Covid-19 has disrupted the tele-health/medicine business. From a nascent business in 2019, its now mainstream. Can you elucidate the journey for RaphaCure?

RaphaCure was born in the pandemic out of the need for better primary care for everyone, especially outside the metro cities. There were people of a family living in different regions of the country and they needed lot of clarifications on the next steps related to their wellness such as Covid, vaccination, co-morbidities, diabetes, cardiac, elder’s care etc. We also saw that 20% of our clients who wanted help in Covid are coming back and taking Doctor-On- Call service through audio and video consultation, for other services such as respiratory diseases, mental wellness, diabetic care, heart health etc. We are also observing that people who have already taking tele-health consultations are comfortable to take other services through this mode especially ordering for medicines and other equipment.

India is in the midst of the third wave. We’ve had some learnings from the first two waves. How prepared are you to meet the challenges not just for Covid related ailments but also other chronic ailments?

We have found that being present on time and early interventions to care has helped improve care. The feedbacks from our clients on the frontline workers have been nothing short of professionalism. Our doctors were able to cure 99% of patients through remote home care without the need to get hospitalized. This has been a great eye opener for us and gave us the impetus to move forward and be prepared for the 3^rd wave. We have now strengthened the technology along with the manpower to ensure we are able to provide care through tele-health interventions. The learnings from Covid related home isolation care has provided us with the tool to provide better care for other ailments of the heart, throat, diabetics, kidney etc.  

In-person hospital visits have reduced due to the fear of Covid-19. What are the applications in terms of services that can be brought to the doorstep of the patient?

Pandemic has taught us to get served without the need to move out of our home or office for various services including health and wellness. Technology upgradation is helping people to avoid hospital visits if they can get served at home. Today people can take primary care through doctor teleconsultation, get second opinion from experts without the need to meet personally, order prescription medicines and delivered at home, home collection of blood samples, delivery of various diagnostic reports, storage of health records apart from audio-video doctor consultation for any ailments and remote patient monitoring.

Technology has played a fundamental role in making this shift into tele-medicine. How has the diagnostics industry and more so the Health Care Workers and Doctors adjusted to this new way of treating patients?

Doctors and Health Care Workers are not technologically savvy. The technology adoption by the doctors and Health Care Workers are critical and it comes with experience of the use of the technology in their care including telemedicine. Training the Health Care Workers and Doctors to use the technology will enable them to improve patient care. It is taking time for them to adjust but they are improving with each experience.

You have recently moved into the North East with a local tie-up. Can you take us through your expansion plans? Is there any plan to foray into other international markets?

North-East India is mostly neglected by all health and wellness providers. We have forayed into North-East to serve the market with an improved care on time. Our AI Technology is enabled to take the care to the nook and corner of the area. We will use the strength of our partner in North-East, Zeebon to build the wellness eco-system in the area. We want to reduce the need to travel outside of North-East to get cure through hybrid model including Telemedicine.

Similarly, we want to enter into international markets where there is a need for health care and have trust on Indian doctors and the health eco-system. We will shortly enter into the African market with Nigeria as a gateway, where we have a local partner of care givers to create an eco-system of wellness. We will start with Telemedicine and Medical Tourism. Based on the experience, we will identify other markets and local partners.

We have many new entrants in this field. Even hospitals are now opening their own tele-health subsidiaries. Is this a challenge for independent providers like your company?

The need for tele-health has increased manyfold since the pandemic and the telemedicine acceptance is powered by the use of various technologies. The independent providers like us have the edge in terms of technology and our health care eco-system consists of doctors from all specialties which one hospital cannot match with the need of the market. However, we welcome the tele-health division of Hospitals and happy for the Indian Health-Care getting evolved. RaphaCure’s strength lies in the careful choice of long-term partners and one such partner in technology is Cognota Health, who has the technological expertise that is required to provide care from anywhere and anytime. Moreover, our service is powered by frontline healthcare workers and experienced doctors who are experts in their chosen field.

Tele-health/medicine is almost a me-too business these days with many new entrants in the field. What’s your product/service differentiation?

Our differentiation is the ability to provide one stop solution at the doorstep which consists of audio-video teleconsultation, e-prescription, second opinion, hospital referral, facilitate - pharmacy, diagnostic testing, remote home care, ambulance service, elder’s care, pregnancy care, mental wellness, etc.