MediAngels, founded in 2011, enables patients to get in touch with medical specialists from around the world. Dr Debraj Shome, Co-Founder & Facial Plastic Surgeon, MediAngels explains the venture’s business model and talk about its vision for India, in an interview with Raelene Kambli
What does MediAngels have to offer to the Indian healthcare sector? What is its USP?
The objective of MediAngels is to have the best doctors for every disease empanelled on one global platform, so that the consumer can seek an online consultation and the best second medical opinion, at a click.
At MediAngels, we match a patient’s case to the best medical expert. Our medical team ensures that patients are directed to the right doctor who specialises in that area.
One gets to access the best global medical experts from within the comfort of their home or office.
MediAngels.com aims to do to healthcare, what e-commerce is doing to products all over the world. The purpose of this e-healthcare venture is to have the best doctors from across the world on a cloud-based platform and match the best doctor for every single disease with the help of technology, in the form of phone and the internet, to make them available across the world.
It seems strange and surreal in a way that in India, you can buy the best phone or camera whether you are in the most remote area or Mumbai, but you still can’t have access to the best doctors. Today, one cannot have access to the best doctors and I am sure the same would be the case 30 years later, as best doctors are a rare resource, and it would be very difficult to have them in every city or town or village or even in every multi-specialty hospital.
We, therefore believe, MediAngels, the world’s first online hospital, is the business of tomorrow, wherein we connect global medical experts, diagnostic laboratories and other types of medical requirements, to patients, using technology.
How is MediAngels different from other e-hospital facilities?
At MediAngels, we have 350+ superspecialist doctors belonging to 93+ specialities from India and 15 other countries such as the US, the UK, Germany, Australia, Singapore, etc. Empanelled specialists are the most important part of any hospital, therefore, MediAngels follows the most stringent criteria to empanel physicians. Physician empanelment is by invitation card and we make sure that we work with only the top one per cent specialists in the world. These are doctors handpicked from their speciality and associated with the best hospitals in the world, including the Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson, Harvard, Stanford, Apollo, Fortis and many others.
Our doctors are the ones who are writing the textbooks and conducting research that determines future medical protocols and practices. It has been proven repeatedly that there is a big difference in medical outcomes when the best doctors are involved in treatment. Our objective is to ensure that the best medical decisions are taken globally by doctors and patients alike, across the world.
We offer online consultation services by means of email (eConsult), telephone (DialMD) and video chat (Video Consult). In addition to this, we also provide online investigation services, doorstep blood collection services – wherein you the consumers can book the tests online from MediAngels.com and get the blood collection done from their home. We have about 21,000 diagnostic centres across India. MediAngels.com is an integrated online hospital providing medical second opinion services in the form of online consultation, video consultation, telephonic consultation and also online investigation services.
What about its creditability? How do you measure it?
The strength of MediAngels can be ascertained by the fact that it has been voted as the most innovative startup in the Asia Pacific region in 2012, by Intel and the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, from amongst 8,000 companies. The strength of this social enterprise can also be deciphered from the fact that MediAngels has been funded by diverse entities, like the India’s largest private equity fund – HDFC Holdings, the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India and by a renowned venture capital fund – VenturEast.
All the doctors who get empanelled on MediAngels, are chosen by invitation only. At the time of empanelment, all the doctors profiles get verified by our Medical Advisory Board.
Our doctor criteria are extremely stringent and rigorous.
Below are the criteria for choosing our doctors:
- Physician recruitment by invitation only
- Post-graduation and recognised clinical fellowship from top institutes
- Minimum five years of experience post training in the chosen speciality
- Position of consultant and above in top international hospitals and universities
- Minimum five research publications in peer reviewed journals
How do you plan to reach out to your audience? How are you planning to reach to the grassroot level where language is a barrier?
The target audience is being reached by a combination of the following techniques:
- Directly to the consumer, through the Internet
- To the consumer, through their doctors
- To the consumer, through their corporate affiliations
Yes, language is a big barrier in a country like India and we are looking at multiple language supported websites to assist people in every language.
What is MediAngels’ revenue and CAGR in India? When did you start?
We started in 2011 and are growing rapidly, showing a growth of 25 per cent or so every month.
What are your future plans and what will be your strategy to achieve them?
Internet penetration in India is growing at a very rapid rate, leading to all sorts of services being delivered to the rural Indians, as they become more aspirational. Healthcare services are no different. We must figure out a way to deliver healthcare in our country equitably and make it affordable and accessible across India. The only way to do this is to use technology. In my opinion, eHealthcare is poised to revolutionise healthcare delivery in India. It is a good time to be in this sphere and achieve good health for all Indians.
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