit from our professional telemedicine services.

Are there any organisational or bureaucratic difficulties encountered during the roll out of SHL’s services to these partners?

In every market there are different bureaucratic difficulties, but that is part of doing business in foreign markets. We do our best to deal with those issues in a professional and ethical manner.

Given that you have been very familiar with India’s healthcare market since over six years, what business potential do you see in the India market for SHL’s telemedicine services and products?

Along the years, we have seen how healthcare is developing and significantly improving in India. India has been making a big leap in the healthcare and medical space. We know for a fact that CVD patterns in India are sadly more and worse than in other countries we operate in. The increase in life expectancy and lifestyle changes has brought about an increase in the number of people living with chronic heart conditions in India. We notice an increasing awareness of patients and a growing demand for solutions that enable better care. CVD is the most significant healthcare problem of 21st century India and our service will allow people to receive remote medical care and peace of mind-that they are always monitored by a high end professional service. We believe that private healthcare in India will continue to grow at a similar pace and with the continuous improving of awareness the Indian market embeds a promising potential for services.

SHL signed their first India deal in March this year with Kolkata-based speciality hospital Belle Vue Clinic, part of MP Birla hospital chain group. Could you give us more details of this agreement and will this be the blueprint for the company’s future strategy for the India market?

Since then we have signed a couple of more agreements and expect a few more in the near future. We believe this model of agreement serves well both parties and will help a fast penetration of the telemedicine technology and services to the patients who need it. And yes, it can serve as a blueprint for future agreements in India.

What has been the response from other potential partners so far? Any entry barriers? (in terms of cost of product/services, competition)

Response has been very positive and we have a very attractive pipeline of agreements for the near future. We have analysed the Indian market very carefully and identified some of our barriers like prices, network coverage, level of awareness etc. All of these have been addressed in our go to market strategy and mitigated when we designed our concept for the Indian market.

What are the targeted revenues/milestones in SHL’s India foray?

Sorry, I cannot comment on this, but we see a serious potential in India, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.

What are the further innovations in telemedicine we can expect from SHL’s technology and medical teams in the near future?

The nearest innovation is the Smartheart which transforms every Smartphone to a state-of-the-art full 12 lead ECG for personal use. It is our proprietary personal digital 12-lead ECG device, which enables the subscriber to transmit a full 12-lead electro cardiogram in less than a minute. Results are analysed in real time, saving critical time and ensuring rapid decision making.