Medical information is the cornerstone of healthcare ecosystem, say MediSage founders

Our plan is to make MediSage accessible to all healthcare providers in the country right from a doctor sitting in rural India to a nurse practising in urban India, inform Bhagwat Dhingra, founder, and Abhishek Ghosh, co-founder, MediSage, to Akanki Sharma, while touching upon other topics related to the digitisation of medical information

Give us a brief description about MediSage.

MediSage is a healthtech platform empowering doctors to stay up-to-date with curated medical content with the motto “for the doctors by the doctors.” It aims to keep them abreast with the latest medical knowledge, global best
practices, case-based discussions, etc. Doctors can stay up-to-date through webinars, expert videos, medical conferences, journal articles, podcasts and chatcasts, among other easy-to- consume formats. They can simply sift through the vast repository of content created by global and national experts, carefully curated by MediSage,
to improve patient outcomes through accurate diagnosis and the best-in-class treatment.

Incepted in November 2019 with its digital platform launched in April 2020, MediSage currently has more than 400 experts creating top- notch content on regular basis. Collaborating with top global universities, medical
associations, subject matter experts and medical bodies, it develops, curates and certifies content to help doctors across various specialties. With a ‘by doctors, for doctors’ motto, the up-and-coming platform is a one-stop solution catering to all the knowledge requirements of the medical fraternity, and is completely free of cost with no
subscription fee.

What major gaps do you think exist between patients and doctors in the present times, especially with regards to
COVID-19?

In the current times, even though the technology is available, there are still a large number of doctors, especially
from tier-II and -III cities who do not have access to updated knowledge.

COVID came as a whole new learning experience for the medical fraternity. In the beginning, our doctors were
fighting an unknown enemy as there was no complete information available for them to read or to refer to. Right
from how to differentiate between symptoms of flu v/s symptoms of COVID, which medication to use,
understanding co-morbidities, controlling other clinical challenges, the knowledge did not reach doctors, especially in tier-II towns. This compromised patient treatment. With digital interventions, speed at which knowledge can travel has increased, impacting the way doctors are treating patients.

What kind of content is being made available on the platform and what’s the source of information that is being stored here?

MediSage publishes global experts’ evidence-based advice in video and podcast format, and also enables live
interactions with national and international experts.

Additionally, it brings updated news feed from globally reputed journals and runs multiple discussion forums.

‘Credibility’ is an important pillar in healthcare and MediSage ensures all content is not only credible, but is sourced from the best-known experts in that therapy. MediSage has tied up with national and international universities, medical associations and experts to further strengthen content generation.

The platform works with all leading Indian and international medical associations such as RSSDI, FOGSI, API, etc. Multiple university tie-ups are underway where the intent is to bring short format courses which doctors can use to
enhance their skillsets.

Tell us about your revenue model. How do you manage the expenses for running this platform?

Pharma, device and diagnostic companies like to engage on scientific discussions with doctors, and, so far, have been able to do so sporadically and in small groups. With a platform like MediSage, these companies can get their scientific messages out to a larger audience. We earn revenues by engaging with such organisations and in helping them build a robust scientific message and then delivering the same through a platform.

How robust is the global medical information market at the moment? Do hospitals, healthcare providers and
pharma companies play any crucial role at Medisage? Explain in detail.

Medical information is the cornerstone of the healthcare ecosystem in any country. In vast countries like India, both creation and dissemination of medical information is a big challenge. While today, more pharma companies are spending time on doing research on diagnostic, new molecules and new treatment regimens, dissemination of
such information remains a challenge.

We are bringing all healthcare participants including hospitals, healthcare providers and pharma companies on one single platform to enable such cross pollination of knowledge to happen. New products cannot be developed unless doctors come across challenges in treating patients with old drugs or find compliance, efficacy or side-effect challenges with existing products. Similarly, healthcare ecosystem thrives when doctors are able to use
new diagnostic techniques, new drugs for better patient outcome. So, this loop can run efficiently in a digital
environment because of the sheer speed, scale and credibility of information flow.

What are your future plans for Medisage?

Our plan is to make MediSage accessible to all healthcare providers in the country right from a doctor sitting in rural India to a nurse practising in urban India. This way, even a patient in the remotest part of the country will have access to the same quality of diagnosis and treatment as someone accessing healthcare in a metro city. Numerous neurological disorders, skin diseases, hypertension cases or cancer cases go undiagnosed because
of lack of right knowledge to diagnose. We are already expanding our footprint to India-like markets where the challenges amongst doctor fraternity are similar. Our partnerships with leading pharma companies, medical associations and universities are helping us create cutting- edge content, the likes of which doctors had never envisaged. We will continue building on that strength.

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