The 10 most advanced healthcare solution providers 2018

â„¢ www.insightssuccess.in APRIL 2018

The

10 MOST

ADVANCED

HEALTHCARE SOLUTION PROVIDERS

Sreekumar Banerjee Founder and CTO

Manisha Chowdhury Founder and CEO

Aptsource Software

Editorial

I

ndia is among one of the fastest developing nations in the world. In fact if we closely look into the Asia-pacific region, India’s GDP growth rose to 7.2% in December quarter last year, surpassing even the growth rate of neighboring economic powerhouse, China. But is the same positive impact resonating in the healthcare sector? The answer is NO. Despite being known for producing some of the best doctors in the world, situation of Indian healthcare has not even close to that impression. A recent survey on the Healthcare Access and Quality Index reflects the sorry state of Indian healthcare system; India has been ranked as low as 154 worldwide, making it among the biggest underachievers in Asia. Negligence of rural healthcare, less expenditure on overall public healthcare, shortage of medical personnel and lack of superior medical research are some of the prime reasons behind the tragic state of Indian healthcare system.

The State of Indian Healthcare System

Approximately 60 percent of clinics and 80 percent of doctors are situated in cities that are serving only 28 percent of the Indian population. Out of the 7 Lakh beds only 11% are available in rural areas. The much bitter truth is the rich spend 2% of their income on healthcare and the poor spend as much as 12% of their income on it.

The public expenditure on health at about 1.2% of the GDP is amongst the lowest in the world while many countries are spending many folds as compared to India.

According to WHO standards, any country should have a doctor patient ratio of at least 1:1000. In a country of 1.2 billion, we have only 740,000 active doctors that makes a doctor patient ratio of 1:1,674. It is a crisis and India needs more 500,000 allopathic doctors to serve its citizens better as far as citizen’s medical needs are concerned.

There are many other reasons behind the challenging state of Indian healthcare. But what is the solution. Can we provide our citizens decent medical facilities at an affordable rate that can lead us to maintain a healthier and happier society? The answer is YES!! We can do it; we can transform and overhaul the healthcare system, but to do so, we need some action on the ground. We need to make a balance between urban and rural healthcare. First, we need to provide accessible quality and affordable healthcare to our rural masses. Second, we need to allocate more funds as compared to our GDP for building and maintaining medical infrastructure. Third, we need to open up more number of medical colleges that can fill the shortage of doctors all across the country. If India focuses on these areas then we can truly become a nation where deaths due to encephalitis in Gorakhpur or the incident like of Dana Manjhi will never occur in future. We hope that future will be bright of Indian healthcare system as far as patient’s plights are concerned.

Ashwini Deshmukh

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Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Shraddha Deshpande Managing Editor Ashwini Deshmukh Co-Editors Shweta Priyadarshani Sachin Bhandare Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Poonam Mahajan Picture Editor Alex Noel Art Editor Aparna Vanzul Visualiser Mayur Koli Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal Marketing Manager Dhruv Apte Business Development Executives Rutuja, Shraddha, Joan, Danesh Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Vivek Database Management Prashant Technology Consultant Swapnil Patil sales@insightssuccess.com

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COVER STORY 08

Insiders Opinion Technology and Innovation Result in Healthcare Revolution

26

Expert's Viewpoint New Age Technologies: A New Wave in the Revolution of Indian Healthcare Ecosystem

40

Leader's Insights Accelerating IT Adoption in Indian Healthcare Background

Aptsource Software: Redeď€ ning Healthcare with Leading-edge Technologies

24 INTERVIEW WITH INSIGHTS SUCCESS

16

AcneDr: A Platform Which Offers Acne Treatment

32 ARTH:

Kovai Medical Center and Hospital: Pioneer in Delivering Qualitative and Advanced Healthcare Facilities

INSPIRING STORY

30

Making Personalized Health-Tech Accessible to All

38 Doctto Online Healthcare Innovation: Redeď€ ning Indian Healthcare System

44 A Changed Life after a Knee Surgery

Healthcare Consulting Services: Management Expert of Healthcare that can turn Negative Cash Flow into a Positive one

ARTICLES 22

46

TECH-TREND Augmented Reality: The Next Big Blessing for the Healthcare Industry

CHALK-TALK Organized Marketing of Hospitals and its Future Trends

34

Sevamob: Transforming Healthcare through Innovation and Dedication

THE

MOST ADVANCED

HEALTHCARE SOLUTION PROVIDERS

Carriers that are Taking Care of Indian Healthcare Needs

I

f a customer can book a hotel room or a fight ticket just by clicking on the mobile phone then why can’t the same customer confirm an appointment with doctors? Definitely this is possible. There are many IT-healthcare solution providers that provide cutting-edge services to address these present time healthcare needs. Therefore, in this issue of “The 10 Most Advanced Healthcare Solution Providers”, we have not only come up with the top-notch healthcare solution providers (hospitals etc.), but also have enlisted those companies that provide technological solutions to meet the ongoing demand of the healthcare industry.

On the cover, we have enlisted Aptsource Software. It is a company having decades of experience in healthcare informatics. Aptsource helps its customers and partners with products and solutions for wide range application areas in healthcare.

ARTH instantly delivers cutting-edge personalized healthcare solutions to wide range of healthcare providers.

AcneDr Healthtech is a digital platform exclusively focused on Acne & make dermatologists & cosmetologists accessible to everyone. Doctto Online Healthcare Innovation is a dynamic online healthcare service provider company which provides wide range of qualitative healthcare services to the users with low cost.

Healthcare Consulting Services is a healthcare advisory and consulting firm committed towards professional efficiency and best management practices to run hospitals. Sevamob provides artificial intelligence enabled healthcare platform to organizations in India, Southern Africa and the US. Apollo Hospitals, Neotia Healthcare Initiative Limited, Birlamedisoft Pvt. Ltd, Mediklik are other prominent firms of the healthcare industry.

To enrich our reader’s wisdom, Nipun Goyal, Co-founder and Director of Curofy; Brahma Acharya, Director of Kare4U Healthcare Solutions; and Kumar Subramaniam, Founder & CEO of Kaaspro Enterprises have written captivating articles related to healthcare industry.

Dr. Nalla G Palaniswami, Chairman of Kovai Medical Center and Hospital have given us an insightful interview which also we have enlisted in our magazine. One inspiring story of K. Bhuvaneshwari whose life got changed after a knee surgery performed by a team of orthopedic surgeons at Parvathy Hospital also something which our reader find interesting.

Our in-house editors have written some masterly articles on latest trends which you’ll find fascinating.

So, do flip pages and enjoy reading!!

Aptsource Software: T

he global healthcare industry is expected to witness a stable growth during the current financial year and will cross $1.85 trillion mark in terms of manufactures’ revenues.

Digital health investments had crossed $6.5 billion in 2017, up by 109% from its previous year. The growth curve is expected to continue into the next year as demand for technologies and platform solutions that promote innovation around quality of care, clinical outcomes, and chronic disease management continue to rise. The desire to cater changing needs with utmost efficiency and precision is driving medical institutions towards organizations that can fulfill their Heath-tech needs.

Kolkata based Aptsource Software is one such organization that has gained prominence with their cutting-edge IT-healthcare solutions. This ISO27001 certified organization has built a good repute in the industry for their expertise in health informatics. Through technology and architecture innovations, Aptsource has so far been quite successful in bringing state-of-the-art HIT applications within the affordable budget of healthcare providers in the emerging economies

as well as certain under-served segments in developed countries.

Aptcare is their comprehensive and configurable practice management solution that has been built while keeping the international standards in mind.

The organization provides derivative web based solutions based on Aptcare for ambulatory care, rehabilitation, and community health settings. The derivatives address needs of healthcare providers ranging across chronic ailments, smoking, alcohol, drug cessation management, mother & child care, and more.

Recent and Upcoming Releases Aptsource has recently launched AptcareP, an advanced version of Aptcare. It is a cloud based practice management platform meant to make ambulatory care services in India more patients centric. It is primarily meant for clinics, hospital OPDs and solo practitioners.

The company is also ready to release its new app PatientConnect which will connect all registered patients on the AptcareP platform to doctor’s

COVER STORY

Manisha Chowdhury Founder and CEO

Sreekumar Banerjee Founder and CTO

offices for appointment scheduling, online payment, sharing of clinical data and documents which is generally required for continuity of care.

Recently, Aptsource has launched its new appVaxialert, a utility app that reminds parents in advance about the schedule of next vaccination for their wards.

In addition to its product offerings, Aptsource takes pride in its solution consulting services that encompasses Enterprise IT Strategy, Health care Informatics, Maturity Planning & Execution and algorithms related to population health risk assessment and disease prevention.

