HealthHiway, an Information Technology (IT) solution platform to create a national health data network, has received a fund infusion of US$4 million from Greylock Partners, a premier global venture capital firm from Silicon Valley.
Although the concept of HealthHiway came from Dr Pratap Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals, this is an independent company. As an industry initiative, HealthHiway is working closely with healthcare providers to develop standard based solutions. Leading industry players including Apollo Hospitals have now invested into this venture. An industry advisory board has been formed to provide a strategy to ensure that the solutions are in line with global standards. The board comprises of key industry leaders across the healthcare industry, insurance and technology companies. It currently has a network of over 250 hospitals and will also connect over 1000 clinics and Physician practices over the next few months.
The key objective of the HealthHiway is to provide service infrastructure to hospitals, physicians, and clinics to facilitate better collaboration within the healthcare ecosystem including health insurance and pharmacies to collate patient data.
It is built on a Software- as -a- Service (SaaS) Model. The solutions are easy-to-deploy, easy-to-use and easy-to-pay. The range of solutions includes ClaimsConnect (Electronic Claims Management), ClinicConnect (Practice management & patient Administration Solution) ImageConnect (Teleradiology and PACS solution). More products like Hospital Information Systems and Learning Management are in the pipeline.
"Our solutions are based on industry best practices and offer tremendous value to healthcare sector including the pharmacies and insurance providers. The software suite offers both cost containment and enhanced patient satisfaction. The SaaS model allows the adoption of IT solutions that were previously not accessible due to complexity and high cost. Instant and secured access to patient data anywhere, anytime enables enhanced quality of patient care and increased patient satisfaction," said Ashvani Srivastava, CEO, HealthHiway.
The Indian healthcare sector is estimated to be valued at US$ 35 billion and is expected to reach over US$ 75 billion by 2012 and US$ 150 billion by 2017. Indian healthcare delivery has become corporatized with the emergence of healthcare conglomerates. India needs an immediate investment of US$ 82 billion to make up for the back-log. An additional US$ 465 billion is needed to catch up with demographic shifts as well as improvement in healthcare indicators in the next 10 years by 2018, he added.
Greylock, a premier global venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley has been keen to partner and invest in the national health data network initiative. "There is tremendous potential in the Indian healthcare industry and we are looking to play an active role in helping the country develop systems that will improve healthcare services here," said Arvin Babu, partner, Greylock
According to Sangita Reddy, executive director, Apollo Hospitals Group, solutions offered by HealthHiway are representative of the reforms that the sector needs to drive efficiencies in care delivery at reduced cost. Since the solutions integrate the healthcare ecosystem, the undertaking will play an important role in long term goals like Clinical Research, Public health policies etc.