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The Indian healthcare market is rising with technological advancements, demanding more quality healthcare and thus opening up an avenue for tech companies and startups to fulfill the astounding demand.

As per the reports of the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), the Indian healthcare sector is advancing at a CAGR of 17 percent. While the industry is touted as one of the fastest-growing ones, it is expected to reach US$ 250 BN from 2008–to 20.

While the internet is also penetrating at a rapid pace, the startup ecosystem is not leaving any stone unturned to disrupt the healthcare sector with its inputs and innovation.

Here are some of the health-tech startups that are trying to make a difference in redefining the Indian healthcare system and bridging the gap between the patients, doctors, and other healthcare service providers:

Mobile-based health emergency services by Medulance:

Growing road mishaps, multiple emergency situations, and calamities – both natural and man-made had given the rising demand for emergency services in India such as ambulance services, emergency trained medical technicians, first responders, and so on. With robust mobile technology infrastructure and nationwide coverage of the 4G network helped Medulance to evolve as an app-based emergency service provider.

Medulance aims to reach out to the patients and needy at the emergency spot with the help of a request via their app. One only needs to book an ambulance online with Medulance app and their team of medical experts will reach the emergency scene at the earliest.

Stack up your medical records with DocTalk:

DocTalk, a cloud-based platform, allows its users to save all their medical records on the cloud safely. Using this AI-based, on-demand virtual assistant app, patients can access their medical files on the go, interact with doctors, update their medical history and also get prescriptions online from the doctors.  

Healthcare industry’s one-stop-shop – Practo

Started in 2007 as a SaaS platform, this Bengaluru-based startup is disrupting the Indian healthcare industry at its best. From online appointments, reaching out to nearby and available doctors, and ordering medicines online, Practo has evolved into a one-stop shop in 10 long years. The health tech is currently active in almost 40 Indian cities.

Doctors and medical practitioners at the patient’s doorstep – Portea

Portea, another Bengaluru-based start-up is offering doorstep services for patients who are staying at remote locations or those who can’t travel to hospitals in quick time. The users can have home visits with doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, and technicians. Using remote diagnostics, point-of-care devices, and other monitoring equipment; doctors and medical professionals can diagnose and prescribe medications to patients remotely.

Smart medical reports with LiveHealth:

LiveHealth is yet another startup that works as a Management Information System (MIS) for healthcare providers. From collecting samples, managing patient records, and diagnosing them to generating reports and invoices, the startup attempts to make healthcare processing smarter and more efficient. With its AI integrated system, it also assists doctors with better diagnosis and decision making.

While the Indian startup ecosystem is leading from the front for the progress of the Indian healthcare segment, we can expect much larger trends to emerge in healthcare and emergency services in the near future.

The Healthcare industry is revolutionizing with doctors, pharma, and drug manufacturers coming together to upscale and benefit the people with the right prescription for their better and healthy life. They’re partnering with the members of the industry to make sure the majority of patients, the needy, and every other people who need medical support and treatment receive the right care at the right time. And such responsibility is leading to a model called ‘value-based health care.’

What is value-based healthcare?

Real improvement in healthcare requires restructuring of the care delivery system. To enable a high-value delivery system, partnering with doctors, healthcare service providers, government bodies, and associations is crucial. Hence, value-based healthcare can be referred to as a healthcare delivery model in which providers, including doctors, hospitals, and pharma experts, are paid based on the results of the patient’s health. The healthcare providers and physicians help in improving patients’ health and reducing the effects and incidence of chronic disease.

In a value-based model, healthcare providers are paid based on the number of healthcare services they deliver and specific performance measures of the outcome of the service. To simplify, a patient pays for the quality of value-based care against the quantity.

Value based-healthcare in India

Although India is facing a transformational challenge when it comes to its healthcare system, the same can be addressable if the medical community comes and grows together. It needs to focus primarily on preventing and treating the life-long, acute, and proactive chronic care encompassed across India’s burgeoning middle class.

