Bhubaneswar, March 11: Three friends with backgrounds as diverse as IIM, IIT and medicine have come together on a common platform to facilitate health care consultations through mobile telephony.
Their start up initiative, HelloDoctor 24X7, bridges the gap between patients staying in remote corners of the state and doctors here. However, to avail the facility users have to buy HelloDoctor 24X7 vouchers.
The service, which was launched on July 20, 2014, has handled 15,000 calls till date. The facility has come as a boon for people staying in remote pockets of the state as they have little access to specialist doctors. Even Odias staying outside the state and willing to talk to doctors here are also using the service.
One of the pioneers of the project Lalit, who is a post-graduate in public health from the University of Dundee, UK, said: "If a patient staying in Keonjhar wants to come to a hospital in Bhubaneswar, he should know when to come and whom to meet. The service sets up a patient's communication with a doctor, before he/she can actually plan a trip for treatment.''
The plan began to take shape when Lalit met IIT Roorkee alumnus Shashank in UK. When he met Lalit, Shashank was doing his masters in biomedical engineering at the same University.
The plan flourished when the duo met Saumendra, an IIM Bangalore and IIT Kharagpur alumnus, who had experience in the fields of mobile technology, cloud computing, social media and artificial intelligence.
The trio instantly struck a chord and thought of getting back to India and doing something meaningful for the aam aadmi.
"Three of us had a dream to do something for the betterment of the health care sector. So, we decided to use the mobile phone as the basic tool as most of the people, even those living in rural pockets, use it. Now, we are also getting calls from IT professionals and their kin in Bangalore and Hyderabad, who want to speak to the doctors in Odisha," said Shashank.
While the three were thinking about their start-up, an US-based angel investor came forward to fund it.
Their project has now become a crucial link between doctors and patients living in far-flung areas of the state.
"Through a study we came to a conclusion that each day on an average an efficient doctor gets almost 50 calls, but he/she drops nearly 40 as there was no way for the medical professional to identify a serious caller. But once the caller is registered through the HelloDoctor 24x7 network, he takes the call," said Lalit.
Explaining how the service works, Lalit said to begin with one must buy a voucher worth Rs 300 or 500 and recharge the amount on his/her mobile with the code that is printed on the back of the card. The person can then call up the HelloDoctor 24X7 helpdesk, where trained executives redirect the call to the right doctor upon enquiring about the ailment. However, a patient also has the option to choose his or her doctor.
The system works as the doctor who takes the call also gets paid for attending to it.
"For a minute of conversation, a general practitioner gets Rs 20, a specialist Rs 40 and super specialist Rs 60. As they get paid, they will not hesitate to talk to the patient or his/her kin," said Saumendra.
In urban Odisha, there is one doctor for a population of 5,000. However, in rural pockets the ratio drops to 1:16,500.
With such an alarming ratio it becomes very difficult for the rural populace to access doctors in person.
So the consultation over telephone with 200 doctors, including some top super-specialists, is fast becoming popular.