Leading Lights of Aptsource Manisha Chowdhury and Sreekumar Banerjee are the driving forces of Aptsource Software. Manisha, an electronics and communication engineer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Aptsource. She has a vast experience of over 25 years in the IT industry and has far-reaching exposure to various healthcare solutions across various technologies. Prior, she used to lead the analytic solutions and services practice area for healthcare in Siemens.

Sreekumar Banerjee, a M.Sc. (Master of Science) in Physics is the Co-Founder and CTO of Aptsource.

He also has a robust corporate experience of over 27 years and has successfully served as solution head

We are face-lifting healthcare industry with the power of IT

along with various business leadership positions across global IT multinationals that include Siemens, IBM and others.

While working in the R&D departments of renowned multinationals, both Manisha and Sreekumar developed their passion for healthcare informatics.

They came together to develop, acquire, and integrate HIT capabilities for quick turnaround of software solutions for efficient service delivery and better decision support. The prime motivating factor behind Aptsource’s inception is to make a difference in people’s lives through usage of right tools and technology that could help to improve patient experience and overall clinical outcome. Aptsource was founded by the duo with intent to freely pursue such ideas and deliver appropriate solutions that could make the health care delivery process more agile and affordable.

Golden Words for the Budding Entrepreneurs “It is great to have ideas but one should always allow one’s very own ideas to evolve and change through careful listening and a process of constant learning.

It is extremely important to acknowledge your own shortcomings and build a team to complement the same. It is never a good idea to believe that you can do it all by yourself” asserts Manisha.

Strategy to Stay Competent The organization gives special emphasis on creating a dynamic learning environment that promotes knowledge sharing. They take initiative to identify employees who are eager to learn and have capability to grasp concept at good pace. The company constantly motivates such employees to obtain, assimilate and apply that knowledge which ultimately assists diligent employees to emerge as SME in various fields of HIT. While some build expertise in EMR and EHR, others concentrate on FHIR to constantly learn and adapt to the evolving regulatory landscape of healthcare across the globe.

Aptsource’s Widely Acclaimed Product One of their flagship product, AptcareHMS has been highly appreciated in the industry. This product

THE

MOST ADVANCED

HEALTHCARE SOLUTION PROVIDERS

provides the power of computing in the hands of healthcare providers instead of software engineers. AptcareHMS has the capability to accommodate diverse range of physicians and healthcare providers across geographies by customizing data structures, screens, processes and more.

Its easy-to-implement customization using scripts rather than changing codebase has contributed towards its vast acceptance.

Businesses Grow on Trust Factor and Understanding the Client Needs Based on the ‘trust factor’ a relationship can last long. This hypothesis has been proved right by Aptsource. Trust comes from the confidence that the team is there for the customer any hour they need them. While looking for newer opportunities they take utmost care to support their existing customers.

For the version of Aptcare (rehab) that they had rolled out for multiple clinics of Allen Carr in the UK, their customer initially did express concerns about the fact that the company does not have any branch office in the UK. Nevertheless today after years of association they do not feel that physical distance or time zones could ever become any criteria for selecting a vendor. It is their excellent customer service that paid in the end.

Trust among clients is what driving us towards the pinnacle of success

“We promote dynamic learning environment to stay competent” The company always focused into understanding the client requirements to better develop solutions that closely matched with clients’ needs and expectations.

Networking and partnering with companies that offer complementary solutions is also something that Aptsource believes are important facets of business management.

The Finest part of Aptsource The best part of Aptsource is the atmosphere of trust and happiness among employees and customers.

They are not only blessed with a motivated workforce but also with plenty of satisfied customers whose trust and confidence often make them oblivious of the boundaries between customer and vendor organizations.

Aptsource’s adept workforce is their real strength and often when things do not proceed as per expectation, they provide enormous flexibility to their personnel to take new role in the interest of the company. Such collective efforts have greatly helped them in overcoming their challenges; turn around and acquire new contracts. Their customers have also acted like partners by introducing Aptsource to other solid prospects. Customer recommendations and references

have helped Aptsource in many ways to acquire new business and build lasting relationships. All these are the results of client satisfaction which is assisting the company to reach greater heights in business.

Future Endeavour and Benefits to Customers In the coming times, Aptsource is aspiring to transform into a pure product based company through steady acceleration of growth through the software as service business in entire India. They expect a significant number of healthcare providers will join their multi-tenancy practice management platform, AptcareP. Their platform will empower healthcare providers with a web based practice management system at an affordable cost in order to offer best services to their patients. This will boost the visibility of registered clinics through an online presence. More number of patients would be able to discover and connect with medical practitioners. And this will ultimately assist healthcare providers in continuity of care through patient retention, easy follow up and referral mechanisms based on simple and intuitive workflow implementation.

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THE

MOST ADVANCED

HEALTHCARE SOLUTION PROVIDERS

Company Name

Management

Brief

AcneDr HealthTech acnedr.in

MohitKochar, Co-Founder Shailesh Javkar, Co-Founder Ashish Maurya, Director

AcneDr is a digital platform exclusively focused on Acne & make dermatologists & cosmetologists accessible to everyone.

Apollo Hospitals / HealthNet Global Ltd apollohospitals.com

Dr. Pallavi Singh Sr. Manager

Apollo Hospitals is an Indian hospital chain based in Chennai, India. The hopspital provides wide range of healthcare services to patients and is among the trusted names of healthcare industry.

Aptsource Software aptsourcesoftware.com

ARTH arth.tech

Manisha Chowdhury Founder and CEO Sreekumar Banerjee Founder and CTO Jainam Shah Co-founder Naitik Vyas Co-founder

Aptsource Software is a company having decades of experience in healthcare informatics. Aptsource helps its customers and partners with products and solutions for wide range application areas in healthcare.

ARTH instantly delivers cutting-edge personalized healthcare solutions to wide range of healthcare providers.

Birlamedisoft Pvt. Ltd birlamedisoft.com

Neeraj Sharma Business Associate

Pune-based Birlamedisoft is a pioneer in developing cutting-edge software for the healthcare industry.

Doctto Online HealthCare docttocare.com

Sugandha Agarwal Managing Director & Founder

Doctto Online HealthCare is a dynamic online healthcare service provider company which provides wide range of qualitative healthcare services to the users with low cost.

healthcareconsultingservices.in

Amit Sontakke Managing Partner

Healthcare Consulting Services is a healthcare advisory and consulting firm committed towards professional efficiency and best management practices to run hospitals.

MediKlik mediklik.com

Vikram Aditya Tirthani Founder

MediKlik is a leading consumer-centric health portal, where users can do multiple health related activity within seconds.

Neotia Healthcare Initiative Limited neotiahealthcare.com

Suprokash Ghosh Group Brand Manager

Neotia Healthcare Initiative Ltd. create healthcare institutions, catering to divergent health related needs of people efficiently & ethically, focusing on quality and the willingness to serve.

Sevamob sevamob.com

Shelley Saxena Founder and CEO

Sevamob provides artificial intelligence enabled healthcare platform to organizations in India, Southern Africa and the US.

Healthacare Consulting services

Interview with Insights Success

Dr. Nalla G Palaniswami Chairman

T

here are many healthcare providers in the nation that offer wide range of medical services but only few meet the expectation that patients generally have. Kovai Medical Center and Hospital (KMCH) is one such trusted name in the healthcare sector that has gained prominence with its qualitative and affordable healthcare facilities. KMCH is one of the most reliable multispecialty hospitals in the southern Indian city of Coimbatore. Relentless service of KMCH in the last 26 years has taken health care to the most modern levels in the region catering to urban and rural population.

In an interview with Insights Success, Dr. Nalla G Palaniswami, Chairman, KMCH gave some insightful views highlighting the various aspects he has witnessed in running a successful healthcare facility.

1. Tell us about your Hospital in Brief? What kind of solutions is offered by Kovai Medical Center at par with the current healthcare standards?

KMCH was started as 200-bed Multi Speciality hospital and has grown as tall as a 1000 bed facility over 27 years. We have main center located at Coimbatore with four satellite centers established in the nearby districts. As a group, we have 1300 beds and we are in the process of constructing additional 750 beds in the main center campus to cater to the growing demand of this region. Our basic mantras “Patient First” and “Quality Service to Everyone” made us 16 | April 2018

easy to get NABH accreditation. We follow and concentrate ethical and evidence-based practice. Our technical expertise and latest infrastructure upgradation has enabled our team to perform many rare and difficult procedures to save many lives. Many of them are first in the City/State/Region. The path we travelled was not filled with rose petals but with hurdles and challenges like any other successful organization. But we could able to overcome all those challenges with the committed team who dedicated their life for the development of the hospital. We are blessed with such a wonderful team.