For a country with more than a billion people, creating a healthcare system to cater to this humongous population is no easy job. And move from a fee-for-service to a fee-for-value model will take time, and the transition would be a difficult task. As the Indian healthcare landscape continues to evolve and providers increase their adoption of value-based care models, they may face a low in short-term finances before hitting the long-term decline in costs. Since the costs attached are enormous, the government is also lending its helping hand with various initiatives, workshops, and financial grants. Such aid and assistance by the government are motivating enterprises, physicians, and healthcare service providers to come along and make India a healthy nation. Hence, this model could be the best method for lowering healthcare costs while increasing the quality of healthcare and helping people with healthier lives.

Medulance, an app-based ambulance booking service in New Delhi also aims to deliver value-based services to patients and those in need with its constant quality and an expert team of medical respondents.

Furthermore, the value-based healthcare movement will be possible only with the collaboration of people, organizations, and governments that believe in delivering essential health care to the citizens of the country.

Medical tourism can be defined as traveling to another country to acquire a particular medical treatment. It is mainly due to the unavailability, cost difference, and quality difference of specific curative therapy in a state.

Medical tourism – while the term may be slowly buzzing on Indian soil, it’s undoubtedly creating an impact at a global level. In layman’s terms, medical tourism means traveling from one country to another for advanced medical treatment. It is mainly due to the unavailability or low-quality medical treatment in one country due to which people travel to developed nations for better and high-quality treatments.

Is India fit for medical tourism?

Health crisis is one the major concerns for any developing, and hence, medicinal aid plays a significant role in such countries both regarding economic development and for a being a healthy state.

In recent years, India is not only contributing abundantly in trading, manufacturing, and R&D of pharma and drugs industry but is also one of the leading exporters around the globe.

As per Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) Annual Report 2017, the market size of the medical tourism market in India has reached US$3.0 BN as of April 2017 and expected to reach US$ 6 billion by the closure of 2018. And when it comes to medical tourism and attraction, the number of foreign tourists coming to India for medical purposes rose by almost 50 percent to 201,333 in 2016 from 134,344 in 2015. During 2013-16, India’s medical tourism grew at a CAGR of 27 percent.

Furthermore, the Indian tourism ministry also offers financial support to accredited Medical, and Wellness Tourism Service Providers, Chambers of Commerce for organizing workshops, events, seminars and other medical tourism promotion shows.

As published in livemint.com in July 2017, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report titled “India Services Sector—A Multi-trillion Dollar Opportunity for Global Symbiotic Growth 2017” stated that the presence of world-class hospitals and skilled medical professionals had strengthened India’s position as a preferred destination for medical tourism. Treatment for significant surgeries in India costs only a fraction—in some cases as low as 10% of that in developed countries.

The report also stated that the global medical economy is looking out for Indian pharma players, medical talent and know-how to help them in setting up advanced medical infrastructure, and assist in latest medical technology. Thus, it leads to growing demand for India’s pharmaceutical and healthcare expertise.

Innovation in India’s healthcare industry:

While multiple reports have stated about the growing demand and current market structure of India’s healthcare economy, some firms are contributing inside out for the progress and development of the country’s health. Health tech startups are one such who are driving the sector at a decent pace. Services offered by such health tech startups vary from air ambulance, online ambulance booking, healthcare, and medical reports on mobile to even making a doctor’s appointment and receiving the diagnosis on the go. One such Delhi based startup – medulance deals in providing online ambulance services via a mobile app making it convenient for the patient or the family members to book an ambulance, and ask for first responders and other medical technicians. It performs as a handy feature for the citizens, especially of the national capital – Delhi, since it’s one of the densely populated cities of the country where pollution, road mishaps, and other health concerns have been a significant problem.

In the bottom line, cost advantage and upcoming innovations in India’s healthcare system will significantly open doors to developed countries like the USA and is already a major destination for medical tourism for countries like Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Maldives, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and other the Middle East and African countries.

Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are trained healthcare professionals providing basic as well as advanced lifesaving procedures and pre-hospital care during an emergency.

They are an integral part of the healthcare system and associated with the emergency response management team of the city, especially the ambulance services and fire-fighting team.

These ambulance technicians are trained-healthcare professionals operating as part of an emergency medical service and provide preliminary care to the patients experiencing a severe injury or illness resulting in an emergency.

They work mobile and reach the emergency spot over a call with an ambulance since they often perform their duties out of an ambulance. EMTs may also act as a liaison between the patient and hospitals to ensure they receive essential treatment at the facility center.

