Providing teleconsultation, accessibility to online tests, e-pharmacy, and even health insurance through an app makes us unique: Enbasekar D, Co-Founder & CTO, MediBuddy
India’s healthcare sector has seen the much-needed push with the onset of advanced technologies and more support from insurers and finance institutions. Enbasekar D, Co-Founder and CTO at MediBuddy opens up on the evolution of India’s healthcare sector while mentioning how MediBuddy serves as a complete solution accompanying a customer throughout his or her healthcare journey. He brought to light MediBuddy’s unique approach that gives it an edge and forms a solid foundation for its success.
Can you give us some context on what MediBuddy is all about? How this idea of MediBuddy come into being and how has been your journey till now?
I am an alumnus of IIT Madras with a dual degree in electrical engineering. Satish Kannan and I were batchmates back in college days and were keen on building technology to solve problems for a large number of users, especially in the healthcare sector. In and around the campus, we helped build some interesting solutions for some of the doctors who were regular at the campus and that is how we understood the challenges in the healthcare industry. Post our graduation we decided to start up in the healthcare sector. However, before we started our venture, we wanted a few years of experience in the industry. Hence, the two of us spent a year each in different companies in the industry. I spent my first year to work for a research firm, in 2012, building AI and ML solutions for healthcare-related issues.
Our experience helped us understand how healthcare works in the in the country and gave us a strong start. MediBuddy had a humble start with a small team in the incubation cell of IIT Madras. We are one of the earliest startups at the facility. One of our first products was online consultations. Customers can connect over a WhatsApp chat and a call with the doctor. Video consultation came in later on as internet speeds were not apt during that time. Over the last four to five years, with easy and affordable access to the internet, more people preferred connecting through video calls over texts or telephonic calls. Hence, we built our teleconsultation platform first and observed good adoption. We continued to scale and grow across the country in the initial couple of years.
However, we also understood that for a patient just a consultation is not enough. Doctors need to prescribe apt medicines virtually through our app. Moreover, post-prescription people need to buy medicines or take up diagnostic tests, if prescribed. Therefore, to provide a complete care cycle we started adding services to MediBuddy. Today, MediBuddy is providing a host of services besides teleconsultation. We have services ranging from conducting diagnostics tests and providing online reports to online pharmacy, and scheduling tests or surgeries at our partner hospitals. We also run about 300 physical clinics as well. Further, we partnered with trusted healthcare insurance providers in the country to help our customers to insure their health. Also, we work with home healthcare providers. So, in case any person needs a physiologist or a nurse at home, we provide that as well. MediBuddy works with large corporates to fulfill their employee healthcare needs.
In general, how do you define the evolution of the healthcare industry, especially with the onset of advanced technologies?
In the past decade we have seen a transformational evolution of the healthcare sector due to various events. Noticeably, the adoption of technology has increased multifolds since we started. This change is observed not only from the healthcare providers like doctors, nurses, hospitals, diagnostic centers, and pharmacies, but also from the customers.
Second is in terms of awareness has increased among the consumers. In terms of digital access to information, it is much higher today and people are more prepared. However, as every coin has two sides so does access to free-flowing information. People do look up to information about the disease or medication which can be helpful sometimes, however, it can be misguiding as well. Next, social media has democratised information through legit sources. We see doctors today running YouTube channels or creating Instagram reels to guide people in their healthcare journey. Another big development is the onset of smart wearables. People today wear smart watches, smart rings, keep different types of health trackers like sugar monitoring devices,
oxygen level tracker, and much more. Such technology has helped people in preventing severe medical issues, keeping their lifestyle healthy, and reach out for medical help in time as and when required. The next big thing is the quick commerce. At MediBuddy, we deliver medicines at home within minutes. Moreover, lab tests can be booked online and a person will visit your place to collect the samples and deliver the reports post the tests to your doorstep.
About 10 years back people were not even aware that developments at such scale and pace can reshape the healthcare sector in the country.
There are multiple players in the industry offering digital healthcare and pharmaceutical services, including the big names. What made MediBuddy stand out and establish its place in the market?
MediBuddy’s focus has always been to provide high-quality healthcare to all. To achieve this massive goal, we tied up with hospitals, clinics, and individual doctors making our network hosts over a lakh of doctors, we partner with diagnostic labs, pharmacies, and other healthcare facilities to ensure best-in-class and uninterrupted healthcare services across the country through digital means.
A healthcare customer today, or a patient, needs the convenience of having multiple services available on a single platform with a hassle-free experience. Hence, MediBuddy provides
end-to-end healthcare solution from telemedicine and e-prescription to online pharmacy and access to diagnostic labs through the portal wherein tests can be booked and scheduled online. We partner with our customers throughout their healthcare journey. Apart from the curative approach or treatments services, we also provide preventive approach wherein we leverage our partnerships with insurance providers and help our customers secure their healthcare expenses. The spectrum of services we offer, makes us stand out from other competitors.