2. Can you please brief us about the Chairman of KMCH, and why he chooses to build a career in this field?

Dr. Nalla G Palaniswami, Chairman, KMCH is hailing from an agricultural family who is the first graduate in his village. After post-graduation in India, he went abroad for specialization. The best practices in Medicine have evolved to a great extent over the period since his education in 1960s. The clinical expertise which he has gained during his stay in the United States of America and Indian healthcare environment prevailed then, have both deeply kindled his desire to establish a similar system of quality and affordable care for the people of India. The thought process was initiated in early 1980s and attained final structure in 1990.

There were series of long hour and overnight talks and meetings with like-minded fellow men and investors across the globe to materialize the concept. He has sacrificed his luxurious life at USA and moved to India for making his dream true.

3. What are your views on today’s healthcare industry; and according to you, how are you contributing to making it better for clients, patients, and doctors?

Healthcare delivery system is a fast-growing, dynamic and volatile field, where one has to constantly upgrade the technical infrastructure and efficient operational techniques to be successful in the industry. Upgrading technology requires heavy investment, whose return on investment is ™

KOVAI MEDICAL CENTER AND HOSPITAL: Pioneer in Delivering Qualitative and Advanced Healthcare Facilities not encouraging. As the patients are better informed, their expectations are high and hence demanding. The margins are very thin and sustainability is assured, only if the volume is obtained. Due to this, many of the small healthcare players are facing challenges in continuing business. Our transparency and ethical practice bring more and more patients through word of mouth through satisfied patients. We believe that technology can help doctors in precision delivery. Most of new techniques and technological advancements were introduced by us to this region. As the doctors have latest equipment and freedom of taking medical decisions, they feel comfortable.

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4. During your journey towards growth, list out the challenges you had faced and lessons that you have learned from them.

Challenges a. Getting trained manpower and retaining them. b. Increased operational cost but reducing profit margin. c. Increased expectations of the patients. d. Shift of loyalty to newer hospitals by employees and doctors. e. Frequent revision in the minimum wages by Govt. for

17 | April 2018

various categories. f. Obsolescence of medical technology. g. Essential investments in equipment and technology, in spite of poor return. h. Change of tax/duty structure by policy makers. i. Misconception among public that private hospitals charge more.

Lessons a. Having a training cell and allocating separate budget for training. b. Improving the operational efficiency and cutting cost wherever possible without affecting the service level. c. Making the hospital patient centric and patient friendly.

Being non-technical patients measure more tangibles in services and take decision about a hospital. d. It is inevitable. Mentally prepare to lose at least 30% of man power every year. As a backup, working out a strategy to developing 2nd and 3rd level in each department to meet the crisis. Developing multi-tasking team to meet any crisis. Having more than one doctor in a specialty will always help. e. In a joint forum it needs to be represented to the policy makers the increasing cost to the hospital and seek help the industry to do something. f. Innovations in this field are very fast and hence could not be avoided. g. To make the hospital competitive, investment in technology is unavoidable. h. Joint representation to policy makers can help the industry. i. Need to change the mindset of the public on this.

5. What benefits your Patients/clients are getting from Kovai Medical Center?

First and foremost is the availability of all specialties under one roof. Second most important is the very clean and green environment. The friendly approach and patient centric approach feel the patients comfortable at home. The transparency and ethical approach makes to realize that they are in the right place for treatment. Our investment in technology and clinical expertise makes the patient to blindly approach us for their treatment. Unaffordable patients can also get treatment through charitable trust.

Various other facilities like bank, ATMs, variety of food courts, SPA, Preventive health checks, shopping plazas makes the patients and attenders feel away from sickness.

With various CSR activities the patients and society are benefitted.

18 | April 2018

6. Which strategies do you follow to stay competent?

How are you shaping yourself to become unique?

We strongly believe in technological investments and we are the healthcare leader in this region. With such investments, we are the first in many complicated and advanced procedures in this region. In spite of advanced technologies, we are at par with the market in terms of charges to the patients. Our awareness programs for the public are very useful for various preventive measures.

Various research programs by our team are very educative and useful for the society. With one main center of 1000 beds at Coimbatore, we have six peripheral centers in and around the region so that we can serve everywhere. We are in the process of entering to medical educative program thereby we will be a major medical player in the southern India.

7. What would you attribute your success to?

Our quality service, patient friendly approach, latest technology, affordable cost, transparency in billing, ethical practices, clean and green environment are the major attributes to our success. Above all these aspects, a dedicated and sacrificing team of doctors, paramedics, administrators, health workers steered by an able leadership makes this journey successful.

8. What is the best part of your Kovai Medical Center, and how are you going to utilize it in the future?

We have state of the art infrastructure, latest technological equipment and best of talent pool that can do anything the world can do, successfully. We have already established ourselves and earned reputation and confidence among the population. We will try to achieve much more heights and make our hospital as the premier destination for healthcare needs. ™

Technology Innovation Result in Healthcare Revolution and

Kumar Subramaniam Founder & Chief Executive Ofcer

About the Author Mr. Kumar Subramaniam, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Kaaspro Enterprises, played a major role in guiding Kaaspro Enterprises to reach great heights. He has not only been instrumental in the massive success of the company but also in leading it from the front with reputation and goodwill. Also Mr. Kumar Subramaniam is the co-founder of Kumaran System and has been heading the Internet Products and Services, shouldering responsibilities since the inception of the company. Having amassed an industry experience of nearly three decades, he has ensured that the organization achieved outstanding business performance.

To make Kaaspro Enterprises the global leader in Electronic Health Records Software Service is his vision and this is being worked on effectively. He has gained expertise about the nuances of Information Technology and an understanding of the EHR platform from his rich domain experience. It is his high leadership capability that has enabled his team to accomplish great success.

It is because of the insights he has passed on regarding management that the company has been facilitated to align all its processes and projects in line with its business strategy. Achieving a perfect synergy between management and technology is Mr. Kumar Subramaniam’s endeavor. He strives for this and Kaaspro Enterprises is the manifestation of the endeavor.

75Health is a modern health information technology services company that has come up with stateof-the-art applications such as 75Health Electronic Medical Record Software and 75Health Medical Practice Management System. The specialty of these modern medical information technologies is providing simple design and easy implementation while being able to enable efficient performance of medical practices and clinicians.

20 | April 2018

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INSIDERS OPINION

H

ealthcare industry, among others, proves to be one of the significantly evolved ones – thanks to the impact brought upon by innovations and new technologies during the recent past. More number of digital devices as well as technologies are seen to drive the healthcare industry in the contemporary world. This has led to improvement in healthcare provider and patient communication, enhanced clinical treatments, optimization of diagnoses, reduction in threats related to public health, and optimization of global health services.

The Connection between Technological Advances and the Future of Healthcare The traditional healthcare setting as we know is continuing to change by the influence of new technologies. Impacting this niche from diverse perspectives, innovations play a key role in the evolution of health care and the way it is being delivered. While enabling medical services and clinicians to achieve information accuracy and the capability to provide optimal medical service to patients, these have an impact on the services provided by the health care industry, in the form of new ways of diagnosis, treatment methods, and delicate decision making process.

It is well-known that health care providers will be relying more on technology for improving their services to patients. New technologies will assist physicians belonging to different specialties with a wide range of factors – from increasing accuracy to optimizing their diagnosis. Futuristic smart systems that are capable of understanding complicated diseases and health issues make this possible.

Revolutions in Health Care Driven By Technology

leverage technology proves to be a boon to the modern world; this revolution is about to break barriers in future. Wearables, innovations in health information technology and pharmaceuticals are just a few of the numerous progressive factors in healthcare. The following are a few of the key innovations in the modern medical industry: Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Robotics Nanotechnology 3-D Printing Artificial intelligence Electronic medical records Medical practice management systems Personal health records

Limitations and Challenges With innovative technologies and the current revolutionary trend, considerable progress has been achieved, but great challenges remain too. The following are a few of the technology challenges faced by the modern healthcare industry: Voluminous data: Data generation is on the rise – increasing data and the need for handling the same creates data security and data management issues that need to be handled Ÿ Communication gap among healthcare systems: With progressive technologies being created on one side, the limited ability of interaction among them causes concern – this restricts the capability of automating processes Ÿ HIPAA and other Legal Requirements: Medical service providers are required to protect personal patient information, take precautions to have data backups, and eliminate data breach Ÿ Increasing costs: Effective coordination with the Affordable Care Act becomes difficult with increasing IT costs. Ÿ

Technology has been seen to influence healthcare in unprecedented ways, of late. The ability to

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21 | April 2018

The Next Big Blessing for the Healthcare Industry

T

he power of Augmented Reality (AR) to let the end user keep in touch with the reality and presenting the information into eyesight as fast as possible makes it unique among other burgeoning IT technologies. The popularity of Pokemon game is a world known phenomenon from where AR technology got a huge boost. Many experts believe that AR technology has the potential to change the landscape of healthcare industry too in a gigantic way for both the physicians and patients alike. There are many applications where AR proves to be a boon for the healthcare sector which is described in this article.

