Amit Mookim, TiE Mumbai Board Member & General Manager, South Asia Quintiles IMS, elaborates on how companies are able to leverage the power of data to offer 360-degree perspective on health for its clients
India’s rising population, affluent lifestyles, and fast paced lives have all resulted in an increasing need for healthcare services. In the period from 2008-2020, India is expected to record a CAGR of 16.5 per cent in healthcare sector spends. The total industry size is expected to touch $160 billion by 2017 and $280 billion by 2020. That is too big an opportunity to ignore.
It is no surprise then that a lot of healthcare tech start-ups have been founded in India in the last few years. These start-ups have leveraged the power of technology and the ubiquity of the mobile devices to disrupt existing models and reach customers on-demand.
The digital healthcare start-ups either operate in B2C space and cater to all people who require healthcare services or operate in the B2B space and help healthcare companies, pharma companies, insurers etc.
The B2C digital healthcare companies
Companies like Practo operate in this space and enable patients to discover doctors/ hospitals. People can use their web/ mobile devices to locate doctors or hospitals for their specific healthcare needs and book appointments from the comfortable confines of their home.
Then, there are start-ups which operate in the delivery of medicines to homes. Companies such as Netmeds enable you to check, buy and send medicines from any corner of the country in just a few clicks.
There is the home healthcare services segment as well. Companies such as Portea operate in this space and provides hospital-quality healthcare at home. It provides doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists for home visits. These medical professionals pass rigorous hiring standards and background checks. Their medical knowledge verification is done by senior doctors.
The B2B digital healthcare companies
Companies in this space mostly offer services to the corporate sector. Bengaluru-based Health Vectors offers technology-based medical screening and diagnostic services for corporate and retail clients. The company leverages the power of data to offer 360-degree perspective on health for its clients.
Another start-up that operates in this space in InstaHealth, now acquired by Practo. Instahealth provides cloud-based hospital information management system that helps hospitals to optimise productivity, streamline operations, and reduce inventory leakages.
The demand for start-ups in digital healthcare
India currently has close to 65 million diabetics. This figure is expected to reach 87 million by 2030. With such alarming numbers, there is immense opportunity for on-demand medical services and accordingly, a need to disrupt existing models of providing healthcare services.
India-based Cooey Technologies has released India’s first IoT glucometer that wirelessly syncs data with a smartphone. The blood glucose levels are measured through a drop of blood on a strip in the smart glucometer and data is automatically logged. This data then provides complete access to history, patterns, spikes and other data to track the progress of the patient. This data can be made available to doctors using WhatsApp, text message or e-mail. This allows the diabetics to lead an enormously convenient life and not worry about reading and recording daily sugar levels. According to its founder, the start-up, through its app, will talk to the customer daily and remind them to drink water and exercise, and offer diabetes friendly food-options based on location.
New and interesting delivery models
Mydentist has a network of over 110 clinics that provides patients with complete information about all dental treatments. Offering complete dental check-ups, X-rays and consultations, Mydentist strives to provide access to oral care to everyone in India through a robust technology backbone. The Mydentist clinic network allows patients to easily start a treatment at one clinic and continue it at any other clinic as all records are accessible online.
These start-ups are exciting and enable last mile reach but adoption of these models is not very easy. Doctors have years of experience operating with pen, paper and files, and adoption of these digital interfaces and delivery models would mean that they must undergo a huge transformation of habits.
This calls for design thinking, and a more immersive and intuitive user interface and user experience on mobile and digital interfaces. This will enable medical professionals to easily adapt digital healthcare models. The mass adoption of such models would augment on-demand healthcare services, which is the need of the hour.
Recent developments and technology advancements
Demonetisation: We are all privy to the demonetisation initiative by the Prime Minister of India (November 2016) to curb black money and ensure that money changes hands through proper and formal channels. This development will create a huge impetus for healthcare, wherein a lot of transactions happen through cash. Most of us do not even follow practices such as asking for bills after availing a medical treatment or buying medicines from pharmacies.
With demonetisation, a lot of transactions will be through digital and cashless mechanisms, hence flowing through formal banking channels. This would give the Indian healthcare sector a huge fillip.
Big data and advanced analytics: The digital data generated while rendering healthcare services would be of great use for applying advanced analytics models and predicting things in advance. Healthcare can completely run on predictive analytics. An example of that is predicting readmission rates. In the US, hospitals are compensated based on readmission rates. Hospitals are trying to use predictive analytics to minimise the readmission of patients and to ensure that treatment or surgical procedures are carried out in the best possible manner.
IBM’s Watson for Oncology is another interesting use case for data in healthcare. It is a cognitive computing platform that analyses data to provide information and insights regarding evidence-based treatment options for cancer. This enables oncologists to provide the most personalised and individualised healthcare to each cancer patient. In India, hospital chains such as Manipal and Apollo have already started using ‘Watson for Oncology’ to provide cancer patients with individualised healthcare.
IoT and Cloud: With the internet of things (IoT) and cloud computing becoming strong, doctors can track and monitor their patients any time. With applications, such as fitbit, all vital health parameters can be recorded, stored in cloud-based systems and accessed by doctors in real-time. While the data will help doctors to treat patients better, it will also enable insurers, and other healthcare providers to offer better and more personalised services by leveraging this data from each patient. Imagine having to pay lesser health insurance premium because you go for a jog every day; religiously. That’s where we are headed.
Five years from now, India will have the largest pool of diabetics, more than most of the countries put together. It will lead to a very different way in which healthcare will be delivered in India. A mobile phone would become a virtual clinic or hospital and payments will be through cashless models. Everything from ordering medicines to communicating with insurance will happen through the mobile phone. Very soon, a model will emerge when you would not have to go to the clinic to avail healthcare services. There would be a virtual digital interface with the doctors and medical professionals to enable you to avail the best possible treatment for your illness from home, or from anywhere in the world. You can even pay for the services virtually using cashless mechanisms.
TiE as an accelerator of the growth of India’s healthcare sector
Given the above developments and the unanimous appeal of digital services, TiE would help start-ups in the healthcare sector to take off and become significant companies in healthcare.
To do so, TiE has set up a special interest group (SIG) for healthcare. This group will focus on shaping and accelerating the growth of disruptive start-ups in Indian healthcare. The SIG would comprise successful academicians, entrepreneurs, and experts from the healthcare fraternity in India as well as the charter members on the TiE board with experience in healthcare. The SIG would advise, and guide entrepreneurs to pilot test their products, reiterate based on feedback and insights, and help launch a great product to mass audience.
TiE Angel network will help with the initial funding for entrepreneurs who have a great idea for healthcare in India but do not have the capital to start.
TiE will also facilitate a forum for networking among start-up founders. This would be an important platform as it would bring together entrepreneurs who are working towards solving challenges in Indian healthcare. This would foster more innovation and create an excellent and robust healthcare ecosystem in India – exactly what we are all striving for!
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