Across the world, the experience for patient care has been one of the cardinal priority in the healthcare sector. In our country-India, technology and healthcare are slowly converging to uplift the latter. With the merger, a vast horizon of opportunities is opening up to provide better and improved experience for patients. Efficiency and effectivity is also on a rise due to enhanced association and resourceful information-sharing between benefactors. Technology can actually help the healthcare industry to reach new highs. It can target one of the prime problem in Indian healthcare system- i.e. reaching remote, rural and inaccessible areas that account for approximately 70% of the country’s population. By using technologies, good quality healthcare services will be able to reach such part of the country. Technological solutions for healthcare have the ability to modernize and revolutionize the healthcare system by providing the needed medical care, reducing the cost, mechanizing the manual processes and avoiding the need for duplicate or redundant procedures/ tests. The company’s which emphasize on providing the finest facilities available by leveraging technology, automation, data analytics, and commercial models will bring a change to this country’s healthcare sector.
Prashant Tandon – The Founder & CEO of 1mg, a website mobile health application, in an interview with Enterprise innovation, discussed about how the healthcare in urban India is being upgraded with the help of technology. His startup runs a web portal and app for Android and iOS for finding medicines and delivering it at your doorsteps.
1mg is completely transforming the way we purchase medicines. It delivers the medicines in certain areas of the country. The users can also shop and look for cheaper generics on this platform. To top it all, the company also allows its users to book for appointments & diagnostic tests and has claimed to have more than 5.5 million downloads.
The Problem
Despite being one of the largest industries in India, it is healthcare that continues to suffer profound organizational inefficiencies and opacity. The customers (as against the brokers and the government) pay for approximately 70 to 80% of the healthcare expenditures in the country. Even after this, they are isolated by the service providers who continue to earn highly unbalanced margins for goods services. This has increased prospects of making a disorderly business that expressively impacts both the price and quality of healthcare, thereby, creating an even bigger opening than verticals like food, real estate, and accommodation.
1 mg- From where it all begun
HealthKartPlus was a consumer information app that was launched with the motive of making the customers more informed and aware about medicines. Later, this got re-branded as 1mg and became completely viral. People embraced the app and shared it among themselves through various media platforms such as WhatsApp messenger, Facebook etc. Eventually, it became extremely popular and constantly got updated to provide more and better features by improving the bugs and taking customer reviews into consideration. In a small time period, it expanded greatly and thus, opened up an opportunity to start an independent business spun around it. Today the app claims to have more than 5.5 million downloads and a rating of 4.5/5 stars in the android play store.
Tell me More!
In today’s world with a vast horizon of diseases, are medical bills consuming a good part of your paycheck? What if I tell you that now you can get any medicine you want at your doorsteps, and also at highly discounted prices? Sound too good to be true right? Well, this is exactly what 1mg website is about and with zoutons offering 1mg coupons, the deals simply can’t get any better!
1mg.com is a unique website that is bringing a revolution in the way we purchase and retail medicine by making it an extremely comfortable and smooth experience for the customer. You get to find any medicine you may need, place an order online through your laptop or smartphone, and receive it at your doorsteps at the earliest. Gone are the days when you move from one chemist to another, searching for some medicine, this is a one stop solution for all your woes. Here, the customers are directly linked to licensed and trusted pharmacies as well as recognized diagnostic centers, thereby catering to their convenience and access. It is specially proven to be helpful for the elderly or patients who are not very mobile or in a condition to go around looking for pharmacies and purchasing medicines. In today’s urban world where everyone is a workaholic or extremely busy, at least buying medicines is one thing you may tick off from your busy schedules. The medicines can be easily ordered for yourself or your loved ones just with a click. As an added advantage, all the medicines are sold at discounted rates with other extra offers such a cashbacks or deals. Thus, you will no longer have to frown seeing the medical bill.
The primary objective of this site is to make healthcare affordable and easily accessible. It also provides you with multiple substitutes for the same medicine. Thus, you can look for cheaper but equally reliable substitutes having the same chemical composition as the one prescribed by your doctor. This way, you no longer have to spend more than required on your medicines.
Presently, this site actively caters to the medicine requirements in the following Indian states: Delhi – NCR, Indore, Bhopal, Ahmedabad and all major cities in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
It has the intention of making the customers wiser by empowering them and providing them information about their medicines. This way, a customer would no longer be fooled to paying a much higher priced branded medicine, when its generic substitute is available for a much lower rate. Also, patients will have all the information about the pros and cons of that medicines such as side effects, allergic reactions etc. This way, eventually the Indian healthcare system will become more and more transparent. With the rise in the popularity of the internet and mobile technologies, the customer is occupying the center stage as it ideally should be. As the customer becomes more informed and aware, a real transformation will come in the quality of the healthcare industry.
A2– Additional Advantage
1. Not only is this a platform to purchase trusted medicines, but, this is also the place where you can search for the best specialized hospitals/ doctors in areas proximal to you. Thus, not only does it provides you a solution for convenient and cheap medicines, but it also directs you towards the best possible treatment, just like you deserve.
2. Gone are the days when you had to wait in long ques at hospitals or diagnostic centers to undergo some test. This online store will take care of all your prescribed tests as well. It will pick your sample up from your house, get the testing done with completely reliable results, and deliver the same to your doorsteps.
Hence, I can conclusively say that 1mg is literally is one step into the future that has already brought a revolution in the healthcare sector of India. A revolution, who fire will continue to burn away all the opaqueness to eventually bring to light a transparent and healthy patient care scenario in the country!