Augmented Reality can Save Lives by Locating nearby Defibrillators in Quickest Possible Time What would a person generally do when person next to him collapsed suddenly? The first thought generally comes to anyone’s mind is to call the ambulance or contact the close one’s of the traumatized person. But does doing anyone of these things suffice in all the circumstances especially in the critical ones? Definitely not!! With the help of augmented reality technology, you can help a distressed person in much better way. With the power of augmented reality, a person can locate automated external defibrillators or AEDs. Interestingly, this technology can let the end user find exact location of the nearest AEDs in a shortest possible time, may be in a minute and thus help troubled person in quickest possible time.

Patients can describe their Medical Situation in a Better Way In many cases, patients find it difficult to explain their symptoms to the doctors accurately. In some cases patient describe the situations much more and worse than the actual reality and in some cases they report their situation as a much little problem which was not the exact case either all the time. In ophthalmology field of medicine, augmented reality thus proves to be a game changer for patient consultation.

In ophthalmology, using augmented reality, a camera can display the exact conditions that impact a person’s vision. Using apps like EyeDecide, doctors can show simulation of the vision of a person suffering from specific eye disease. With this technology, doctors can demonstrate the impact of Cataract to the patient and help them understand their actual medical condition and future situation as well. Thus by looking into the long term impact on their health, it could motivate people to make positive change.

Finding Veins becomes Easier with Augmented Reality When things get out of control, applying needle is the only way out to get well soon, but Doctors and Nurses find it difficult in many cases to find the vein in first instance. According to one prominent marketing specialist, 40% of IVs (Intravenous injections) miss the vein on the first time, and this figure gets worse if it includes elderly and children’s.

With Augmented reality technology now both the nurses and doctors finds it easier to do this job. Using augmented reality technology, a handheld scanner throws rays over to the patient’s skin and shows nurses and doctors the exact locations of patient’s veins. Thus, it makes doctors’ job easier to find the vein and inject the syringe to the exact location with minimum pain to the patient. Interestingly, it is estimated that using AR technology finding vein on the first stick has become 3.5x higher.

22 | April 2018

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TECH-TREND

Pharmaceutical Companies can let Patients Know How Drug Works How medicine works when it goes into the body is a question which generally comes in to the minds of many patients.

And whose answer many want to know. One can go into the deep of medical science and understand the process of how drug enters and change patient’s body. But for that, one needs to read a bunch of articles and book which are not feasible to a normal person who is unaware of the medical terminology. But with the help of augmented reality a patient can see how the drug works that too in 3D in front of their eyes instead of reading long descriptions.

Interestingly, AR technology can assist lab workers to monitor their experiments and can also help them in knowing what to do next in the drug making process.

A Great Assistance for the Surgeons When it comes to surgery, precision becomes the prime importance. While conducting surgery with advanced technology, it has now become more important to draw a 3D model image of the patient’s organ part that has to go through surgical process. AR technology thus empowers surgeons to locate the exact part of the body that needs surgery with the assistance of X-rays views without any radiation exposure in real time. This technology thus assists surgeons to deliver a successful surgery with utmost precision while taking care of patients’ safety at the core.

Now these applications itself prove that AR is gaining momentum in healthcare space too, and it will become future of healthcare as far as technology is concerned. In the future, many of healthcare activities will revolves around AR. And those who still have some kind of doubt over its popularity should look at the people chasing Pokemon on the streets. ™

23 | April 2018

AcneDr: A Platform Which Offers Acne Treatment

I

n today’s time, access to quality healthcare facilities is a major concern for people who live in tier II, tier III cities & rural areas. The best possible way to address this concern is to provide healthcare solutions through mobile technology, where you get instant consultation from top certified medical practitioners. So we would say mobile health technology would prove to be a game changer for India’s healthcare system, and makes quality and affordable healthcare solutions accessible to all. One such healthcare provider that provides quality healthcare solution is AcneDr. AcneDr is a specialist in the treatment of Acne which is a common disease all over the world.

AcneDr Healthtech Pvt. Ltd. was founded with the goal of establishing a digital platform exclusively focused on Acne & making dermatologists accessible to everyone. AcneDr is the only dermatologist consultation app in India which is dedicated for acne management. The company has a team of dermatologists & cosmetologists having an expertise in treating acne who provide customized treatment.

Acne is a common adolescent skin condition as over 80% of men and women suffer from acne in their lifetime. As per British Medical Journal, it is estimated that the worldwide prevalence of acne is around 9.4%, making it the 8th most prevalent disease. Majorly it affects teenagers and adolescents who are busy in their college or professional

Their strategy is to remain focused on acne management. Acne in itself is a vast segment. They would continue working towards creating awareness about impact of acne on day-to-day life & educate people to seek professional advice rather than experimenting home remedies. Also in the ever changing health tech scenario they would strive to offer the best user experience.

24 | April 2018

lives & have little or no time to visit a dermatologist. Also, there are many studies which have concluded that acne is associated with negative psychological impact as well.

Fascinating Journey of AcneDr

Masterminds of AcneDr AcneDr Healthtech Private Limited is Co-founded by Mohit Kochar, Shailesh Javkar & Ashish Maurya.

“There is a tendency to ignore health concerns which crop up frequently & tend to forget that, to address these issues & to prevent them from recurring, medical advice is necessary.

Acne is one such condition which is always ignored” said Ashish.“There are many studies which have concluded that acne is associated with negative psychological impacts.

Embarrassment, stigma & misconceptions about acne are seen to be the likely causes that prevent people from seeking medical help” added Shailesh. This is where they thought that AcneDr will play a major role.

“AcneDr’s objective is to create awareness about the impact of acne on day-to-day life & bridge the gap between people & dermatologist, so that pimples can be cured at early stages. Thus helping people regain their confidence and smile again” says Mohit.

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THE

MOST ADVANCED

HEALTHCARE SOLUTION PROVIDERS

Shailesh Javkar

Mohit Kochar

Co-Founder

Co-Founder

How AcneDr Stands Out From the Competition The mobile health technology landscape is vast with multiple services being offered across different therapeutic areas. In this scenario, AcneDr foresees a lot of patients moving towards online consultation for the benefits it offer.

AcneDr is a very convenient, secure & affordable platform where patients will benefit from the customized treatment offered by dermatologists.

Customer Service & satisfaction both are very crucial to make successful & long term relationship with customers.

Many a times, it is very difficult to get an appointment of specialists in a hospital & the waiting list is also too long.

AcneDr facilitates smooth consultation & customized therapy from expert dermatologists at the patient’s convenience without physically visiting them.

AcneDr - A Secure Way to Consult The biggest challenge faced by AcneDr. was to develop trust of their patients. It is not easy to ensure that what you share online is safe and secure. AcneDr. is highly committed towards maintaining confidentiality of personal information shared by the patients. All images & chat

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“We make sure that affordable acne treatment is accessible to all”

conversations are stored in encrypted format in database & only a dermatologist can access the database. This makes AcneDr mobile application platform a very confidential and secure one.

Focus and Vision of AcneDr Focus & Vision are two attributes which is giving them success. Their focus is only on acne management and to create awareness about the impact of acne on day-to-day life & educate people to seek professional advice. The vision is to spread confidence by creating a difference.

Future Perspective of AcneDr AcneDr believes in challenging the status quo of the already existing methods or standards. Consumer satisfaction and experience is their prime focus and they work towards that every day. Positive vibes, integrity, decision-making capability and self-motivation are highly valued in their organization. And with having these traits as their strengths, AcneDr is set to expand its business footprint in the unchartered territory as well.

25 | April 2018

About the Author Nipun Goyal is the Co-founder and Director of Curofy, where he leads the medical team, handles investor & media relations and oversees overall business strategy.

He is a graduate from IIT Delhi, 2012 batch, with major in Electrical Engineering and minor in Business Management. He entered the healthcare industry in college, when he started a medical tourism company. After working for few months in the sector, he saw the bigger problem of inefcient digital health communication, which led towards the inception of Curofy.

Today, Curofy is India's largest community of veried doctors.

