Continuing the series, The Changing Times, here’s the second blog. This time, the focus is on Healthcare. While it is, without doubt, of the most crowded space in the Indian Start up eco system, many companies are trying their bit to be innovative and different in their approach…
Mohan Krishnan* the HR Head of the large, Delhi based IT Services company was a worried man. He had just received the news on yet another sub 40 year old employee reporting BP issues. He had submitted request for 2 week leave on account of ill health some time back. Despite having health-friendly policies, like flexi work hours, health food options in the cafeteria, there was no visible change in the health levels of the employees. This is when he was approached by Allizhealth (AIH), a healthcare technology venture in the preventive care space.
Health, as a topic, is growing issue of concern in India. More than 60% mortalities, in India, are caused by Non communicable diseases (NCDs). NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and other chronic diseases are causing an unprecedented number of deaths in India. Last year, more than 8 million people lost their lives to NCDs in India, even while one third of them were pre-mature. According to estimates, if current trends persist then by 2030, NCDs and lifestyle diseases would cause loses in tune of US$ 6 Trillion. These critical data points highlight the sheer proportion of the healthcare problem we are confronting here in India.
AllizHealth (AIH) is trying to address this growing concern of NCDs & lifestyle related diseases. Its built an integrated health management & analytics platform to help users identify their health risks early and use various tools/resources to track and manage the same. Using its proprietary tool – Health risk assessment (HRA), it predicts lifestyle-related health problems & NCDs at the individual level as well as for a specific population. Figuring risks early helps users to manage their health proactively & delay the onset of diseases. Risk profiling and analytics helps users and healthcare entities build targeted wellness programs and initiate result oriented preventive actions.
AllizHealth’s go to market strategy is B2B2C. Through key institutions of the healthcare system its reaching out to the end users: payers, providers and employers. The platform helps Insurance companies identify major health trends, build consumer risk profiles & improve consumer engagement. For Hospitals, the platform provides comprehensive patient health profile allowing personalized care and building consumer loyalty. Using the platform, Employers are able to build enterprise health profile and initiate various programs to accentuate wellness among employee’s hence increasing productivity and well-being.
The platform also enables users to store/access/share health information more efficiently, track various health risks and parameters, store digitized health documents and also connect with care givers. It has recently introduced several services such as reminders for checkups, medication adherence, consult specialist for 2nd opinion, and personalized content. For example, if a user has the condition for thyroid then it runs a series of campaigns for them where it shares specific information on the condition so that at the end of it the user is well informed to manage their condition better and reduce its impact on their day to day life.
As a larger vision, AllizHealth is building amongst India’s first true health analytics platform, delivering population health management and personalized health solutions for Indians. This is enabling it to provide several targeted & productive services to end users for better management of risks & conditions.
Like all early stage startups, only time will tell, if AIH’s efforts to built a robust/predictive healthcare system will work or not. But one thing is for sure, for organisations embracing the system and plan, they will surely have done their bit in building a system to facilitate the right information to the individuals on their health and what they need to do about the same.
