Kartavya Healtheon, a dedicated chronic disease management centre, is gearing up to raise funds to expand its presence in the emerging markets of South East Asia and Africa apart from domestic forays.

The company’s business model, which includes pharma companies and physicians as its stakeholders, has proved to be successful. Since its inception in 2008, the promoters infused the required revenues. It currently manages over 10,000 patients pan India. The Mumbai-based company registered a growth rate of 150 per cent year-on-year since July 2008 and in terms of revenues generated Rs.2.5 crore till December 2011. The personnel strength has increased from four in 2008 to 70 in 2011.

Roping in pharma companies provides a number of benefits including a new revenue stream for the drug manufacturers, creates value by spreading more awareness about the disease and prevents access to counterfeit drug. We foresee significant growth in the next 10 years and funding is required in phased manner. At present, we are looking at various options. Venture capitalists (VCs) too have viewed healthcare in India as one of the promising areas. We are looking at a potential investor who understands this business and one who could add value to the company's growth, Vikram Srivastava, co-founder, Kartavya Healtheon, told Pharmabiz in an email interaction.

“We will increase our disease management programmes with various pharma companies in coming years and extend the disease management model overseas targeting South East Asia and Africa. In addition to that, we are in the process of rolling out day care centres and family doctor services in major cities of India by this year end. It will be a membership model targeted at preventive & primary care, he added.

Kartavya manages its operations from a centralized facility in Mumbai to handle the 21 centres across India. It also caters to the patients in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh and will soon kick off operations in Africa and Vietnam. The chronic disease patients in these countries are high and the pharma companies are confident to deliver the service, stated Srivastava.

Present focus of chronic condition are diabetes, cancer and Hepatitis B, but cardiac and asthma are on its radar. It addresses issues of therapy compliance, medication adherence, prevention, disease awareness and management.

According to the World Health Organization, over 10% of Indian population suffer from chronic diseases. There is a shortage of skilled support staff to handle and counsel these patients. Early diagnosis was the key to manage these conditions as it would drastically reduce the related risk factors, he said.

Treatment for chronic disease management models is driven by technological advancement like EMR, telemedicine, health & wellness internet sites. Even global disease management companies have started realizing the potential and are in process of entering the Indian healthcare sector. But there are also several challenges to ensure early diagnosis like disease awareness, preventive-primary health care, comprehensive health insurance cover, therapy compliance and counselling, stated Srivastava.