MediBuddy’s reach also makes a difference. Besides having presence in metro cities we are also present in remote locations where there are no hospitals or diagnostic centers. Also, we set up camps for a few days every month in such areas so people can avail healthcare benefits.
Another aspect which gives us an edge is easy access to MediBuddy’s services through our mobile application. Therefore, we have people reaching out to use directly through the mobile app and also through our corporate tie-ups. However, I believe we still have a long way to go and we continue to improve, continue to add capability, and continue to provide the best of us.
What is your approach to reach to the people at the grassroots, especially considering the language barrier in the country? Are you looking to deploy AI models to bridge the language gap and improve efficiencies as well?
We are an omni-channel platform, therefore, while a lot of things we do digitally we also understand healthcare needs to have a physical presence. We have local team members who operate in over 35 cities, as of now, and they help bridge the language gap. We have operations teams coordinating with the hospital or a diagnostic lab near these remote locations. We have a diversity in the team because fortunately we learnt its importance early in our journey. Then, we had a team proficient in about 20 languages while today it is beyond that. Also, we used to take pride in knowing that we have people from almost every state in the country working with us at MediBuddy and this worked wonders for us as at times local geographical understanding is much needed to not only reach out to the people but provide them with proper healthcare support and services.
Addressing the people in the remote corners of the country, especially where a medical facility is available at a distance of 50 or more kilometers, also asks for creating tailored services to ensure that they reach the local and tribal communities and develop acceptance for it. Our diverse team again proves as an asset to break the language barrier and effectively communicate. A reason why people’s power works over technology, in this case, is poor or no internet connection or digital literacy among people. Hence, doctors at times need to consult on voice calls or through audio messages. We provide services, consultation, and guidance in over 20 languages today.
Considering the MediBuddy application, it supports both English and Hindi languages with good accuracy. However, as we see more LLMs emerging, we look forward to make our app simpler, language agnostic, with visuals for easier understanding, and more. MediBuddy is always at the forefront in adopting new technologies so we do look forward to deploy
voice-based LLMs to better serve the diverse customers we have. A major reason why we have not yet deployed voice-based LLMs as they are not completely trustworthy and healthcare is a sensitive and critical area.
One of your interesting and one-of-a-kind initiatives is Sherlock. Can you shed some light on what Sherlock is and how does it distinguishes between legitimate and fraudulent claims, especially in complex cases? How has it helped in reducing fraud, waste, and abuse within MediBuddy’s ecosystem?
Sherlock is a system that is designed to detect fraudulent activities like submission of forged bills for reimbursement, insurance claims, false prescriptions, and more. There are multiple areas where Sherlock can pose to be a valuable resource. Firstly, when people submit a test report, there is no way for us to assess whether this report is genuine or not, if the actual test numbers are accurate or not, and so on. The other problem is when some people submit fake bills for reimbursements or insurance claims, but in reality, they may have yet to see any doctor or a visited lab and would have generated a fraudulent invoice. Now, this problem results in the rise of insurance costs, and a genuine who deserves health insurance has to pay a fortune to get one, or at times they do not buy insurance. This is one of the major challenges in India due to which there is a significant chunk of people do not buy insurance. In this area, I totally agree that lack of awareness is a factor but affordability plays a bigger role.
Therefore, Sherlock is a system that helps reduce the risk of frauds with our insurance and corporate partners. Sherlock can also scan and detect if someone is falsifying records or submitting the same bill repeatedly by doing minor changes or creating a non-coherent document, and so on. A non-coherent document could be, for example, a patient buys medicines which are not relevant to the treatment he or she is undergoing or symptoms that were diagnosed or if the medicines are controlled substances and not easily accessible to citizens. In such cases our system detects and automatically flag concerns regarding patient activity. Although, this happens in a small percentage of cases, but as insurance penetration increases and more people use such services, we see this it as an important piece of information for both us and our partners – insurers and corporates.
How do you see India’s healthcare sector getting future-ready? What are your plans for the near future?
As I mentioned earlier, our vision is big. We look ahead to truly democratise quality healthcare services both curative which is telemedicine, lab tests, online pharmacy, etc., and on insurance, healthcare guidance, and more, in India. We still have a long way to go and we continue to do better to see increased adoption of medical insurance and quality healthcare services in tier two and tier three cities. I believe that the way people today watch reels and consume social media easily, with the same ease MediBuddy can help them connect to the right expert to take informed decisions regarding their healthcare needs.
Since the pandemic, we have seen an increased preventive approach among people. They are more aware on vaccinations, medication, diet, fitness, and more. Next we are seeing an increasing adoption of smart wearables like smartwatches, smartrings, and more which help people in tracking their vitals. The Government of India, on the other hand, is also proactively working to create awareness and facilities for people to access quality healthcare. We have seen Ayushmann
Bharat coverage increasing, especially from the lower strata of society and the elderly. Hence, while the industry is evolving, the government is also coming up with measures to continue to support healthcare which is much-needed. To strengthen India’s healthcare, it needs the government, public and private sectors to come together.