Although EMTs work closely with ambulances services, they should not be mistaken for ambulance drivers or attendants. The government, as well as private ambulance service providers like Medulance have their own team of EMTs working actively in case of an emergency.

Why are EMTs important?

EMTs respond to emergency calls to provide efficient and immediate facility and care at the emergency scene and transport the critically ill or injured person to a nearby medical facility for advanced treatment of the patient. Here are some of the most common medical tasks performed by an EMT at the emergency spot:

• They provide life-saving medical care at the emergency site and transport patients to hospitals where they can receive adequate medical treatment.
• They ensure that patients who’re in a remote or far away place from basic medical facilities receive essential treatment soon in order to survive critical injury or ill-health.
• Mostly, these clinicians work as volunteers at hospitals, and fire departments alongside other trained professionals.
• EMTs act as intermediaries for patients dealing with medical emergencies and hospitals.

Apart from the above-mentioned tasks, EMTs also perform the following functions such as:

• Providing first aid
• Applying splints
• Performing basic airway management treatment
• Conducting basic treatment such as checking pulsation, recording blood pressure, etc.
• Performing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)
• Using AEDs (automated external defibrillators)
• Supplying basic medications to the patient such as aspirin, glucose, etc.
• Monitoring patient’s vital behavior

Bottomline:

EMT’s are among those individuals who responsibly save thousands of lives every year by resolving the medical emergency or prolonging a patients life. Companies like Medulance  provide advanced mobile medical teams around local neighborhoods with trained medical practitioners such as paramedics, and EMTs to administer professional medical care when it is needed the most. Alongside trained individuals, these ambulances are also stacked with full of life-saving medical equipment.

The ambulance services have been broadly classified into air ambulance, ground ambulance, and also water ambulance services. Air ambulance contributes the highest revenue in the ambulance service market. The rise of medical tourism in developing countries like India has driven the growth of the air ambulance segment.

What is an Air Ambulance?

An air ambulance is a specially designed helicopter, or an aircraft, equipped with specialized medical equipment including medications, ventilators, ECGs and monitoring units, CPR equipment, and stretchers. This aircraft airlifts and transport injured people or critical patients for medical treatment to the hospitals. Air ambulances are booked when the patient is located either in remote or terrain locations where advanced medical treatment is not available. Air ambulance in Delhi by Medulance is usually staffed with doctors, highly trained paramedics individuals, and first responders. Further, when an air ambulance is actively operating with a patient, Air Traffic Control (ATC) grants special treatment to them. Some air ambulances can be non-medically equipped too and the attendant staff simply transports patients from point A to point B.

State of Air Ambulance in India:

In India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is the authorizing body when it comes to air ambulance service regulations and provide license and/or accreditation to the air ambulance service providers. Major hospitals have been tying up with airlines companies and the Government to create better and more effective air ambulance services in India.

Demand for Air Ambulance Service in India:

In recent times, there has been a growing demand for air ambulance services in India. With growing awareness about organ donation in the country such as donating the heart of brain-dead patients and transplantation of such organs, the air ambulance has been used on multiple occasions. This rising demand for emergency ambulance services in India is attracting many international companies and various startups are also emerging such as Medulance, to render the air ambulance service in Delhi and in the rest of the country.

Further, with higher demand and use of advanced technologies by the Indian hospitals, medical tourism have seen an upward slope in demand graph. Favorable reimbursement policies and the increasing trend of home health care have fueled the growth of this market.

As per the industry report of India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) on Healthcare sector published in 2017, medical tourism market in India stands at US$ 3.0 billion in size and is expected to reach US$ 6 billion by 2018. During 2013-16, the country’s medical tourism market witnessed a growth at a CAGR of 27 percent. The number of foreign tourists coming to India for medical purposes rose by almost 50 percent to 201,333 in 2016 from 134,344 in 2015.

More on, due to lifestyle, and behavioral changes and rising healthcare awareness in Indian citizens, prime hospital chains such as Apollo, Fortis, and Max, are operating their own air ambulance services, especially in tier I and tier II cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore.

In conclusion, saving time for our friends and family is the first step in an emergency situation. Medulance’s Air Ambulance service in India aims to conquer time and distance in emergencies and saves lives of your loved ones.