Over 90,000 doctors from 600+ cities of India are using it to discuss patient cases with their peers to provide extremely quick and better diagnosis to their patients. Curofy is satisfying their hunger for knowledge and better outcomes. In this process, it is creating a huge supply of “digital doctors”.

Nipun Goyal Co-founder and Director

26 | April 2018

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EXPERT'S VIEWPOINT

New Age

Technologies:

A New Wave in the Revolution of Indian Healthcare Ecosystem

O

ver the last two decades, the Indian healthcare sector is growing at a tremendous pace. This positive growth is majorly fuelled by the innovation in technology which has transformed the conventional healthcare system into an efficient digital healthcare system. The adoption of technology by hospitals, doctors and patients has developed an infrastructure to overcome the current prevailing challenges in the industry and made the healthcare needs accessible to everyone.

As per the estimates of ASSOCHAM and RNCOS, the Indian healthcare sector is going to see a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22 percent with many technology trends taking over the industry. Apart from growth, the immense contribution of technology in uplifting the Indian

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healthcare sector is also expected to revamp the functioning of the system.

Transparency is one of the major concerns in Indian healthcare sector.

Adoption of technology and digitization are playing a crucial role in eliminating the ambiguities prevailing in the sector. Transparency is driving the positive outcomes in patients with increased satisfaction. They can avail information on their prescribed medicines, medical records and treatments all at one place. It has also become easier to fix an appointment with doctors and physicians by reading their reviews online.

There are various technology start-ups and enthusiasts who are betting on technology to bring a revolution in the Indian healthcare sector. Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things are

becoming the centre of every possible solution that can leverage the growth of the sector. The rise in technology is resulting in a high demand for quality and affordable healthcare in India. The Indian healthcare sector is expected to touch $280 billion in 2020 from $100 billion in 2016, thereby, creating immense opportunities for technology players in the industry.

Artificial Intelligence The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by healthcare industry is rising and solving a variety of problems for patients, doctors as well as for hospitals. AI in healthcare works in a collection of multiple technologies which enables machines to sense, comprehend and act just as human cognition. It is making the healthcare ecosystem more organized by

27 | April 2018

performing the administrative tasks and clinical functions more efficiently.

Prior to the adoption of AI, patients did not have the access to information including searching the right doctor, hospital, treatment or even medicines and lab tests. Now with AI enabled applications, they can directly talk to doctors and get the best treatment out for them. Moreover, now doctors can also talk to their peers or experts to seek second opinion and treat patients in a much better way.

In addition, introduction of online pharmacy store is making the lives of the patients much easier by saving time. Now patients can get genuine medicines, their substitutes and even book their lab tests at home. The business model of online pharmacy is interestingly making the healthcare needs accessible to everyone by expanding their reach to small towns and cities in India.

Internet of Things in Healthcare Internet of Things is transforming the current ailing healthcare system. Internet of medical Things is opening up new ways for patient care by focusing on establishing machine to machine and machine to human communication. It holds the potential to enable networked devices to exchange information and function without human assistance. Various sensors, Wi-Fi and cellular communications links help the IoT enabled device interpret data and make decisions on treating the patients.

resources management. Thus, IoT not only helps in reducing operational costs but also helps in optimizing assets and inventory.

Moreover with the surge in IoT enabled mobile and wearable devices, doctors can easily identify the health risks and effective treatment for the patients.

IoT also helps doctors in improving diagnoses by bringing together data from distinctive devices connected through internet and forming a complete picture of a patient’s health status. The visualization of clear clinical treatment through IoT lends value to the patient, doctor and healthcare system.

Many healthcare providers are anticipated to adopt IoT- based asset tracking and inventory management in hospitals. This will result in improving patient’s safety, satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Redesigning healthcare system Healthcare organizations are adopting new technologies in order to deliver best to their patients.

Many hospitals and doctors have already started utilising AI and IoT in their daily lives to improve services with efficiency and better communication with patients. In the coming years, these new technologies are not only going to redesign patient’s experience but also revolutionize the way Indian Healthcare ecosystem operates.

IoT in healthcare is works as an aggregator and integrator of data. It lends support to healthcare organizations in making operational decisions and reducing operational costs. It provides a new foundation to gain insights into asset and human

28 | April 2018

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A CHANGED LIFE AFTER A KNEE SURGERY Surgeon Dr. S. Muthu Kumar

30 | April 2018

â„¢

AN INSPIRING STORY

T

EENS and TWENTIES are the very years which lay the foundation for the rest of one’s bright future! It is the time when we study, choose a career and go ahead at life in the full-on and revved up mode. It is the time when many of us foray ahead to realize our dreams!

Now, imagine if you were to be confined to the bed during these years. Imagine if you needed the help of someone to bathe and eat. If you cannot use the restroom, or change your clothes without the assistance of another person? How would that be?

This was the day- to-day life of 22 year old Bhuvaneshwari who succumbed to Rheumatoid Arthritis. The progressive condition damages all the joints in the body, crippling them completely in course of time. The complicated condition of Bhuvaneshwari was looked upon as one that cannot be treated or where treatment was perceived as unyielding.

With her condition worsening day by day, she was crippled and confined to the bed for almost 5 years with no hope.

The total knee replacement was done as a three staged procedure. With a Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis condition her bones were extremely soft and the Knee Replacement process was done with extreme care. After the successful replacement of the right knee, neuro –vascular interventions were required to get the knee moving back and forth or get the complete stretching ability of a normal knee. The neuro –vascular expertise also determines her ability to mover her ankles and foot.

With both her knee joints replaced, Bhuvaneshwari is now able to stand and walk and perform her daily routine. She is back to pursuing her education, free to walk and do the things she wants without depending on anyone.

While Bhuvaneshwari has a long way to go, this first level mobility has opened the doors to her future. And a promising one at that!

The condition put a stop to her education and every other thing an 18 or 20 year old girl would normally do. Dr. Muthu Kumar moved by her condition at this very young age wanted to change her life and give her the freedom to move. The power to perform her routine and basic duties and give her a fighting chance to live the life she dreams of!

After a complete diagnosis of her condition, Dr. Muthu Kumar and the team of orthopaedic surgeons at Parvathy Hospital, planned the surgery.

A total knee replacement for both her knees would enable her garner the much needed mobility. The surgeries were staged taking into account all her complications and the responses her body could trigger during and after the process.

Clinical investigation and evaluation led to the surgeons understanding the reason behind her immobility. Both her knees had a knocked knees deformity which had her right knee bent at a 60 degree angle and the left knee bent at a 30 degree angle. This prevented her from stretching her legs which is the primary reason for her inability to stand or walk.

Using her hands Bhuvaneshwari used to literally crawl from the bed to the chair or to the floor to even perform her hygiene activities.

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TESTIMONIAL “I have been suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis and was bed-ridden for the last 5 years.

I was unable to do anything on my own – eat, brush, bathe or go to school to study. Dr. Muthu Kumar gave me hope and a new life. With my knees replaced, I am now able to stand and walk. I am hopeful about my future now. I thank Parvathy Hospital and the entire team of doctors.” K.BHUVANESHWARI 31 | April 2018

ARTH: Making Personalized Health-Tech Accessible to All

D

octor discovery is easy today, but patient engagement is extremely difficult. Imagine a healthcare provider (private doctor, polyclinic or a hospital) wanting to engage patients or have their own digital presence. Their only options today are to either: a) Invest a lot of resources to build a custom technology solution, b) Use 3rd party listing solutions that compromise patients’ security & privacy and dilute providers’ brand & patient relationships or c) Engage patients via phone calls or messages that are difficult to control access or monetize.

Since none of these options are attractive, patient outcomes continue to suffer due to late interventions, patchy adherence to treatment, needless travel, lost/incorrect records, manual data sharing and more.

To address these problems, 1Health, a company built by ISB & IIM alumni, developed an innovative platform ‘ARTH’ that instantly provides healthcare providers their own personalized, simplified & powerful technology solutions in a secure & affordable manner.

32 | April 2018

Uniqueness of ARTH ARTH enables healthcare providers to easily launch their own customized health app for patients in under 15 minutes.

Each customized patient-facing health app comes with web & app interfaces for providers. The powerful out-of-thebox features include appointment booking, video consulting, chatting, record sharing, article publishing, bulk messaging, medicine ordering, treatment tracking, online payments & more.

In an industry-first, the built-in virtual assistant allows all users (including doctors) to give voice commands to manage appointments, inform about delays, store/retrieve health readings, order medicines etc.

Thanks to its SaaS model, included support & feature upgrades, ARTH helps providers engage patients, enhance brand, monetize services and manage operations in an easy, secure and affordable manner.

