New Delhi. With the corona pandemic and changing times, change in the healthcare system is also the need of the hour. Startups have played an important role in taking this change forward. Ratna Mehta, Executive Vice President of Wadhwani Foundation, Wadhwani Catalyst Fund, has analyzed this issue.
India is the diabetes capital of the world, with 73 million cases and rising rapidly. According to a study by the American Diabetes Association, India will have the highest number of diabetes patients by 2030. India has the third highest number of cancer cases in the world. More than 1.6 million Indians are diagnosed with cancer every year. It accounts for 50 percent of deaths. And not only this, India has the highest number of newborn deaths.
The healthcare system is lagging behind
Despite such a high burden of diseases, India is among the countries with the lowest government expenditure on health care. Insurance cases are also low here. The traditional business model in the healthcare sector does not have good reach. Capital expenditure and operational costs are very high. Apart from this, there is a huge gap between the demand and supply of skilled resources.
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Around 74 percent of doctors in the country are concentrated in urban areas, so access to basic primary healthcare in semi-urban and rural areas is a big issue. Telemedicine facility has emerged due to this need and it is capable of reaching remote areas. In this way, basic healthcare can be delivered to every person through it.
Telemedicine
There are different models within telemedicine, ranging from fully online to hybrid models. MedCords is a rural telemedicine platform that offers online teleconsultation by digitising medical records and delivering the service through a pharmacy network.
Karma Healthcare
Another such platform focused on rural areas is Karma Healthcare, which follows a hub and spoke model. Its hub has two nurses who enable teleconsultation with expert doctors.
Glocal
Glocal is a technology-based platform that provides access to healthcare to rural populations through a comprehensive integrated model of primary and secondary care hospitals, digital technology and dispensaries. It currently has 141 digital dispensaries in Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and some northeastern states. Glocal’s hospitals are custom-designed, each with 100 beds and state-of-the-art equipment. It has standardized protocols for 38 diseases, covering 91 percent of diseases or conditions.
Qure.AI
A Bangalore-based startup, Qure.AI uses AI and deep learning algorithms to identify abnormalities in scans and thus improve the accuracy and speed of disease detection. AI is also helping in cancer detection.
ruthless
Nirmai, a start-up focused on women’s health, has developed technology to detect breast cancer by simply reading the patient’s body temperature.
‘Hub and Spoke’
The innovation of the ‘hub and spoke’ business model improves access to critical medical facilities and ensures improved operational efficiency and reduced costs. Tata Memorial Centre, India’s premier cancer institute, aims to set up around 30 hubs and 100 spokes across the country to facilitate access to affordable cancer treatment. Each hub is expected to cater to 40,000 new patients every year while spokes are expected to manage 8,000 new patients. The aim is to expand the reach to 40 million people through hubs and 5-10 million through spokes.
The emergence of online pharmacies over the last five years has helped make medicines accessible and affordable. Analytics-driven inventory management has led to higher fill rates and higher sales, allowing patients to get medicines at better rates, while technology-enabled supply chains allow for faster deliveries.
According to AIIMS, it is 24% in cardiac cases and 50-80% in hypertension cases. 1MG, Pharma Easy and Netmeds are the big players in this space. They have the backing of good investors and are expanding their network across the country. Apart from this, there are some other players like Dawa Dost which are emerging and are likely to co-exist with these big players provided they can carve out a niche for themselves in this area of medicine delivery. This is truly the beginning of a big change in the healthcare delivery space.
Tags: health benefits, Indian Startups
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 28, 2021, 11:36 IST