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In 2008, Shashank was surprised to note that software used by doctors lacked basic features such as an email button to share reports. Today, Practo, a company he started is changing the way healthcare is delivered to patients, by IT-enabling several processes. Shashank talks to itVARnewsabout the biggest changes happening in the healthcare sector in this interview.
What aspects of healthcare (patient-facing) are currently undergoing IT driven transformation?
There are three areas that I see as upcoming (with respect to significant IT adoption). One is preventive healthcare. Preventive healthcare is taking off in a big way in India right now and technology will play a huge role is making it reachable. I think there is a ton of work that IT can do to make preventive healthcare widespread in society. It (IT enablement) is already happening now, and I think going forward there is a lot that can be done in preventive healthcare.
Another area am seeing a lot of movement in is on-demand services, primarily in home care where labs come home and take blood samples and physicians and physiotherapists can come home now; wellness and fitness can happen at home now. A lot of on-demand services are doing well where technology plays a huge role in matching supply and demand.
The third area – something we are interested in as Practo – is managing data. Health data is getting digitized rapidly, and how that can be leveraged for better consumer experience and better diagnosis is a huge area of interest for Practo. IT is playing a huge disruptive role and will continue to going forward.
Do you think making doctors comfortable with IT is a challenge in India?
One of the motivations for starting Practo was that people told us it is quite a challenge to get doctors to adopt technology and we were quite intrigued by that! (in jest)
On a serious note, to be honest, I think the statement is unfair, because when we took a closer look, we realized that the reason why doctors were not adopting IT was probably because of a failure of the business model.
The business model back then was in which doctors were given CD based software. And, CD based software for a small population is not a successful or viable model where companies get paid a one-time license fee. Practo adopted a SaaS business model where we adopted payments on recurring basis instead of a one-time fee. Recurring revenue from a small target audience is a far more viable business model.
The other big differentiator for us was that we brought the software online, which is required for SaaS. By bringing the software online, we simplified a lot of things for the doctor, for example, support.
Patients trust doctors who come via a referral. How are you managing a reference or feedback mechanism?
We not only cover doctors 100%, but our data is 100% reliable. We verify this information by having feet on the ground physically verifying the location of the doctor. Apart from this, we verify information by other mechanisms. We are able to provide 100% reliable information for 100% of the doctors.
Practo provides a feature of providing feedback about the doctors. Feedback is collected from only thosepatients who have visited the particular doctor. This provides reliable feedback about doctors for other users.
Reliable information and feedback help consumers choose the right doctor.
What changes in healthcare delivery (driven by IT) do you see happening in the future?
Things are going to get a lot more real time. With mobile devices being available at the healthcare providers and at the patients, we believe things are going to get a lot more real time and convenient for consumers.
Because of the data being connected, the quality of treatment is going to increase tremendously. Data was previously not available in one place, but now technology will play a role in improving the outcome, and that’s going to be impactful, not just in India, but around the world. In a way, we are just getting started with what’s going to be an amazing time where technology is going to disrupt healthcare from every direction.
How does mobility play a role in healthcare?
When we started Practo a few years back, we had two big hurdles. One was with infrastructure (computers), and the second was with network problems (Internet connectivity). Today, with the rise of mobile phones hospitals, doctors and patients all have smart devices in their hands. With the rise of 3G and 4G networks, we are no longer dependent on wired technologies to give us Internet. India is growing fast thanks to mobile and Internet on mobile. The bottlenecks are disappearing and our innovations are able to reach doctors and patients and they are adopting them at a fast pace.
What inspired you to start Practo?
There were a couple of incidents in my life that brought me close to questioning few things in healthcare. My father was to undergo a knee operation, and his records had to be sent to a doctor in the US for second opinion. I took photos of the paper records with my camera phone and sent the photos via email to the doctor in the US. The doctor came back saying certain things were not visible in the photo and if I could do it all over again. It was a laborious progress!
I went to the doctor here in India and asked if he could email the report to me – after all, that would be far more legible, and I could store it forever. The doctor – this was in a big hospital – told me there was no email button in his software. And this was in 2008. I thought if in 2008 a doctor does not have an email button in his software, something is truly wrong. It wasn’t just this doctor, but no one seemed to have an email button! That told me technology had not penetrated healthcare.
With further researchwe learnt that healthcare itself was not centered around the patients’ – the consumers’ convenience, and that was a huge opportunity for us.