Leading Lights of 1Health 1Health was founded in mid-2014 by two ISB & IIM alumni – Jainam Shah

& Naitik Vyas - who have over 20+ years of experience in executing largescale transformation projects, setting up healthcare e-commerce operations, building & leading B2B sales teams & automating complex processes nationwide. Their initial platform was a B2C integrated primary care platform which made them learn first-hand the challenges healthcare providers & patients face in adopting health-tech despite its many benefits. This experience led them to launch ‘ARTH’ in 2016 – a platform that would make it easy, quick & motivating for any healthcare provider or patient to adopt personalized health-tech in a meaningful manner.

Four Levers of Growth ARTH can apply its expertise in highspeed personalized solutions on 4 growth levers.

The first lever is personalized healthtech solution for providers (e.g. provider-branded patient-facing apps) in India. ARTH already powers patient apps for healthcare providers such as private practitioners (diabetologists, psychiatrists, oncologists, cardiologists, gynaecologists etc.), polyclinics & more in over 15 states ™

THE

MOST ADVANCED

HEALTHCARE SOLUTION PROVIDERS

“Health is personal.

Health-tech should be too” Naitik Vyas

Jainam Shah

Co-founder

Co-founder

and sees plenty of room for expansion.

Second is the company’s ambitious plan to help improve patient outcomes by providing personalized health-tech to individual patients. For e.g., when a patient is discharged after a month-long hospital treatment, the patient would receive a self-named health app preloaded with the patient’s treatment team & consult modes (video, chat, clinic), treatment reminders, nearby pharmacies, relevant health articles and a smart virtual assistant. This would help the patient stay motivated and treatment compliant during post-op recovery.

Third is entering global healthcare markets where healthtech is still underpenetrated or immature. 1Health’s vision is to mass-deploy personalized health-tech solutions in such markets at a high speed, thereby leapfrogging and standardizing an entire country’s healthcare ecosystem within weeks or months, while retaining individuality for providers and patients alike.

Their fourth growth lever is horizontal expansion into services, medical device integrations and security solutions for the broader healthcare industry.

Reasons behind Growth One of the prime reasons behind the company’s success is having a clear vision of how an ideal healthcare ecosystem should be and following necessary steps

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towards translating that vision into reality. For e.g.

Security and privacy is built into all custom solutions powered by ARTH. Records, video consults and chat messages are encrypted, accessible only to doctors and patients and stored on servers within India.

Another key reason for their growth is developing a track record of bulk-producing personalized health-tech solutions within hours. On more than one occasion, thanks to their proprietary, automated app-building engine, ARTH has provided over 150 doctors their own custom-branded health apps in a single day.

Finally, continuous product innovations like the voiceenabled health assistant (an industry-first), handwriting recognition, instant video consult with real-time doctor availability check, treatment adherence tracking, automatic coupon generation etc. has helped them stay ahead of the competition.

Future Endeavour Looking ahead, ARTH will soon support built-in integrations for medical devices, local languages, AIpowered decision support systems, analytical tools & more. From a market perspective, 1Health will partner with leading healthcare institutions to target new segments and geographies with mass-deployable personalized health-tech solutions.

33 | April 2018

Organized Marketing of

and

Hospitals

its Future Trends

T

he hospitals, nursing homes, healthcare organizations, rehabilitation centers have been practicing on improving marketing strategies since the 1970’s. During the initial days, there was a thread-like conflict between the healthcare organizations and marketing. However, now the healthcare organizations are changing their focus from being product orientated towards being user-friendly. The organized marketing goals serve better customer relationships and ultimately assist in the revenue growth of organizations.

The organized hospitals comprise of fundamental elements responsible for its ‘systematic’ marketing structures which include professional referral marketing, internet and external marketing, branding and public relations.

Nevertheless, the patients should be the center of the decision-making process as the patient-oriented decisions make the marketing strategies more effective. In this

34 | April 2018

patient-centric world, convenience has become a new competitive currency. Patients need prompt and feasible appointment timings as they could not wait for weeks or days for an appointment. Hence, the healthcare organizations should keep an eye open on providing prompt services to their patients.

The healthcare sector is growing and marketers have the best chances to set up their companies to achieve a leading position in the market. Hence, it is the time for the healthcare organizations to keep an eye open on the trends and activities which are arising in the healthcare markets.

Social Messaging Applications as a Marketing Platform Social Messaging Apps such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are lightning with a high volt in the market. These apps are flexible and provide a fast-

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CHALK-TALK

developing multipurpose platform which is a great need to enhance the market. Real-time customer discussions and relationships are the conventional origins of the messaging.

One can expect to see new advertising and marketing probabilities to arise as chat apps will continue to grow.

Social Involvement is the Sword and Content is a Sharp Edge Every minute, tremendous count of user accounts is being created on every social site. Healthcare companies are creating social communities to connect and collaborate with the customers. The population health management programs are deploying social apps for measuring and tracking conditions. The inspiration to get socially engaged comes from the healthy reward programs, community competitions, and games.

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Nowadays, social media has become a critical factor for healthcare marketers. A recent survey has reported that more than 65% of Chief Medical Officers make use of social media to run their business and to build their digital brand. The healthcare organizations which hold a social media page rely on the ‘content’ to promote their purpose.

Patients look for social media content which is shareable, fresh, worth reading and unique, and compelling to hold the customer’s attention.

Marketing Based on Location The healthcare marketers can reach the patients by fetching their location using smartphones. The marketers can alert their customers about nearby facilities. Furthermore, location-based marketing can detect the social and personal likings of the audience from their profiles. Companies that are using the location-based marketing should ensure the

35 | April 2018

customer’s privacy through rigid opt-in policies and safeguards.

Video Speaks Louder than Text Internet technology supports online video delivery and it is observed that video has sturdy audience appeal to grab the information to be conveyed. The modern healthcare marketers can share their stories through video content and live streaming videos on websites, blogs, and other social media platforms. Marketing companies can shift their plans and budgets in video categories for the best results.

A programmatic video is automated, real-time buying and selling of video advertise. Purchasing programmatic video is more cost-effective as these videos will be presented to precisely qualified customers at the right time. It is estimated that, within a couple of years, the concept of programmatic video will take the majority of digital video spending with amazing results.

Advancement in Patient Portal Patient portals have been in the pipeline for many years and in the coming days of the healthcare industry, there will be a renovation of portals because the healthcare organizations are searching new ways to develop the services outside the conventional settings. This approach can make the portals more user-friendly and sophisticated as consumer-oriented companies are entering the healthcare market with a huge count.

Enhancing User Experience A concentrated approach to user experience (UX) can lead to stronger relationships between the healthcare providers and their dear audiences. Many researchers have commented that patients are demanding user-friendly healthcare websites. The concept of user experience has got hype in the healthcare industry due to the increased use of electronic medical records.

The primary aim of healthcare websites is to satisfy the customer’s experience through improved usability, enhancing customer satisfaction, and inspiring loyalty.

Chatbots A Chatbot is an interactive platform for medical practitioners to communicate quickly to their patients who feel secure and specific to their needs. The healthcare companies are looking forward to incorporating chatbots as a part of their marketing strategy. It is estimated that Chatbots can replace search windows in the near future.

Chatbots are very interactive where customers can get the desirable answers more quickly and efficiently and can also save time in making phone calls. A combo of Chatbots and Messaging Apps can significantly improve the quality of patient service.

Voice-based SEO Digital assistants such as Siri, and Google Assistant are occupying our lives through smartphones and home devices.

According to recent reports of healthcare agencies, an astounding 200 billion searches per month will be done with voice.

Voice search has already accounted around 20% of all searches and will make its way into the healthcare industry as well.

Voice search is certainly going to play a huge role in search results.

‘Out with the old, in with the new’ is the primary directive of the hospital marketing departments in today’s rapidlydeveloping healthcare landscapes. The hospital marketers can see more efficient marketing strategies to reach and connect with increasingly sophisticated patients and consumers by optimizing each employee and attaining new leadership skills. A key point of organized marketing is to add value to the things for which the patient has a highest priority. The new inventions in the healthcare marketing will be worth watching in the upcoming years.

36 | April 2018

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Doctto Online Healthcare Innovation: Redening Indian Healthcare System

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ndian healthcare sector is growing at a rapid pace and in the coming years it is expected to reach to supreme level. With a rise in the population, infectious and chronic diseases have increased at a larger extent due to which it has become quite tough for the minimal online healthcare solutions to serve to such a big proportion of population. Due to the growing population, the costs of the healthcare services are also increasing which has given rise to the development of the cost-effective healthcare solutions which could provide wide range of services to their patients.

