Doctor Insta, a video medicine consultation start-up, is tying up with the Union government’s SEHAT (Social Endeavour for Health and Telemedicine) e-Kiosk initiative in different villages to ensure rural India has access to speedy and quality healthcare.
The company under its CEHAT (Corporate Endeavour for Health and Telemedicine) intends to tap the companies where employees can have access to medical attention not just for themselves but also their families. The company which raised $500,000 million in its first round is now scouting for another US$ 1-2 million for its next growth phase.
The move to launch CEHAT follows close on the heels of the Union government’s SEHAT launched in August 2015 allocating Rs.10,000 crore to be spent over the next 3-5 years programme to benefit 60,000 villages.
Under its CEHAT initiative, Doctor Insta is gearing up to resolve 70 per cent of the out-patient department (OPD) consultations across hospitals in the country through online consultations. It has also signed up with Tech Mahindra, American Express, PayU from South Africa, Punj Lloyd Venus, V-Mart and Info-X where its employees could access Doctor Insta. Around 20 per cent absenteeism due to an illness results in productivity loss. Now this will enable convenient consultations, Amit Munjal, founder & CEO, Doctor Insta told Pharmabiz.
The 70 per cent of the total OPD cases do not require in-person visits. These issues can easily be resolved through telemedicine. With video, phone and chat, our medical panel patients are diagnosed and provided an effective treatment plan. “Within a short span of 3 months we conducted over 80 consultations in India saving close to 3,200 man hours a day. The objective is to make the country highly productive by making it healthier. In this way, our agenda is to save close to 10,000 man hours by providing 2500+ consultations a day by end of this year. We expect to do 1 million consultations per day which is 2 per cent of the total 5 crore consults that happen in India every day,” he added.
The company has 40 highly qualified doctors on board who are empaneled after a stringent selection where only 3 out of 100 medical experts are selected. They are available 24x7x365 basis and can be consulted through Web, iOS and Android Apps. Discussions with health insurance players are on to include telemedicine consulting under its umbrella of services.
Doctors and patients have been receptive to the service which led to a positive response. In fact patients from as far as Leh have been able to consult. We are inking a memorandum of understanding with the ministries of health in Brunei and Kenya. The intent is to offer quality healthcare to everyone anytime and anywhere, said Munjal.