One such leading healthcare company which holds high desire to help and benefit the society in an innovative way is, Doctto Online Healthcare Innovation, which has been providing reliable solutions to the healthcare service seekers since 2016. The company is a certified partner of NASSCOM and is headquartered in Bangalore.

‘Docttocare’ is a product of Doctto 38 | April 2018

Online Healthcare Innovation Pvt. Ltd which is an online healthcare portal designed to deliver high standard health services to the society. It provides an interactive online platform for the patients, doctors, clinics, hospitals and the wellness centers by reducing the costs and delivering quick services to the emergency admissions of the patients. It also emphasizes on providing best services to Digital Healthcare Solutions for users and host providers at low cost. Docttocare undisputedly covers all the major challenges such as the unequal access, the quality issues and the rising costs of healthcare industry, making it as one of the most advanced healthcare solution provider in India.

Docttocare Delivers Wide-Range of Services Docttocare is a robust platform which offers virtual and reality guided tool to the various medical centers and provide its customers a complete 360 degree view for easy decision making process. This versatile platform let the customers to search, compare,

evaluate, and also share their health records and prescriptions, making the portal user-friendly. It also allows the customers to shortlist the medical centers based on the rating and to avail more information regarding their required services. Dentist, ENT specialist, Homoeopathic doctors, Gynecologists, Neurologists, Skin specialist and more provide wide range of medical services to the clients.

The most highlighted features of Docttocare are Instant Online Ambulance and Air Ambulance, Blood bank and Hospital Bed Booking Facilities. It also includes features like Virtual 3D Panoramic Walk Through and Visual experience of the ambience of the hospitals which helps the users to book hospital’s beds or rooms before they opt-in for treatment and procedures with just a click.

Docttocare assures the confirmation of online appointment with the tip of an Email, Call or SMS. The instant online ambulance booking facility allows the users to book an ambulance quickly, track the live status ™

THE

MOST ADVANCED

HEALTHCARE SOLUTION PROVIDERS

“We deliver versatile online healthcare services to our customers” Sugandha Agarwal Managing Director & Founder

of fleet, its arrival time and the expected travel time.

Additionally, the availing blood bank feature allows the user to track the facilities of blood banks such as availability of blood groups, its available quantities, and its current status with the associated hospitals and organizations. Docttocare aims to provide the best healthcare services in respect to Quality Services, Visual Experience, Augmenting Reality, and Digital Awareness towards the end users.

About the Head-honcho of the Company Sugandha Agarwal is the Managing Director & Founder of Docttocare who is a B.Tech graduate from a renowned institute in Ghaziabad. Before getting selfemployed, she has given her fruitful contribution to some of the IT giants like Infosys and Google Maps for four years and has worked there on diverse projects. Her strong idea behind the establishment of Docttocare was to reduce the high queues for emergency medical services in India.

Sugandha delivers the credit of Docttocare’s success to her Co-founder, family, friends and conveys her gratitude to all those who has helped her selflessly. She believes that ‘determination’ has always been her vital element and the largest contributor in achieving success.

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Docttocare Team’s Valuable Contribution The robust team of Docttocare consists of developers, marketing & sales, and finance experts who possess a strong experience of over six years in their respective fields. The combined efforts of its team have successfully completed the registrations of more than 2000 doctors which is indeed a booming achievement for the company.

The team members always thrive hard to give their best to the customers as customer’s satisfaction is the most important factor for any organization. Additionally, they communicate with their customers on a regular basis making them feel more concerned and apparently helping the team to improve their services through feedbacks.

For every organization, security is the topmost priority which makes it trustworthy. Hence, in order to achieve a secure and systematic healthcare management, Docttocare uses Amazon Secured Services and maintains different isolated servers which ensure security of patient's data. The success ratio of Docttocare is continuously increasing and it is shaping the future of Indian healthcare industry in an optimistic way.

39 | April 2018

Accelerating

IT Adoption

in

Indian Healthcare Background

Brahma Acharya Director

L

ike everything, Healthcare is on the verge of a major technological upgrade. There is a myth that healthcare is slow to adopt technology. This couldn’t be further from truth. Let's look at some of the recent cases: Researchers have successfully created a 3-D printed heart. The models are being extensively used by surgeons to pre-plan their surgeries Ÿ Remote Robotic Surgery is becoming more commonplace nowadays Ÿ Smartphone accessories along with wearable’s are revolutionizing the health of the consumer like never before Ÿ

Having said that, there is a vast dichotomy in technology adoption between healthcare providers depending on demography, regulations, and experience. In a country like India, where the doctor to patient ratio is abysmal, doctors don't get the desired time to enter health records to an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. For the same reason, it is also difficult for the Government to bring in regulations. Added to that, technology infrastructure in the rural sector leaves much to be desired for rapid adoption. As such, a different approach is required to improve IT adoption in healthcare in developing countries.

Approach Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication – Leonardo Da Vinci Owing to the paucity of time for Doctors and the unfamiliarity of technology, a different approach is required for mass adoption. There are scores of IT healthcare 40 | April 2018

companies who focus on creating sophisticated solution without the end user in mind. That would work in some cases but for the solution to catch the imagination of doctors and patients, the solution must be simple and easy to use. Here we look at some key features to be considered for increased adoption.

Good UI and Great UX People often confuse between UI and UX and speak about them in the same breath. Good color combination, consistent themes, subtle screen transitions and icons constitute a good UI. However, more than having a good UI, it’s crucial to have a great UX. The user should find things in an intuitive manner. As an example, in the appointment screen, past appointments should be shown near-by. Any warnings regarding the patient should be shown along with the health records. It might sound easy but, a domain expert is required in designing screens and functionality.

Conversational Interface Having conversation comes natural to humans. That’s the most prevalent form of communication. With rapid improvement in voice recognition and natural language processing, it’s now possible to have a variety of conversational interface built into the system. As an example, the system should be able to understand normal spoken language (ex: the patient is suffering from fever; open the relevant template), interpret its meaning and serve the user (Opening the EHR system with relevant details ™

LEADER'S INSIGHTS filled in). Systems can also understand the spoken language and respond to users so that busy individuals (like doctors) can directly speak to the mic and get the necessary help from the system.

Notification and Minimalistic UI Healthcare is complicated and as such the systems supporting it is complex. Having said that, enough thought should be put in to make the experience of the end user easy. Rather than showing all information and actions in big screens, notification and contextualization should drive them. As an example, when the Patient checks in to doctor’s cabin; the doctor is automatically shown the screen with Patient’s data populated (rather than the doctor trying to figure the patient and open it). The relevant section of the patient can be open and suitable suggestions could be already shown. Developing such a customized representation might be involved but Healthcare start-ups including Kare4U have been successful in creating such systems.

Search Search has become ubiquitous in today’s digital world. In the world of Google, searching in natural language has become a habit of the consumers. A good search result is also one of the most effective ways to engage the users of the system. Owing to the complex nature of healthcare, users would like to have a magic search bar where they can search anything from the patient details to daily reports. An advanced search algorithm can even go to the extent of context stitching (search result based on previous searches) and showing results in the drop-down directly.

AI and ML driven Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) significantly help in enhancing the value of the system. Whether it’s doing analytics on the health data and suggesting suitable prescriptions or recognizing handwritten records and interpreting as a human does, AI/ML systems are enhancing the usability of the system. An AI/ML system can be used to train on doctor’s existing prescriptions and suggest in filling up EHR data. Similarly, a well-trained system can detect fraud transactions and prevent revenue leakage.

Conclusion Challenges open opportunities to innovate. Whereas implementing healthcare system in a developing country like India might be difficult, it’s an opportunity for the IT Healthcare companies to innovate and excel. As start-ups it’s our responsibility to up the level and help the healthcare entities to adopt the system.

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About the Author Brahma Acharya is the Director of Kare4U Healthcare Solutions.

Technology being his passion, he started Kare4U with an intention to provide healthcare industry the much needed boost that it needs. It’s been his constant endeavor to bring all the relevant technologies to Kare4U and give the customer’s that leading edge in technology.

41 | April 2018

Healthcare Consulting Services: Management Expert of Hospital & Healthcare that can help you turnaround Negative Cash Flow into a Positive one

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n the last two decades, Indian healthcare sector has witnessed gigantic transformational changes.

The same is continuing in present times as the Indian healthcare industry is growing at a pace of 15% and in near future it is expected to touch $250 billion (nearly by 2020). Even after such humongous growth, there are many challenges that this sector is facing. Effective utilization of resources, controlling operational costs, rapidly evolving technology, and globalization of healthcare delivery with desired quality and standards are some genuine concerns that angst many healthcare providers across the nation. Thus trigger the need of providers those have expertise and experience in medical subjects, management theories, hospital planning and project development and which can assist healthcare providers in efficiently run hospitals and clinics with their available resources and help them streamline and sustain their day-to-day operations.

One such organization that has built a robust and impressive rapport among clients with its effective management advisory and consulting services is Healthcare Consulting Services (HCS).

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Mumbai-Based HCS has a team of adept and passionate professionals who have developed a unique method to execute efficient hospital marketing, branding, operations management, profitable revenue generating model, start-up’s project for hospitals, manpower management, and other resource management by applying best management practices. Now, moving forward their focus remains on providing six sigma training to its clients to reduce waste and errors. The company has excellence in providing solutions that are sustainable and assist healthcare providers in streamlining their processes for better productivity within available resources.

To achieve greater heights in this hypercompetitive globalized world, no healthcare provider remains in business for long until they have effective strategic planning, proper infrastructure, best medical professionals and consultants, proficient human resources, clinical planning, sufficient knowledge & exposure towards statutory compliances, and efficient planning for hospitals marketing and sales. This is where HCS comes as a troubleshooter and fits into place of a provider who serves solution of all these grave and vital concerns.

Vital Strength of HCS Justifiable cost, efficient marketing, vital KPI’s parameter, right IT solution, and more decides the fate of any healthcare service in today’s modern world. HCS evaluates an organization’s process based on critical 100+ KPIs and performs ‘Need-GapAnalysis’ which assists them to craft a solution that leverages better streamlining of all resources. Cost is another factor that plays an important role in patients mind while choosing the hospital. Now-a-days patients are more aware about the costing of varied medical services than ever before.

Thus, over-inflated and unjustifiable cost only forces a potential customer to look for another provider. HCS’s standard practices based on market research thus assist clients to know the right costing for various medical services to attract more customers towards their hospital.

HCS has tie-ups with experienced digital marketing companies that help hospitals to outreach among more prospective customers and help them build a brand out of a service. Strong network and bonding among insurance companies, TPA, corporate, product suppliers, patients, doctors, staff, licensing authorities, government ™

THE

MOST ADVANCED

HEALTHCARE SOLUTION PROVIDERS

“We apply best management practices to reduce waste, errors which assist healthcare providers in optimizing resources for better profitability” Amit Sontakke Managing Partner

officials etc. makes it unique and dominant force of healthcare industry.

the US and will collaborate with them in order to share clinical expertise with their Indian counterparts.

Changing the Dynamics and Face of Healthcare Delivery Profit and loss are the character of any business, but businesses with right management practices always have lesser probability of loses as compared to those who follow outdated and in-efficient management practices.

Clinicians may be excellent but poor management practices can turn the cash flow negative or neutral for any healthcare providing company. HCS’s SWOT analysis thus assists healthcare providers to focus on their clinical aspect more by leaving management aspect on the safe hands of HCS, since their practices help hospitals to eliminate the gaps or weaknesses and turn them into a profitable entity. Besides this, HCS, as a team helps the needy hospital in creating low cost Intensive Care Units from concept to commissioning and further plans to explore in establishing other clinical set-up like OT, Wards, OPD, LDR, and more with the desired quality by keeping international standards in mind that too at un-inflammatory pricing.

HCS has aspiration to manage 10-12 hospitals in each state in India. Currently, their target is to broaden their customer base in big and promising states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and few others in south east of India.

Future Endeavour With the intent to let hospitals adopt best clinical & management practices that use around the world, it has initiated consultation process with many top Hospitals of ™

Leadership of HCS One of the distinguished professionals who are bringing transformational changes in the healthcare industry is Amit Sontakke, Managing Partner of Healthcare Consulting Services. He is an MBA who has completed “Advanced Senior Management Program” from IIM Calcutta & certification course in “Sustaining & Managing Hospital Growth” from IIM Bangalore as well. His vast experience of over 16 years in serving various Multi-specialty Hospitals & Multinational Companies makes him a dominant professional in the industry. His proficiency and astuteness in hospital operation management and optimizing available resources for more profitability and efficiency assist healthcare providers with increased performance, reduced cost and strengthen them in managing their administrative task in an much efficient and moneyspinning way.

45 | April 2018

Sevamob: Transforming Healthcare through Innovation and Dedication

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he healthcare sector in India has become one of the largest sectors both in terms of revenue and employment. The industry is growing at a tremendous pace due to its strengthening coverage, services and increasing expenditure by public as well private players. The healthcare market is expected to record a CAGR of 16.5 percent during 2008-20. The total industry size is expected to reach US $280 billion by 2020.

A company providing innovative healthcare solutions and services to the customers is Sevamob. It is an Atlanta based company which provides artificial intelligence enabled healthcare platform to organizations in India, South Africa and now in the US. The platform has 3 touch points: 1) Onsite popup clinics 2) Tele-health infrastructure for video consultations and second opinion 3) Artificial intelligence based triage and diagnostics. This includes: a) Skin: screening for 11 specific fungal infections b) Vision: screening for diabetic retinopathy, cataract and glaucoma c) Blood: cell counting

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April 2018

By integrating artificial intelligence and tele-health with scalable last mile service delivery, Sevamob is able to offer primary care at up to 50% lower cost. Care includes general health, vision, dental, nutrition, cardiometabolic, infectious disease and cancer.

The company earns money by charging for service delivery and software licensing. Their customers include employers, schools, NGOs, hospitals, corporate sector and government. Their roadmap includes increasing usage of artificial intelligence to detect more medical conditions and address the scarcity of physicians at point-of-care in under-served areas.

The Insightful Leader of Sevamob Sevamob marches ahead on its illustrious journey under the percipient leadership of Shelley Saxena, the Founder and CEO of the company.

Prior to starting the company, he managed several multi-million dollar products for IBM and co-founded a profitable mobile technology company.

He has an MBA from Cornell and B.E. from IIT Roorkee.

Shelley founded the company after his mom was incorrectly diagnosed and almost lost her life because of Hepatitis C. The realization that if this could happen in a Tier-2 city, the plight of patients in semi-urban and rural areas was even worse, led towards the inception of this company. He founded Sevamob in 2012 with the objective and vision of bringing primary healthcare to India’s rural poor.

Strategizing for Growth and Sustainability The company believes that more preventive and primary care can reduce the need for critical care and the overall healthcare spending but technology alone is not the solution.

An approach that integrates scalable service delivery with technology is needed to achieve health outcomes.

Their growth strategy includes increasing penetration in core areas like India and US through direct sales and reaching additional countries in Africa via resellers. Their revenue streams include: service delivery and tech licensing. The company aims to generate larger portion of the revenue through tech licensing going forward. ™

THE

MOST ADVANCED

HEALTHCARE SOLUTION PROVIDERS

“We aim to fundamentally transform the delivery of healthcare in the world” Shelley Saxena Founder & CEO

In their model, they depend on local partners (franchisees, resellers, anchor tenants) to replicate the model in new areas. Finding the right local partner is challenging and takes time and trial & error. To find such partners they leverage social impact networks and referrals where possible.

The company is also the winner of ‘Matching Equity’ from Artha Ventures, and the winner of ‘Village Capital Atlanta’. Sevamob was the finalist of ‘Sankalp Awards’ and the finalist for ‘NASSCOM Social Innovation Honors’.

Sevamob Providing Excellent Services at Reasonable Prices Sevamob successfully marches ahead on its successful journey overcoming many obstacles and achieving the intended goals. The company constantly aims at targeting under-served areas of the society. They intend to provide differentiated, end-to-end solutions to the customers. They focus more on health outcomes instead of technology enhancement. The company aims to provide primary healthcare and insurance services to low income customers at a lower cost.

The company also has a tech platform to track the outcomes of the healthcare services provided by them.

High-Quality Customer Relationship – The Prime Focus of Sevamob The company primarily aims at maintaining a strong and long term customer relationship. The company’s key to building a long term relationship with customers is to focus on health outcomes and track those outcomes via their tech platform in a transparent fashion. Further, they strive to keep the cost low at each step in the process and pass on those cost savings to their customers.

Major Awards and Achievements Sevamob has achieved many awards and accolades throughout its illustrious journey. The company has been adjudged ‘Social business of the year’ by Intuit in India. It was featured on Times Now in Amazing Indians program. ™

Marching Ahead towards a Bright Future Sevamob is the only company in the world that integrates artificial intelligence and tele-health with scalable last mile service delivery, to offer primary care at up to 50% lower cost. The company is going to use this vertically integrated approach to offer more primary care services in more under-served areas at a lower cost than their competitors.

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