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Diagnostic start-ups have created a new market of Health test at home services : Deepak Sahni

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Diagnostic start-ups have created a new market of Health test at home services : Deepak Sahni
Shahid Akhter, editor, ETHealthworld spoke to Deepak Sahni, Founder & CEO Healthians to discuss the emerging role of Start-ups in healthcare and how they are playing an instrumental role in building the non-existent preventive healthcare sector in India. Edited excerpts:

Your views on unorganised & standalone players which form a substantial part of this fragmented market especially in Tier II & Tier III cities.

The reason behind the growth of unorganised players is the absence of regulations.There are only few high court rulings to regulate the vast diagnostic sector in India. But till date no bill has been passed. There are hardly any regulations to monitor the correct processes to be followed by the labs, the quality of lab equipment, and the skills and qualifications of the technicians. There is no check in place on the use equipments, control/calibration and machine automation. Due to this the quality of services and technical knowhow of service providers is often questioned. The influx of thousands of standalone players and the chaos due to lack of regulations, gives the unorganised sector the power to manipulate their customers. The situation is worse in tier 2 & tier 3 cities as people here are not much aware and hence the manipulation continues. Government of India should pass an Act to regulate the industry.

Do you think private players in diagnostics have taken upon themselves to introduce standardisation in their practice and follow protocols set by international medical bodies to ensure consistent and world-class service to all their consumers?

The only way to win customer confidence and to create a reliable brand image is by offering standardised services. Due to the absence of regulations, private players now are running for accreditation from National and international agencies like NABL & CAP. Accuracy is of paramount importance in the diagnostic industry and is dependent on innumerable factors. Accreditation ascertains regular quality checks and hence accurate services.

What are all the diagnostic lab start-ups marketing trends and innovation in India?

Diagnostic start-ups have created a new market of Health test at home services in India. We are the pioneers of diagnostic services at home. Start-ups are changing consumer behaviour. There is a prevailing reluctance in Indians to talk about health and diseases. Start-ups have been instrumental in building the non-existent preventive healthcare sector in India. Concepts like regular monitoring of health, lifestyle-based recommendations, health reports based predictions and providing machine data to customers for transparency have been initiated by diagnostic lab start-ups.

About the opportunities, growth and challenges associated In diagnostic sector of Healthcare industry in India

The preventive healthcare is still in nascent stage in India and sky is the limit for its growth. Lifestyle diseases are growing at an alarming rate and preventive diagnosis and regular monitoring is the only solution to manage them. Diagnostics at home will grow by leaps and bounds year on year. The biggest challenge that the diagnostic industry faces is the lack of trust on quality and accuracy and the reluctance of people to address health issues. Getting regulations in place, adherence to prevailing regulations/accreditations and creating a transparent solution to address the diagnostic requirements of the people is the need of the hour.

The journey of Healthians so far and what differentiates you from others in the market?

There are many start-ups in healthcare but our path is different and is a result of deep understanding and experience of the industry. Our tech-led, asset-light business and deeply integrated model is our greatest strength. We have our own sample collection team which is highly trained and the complete process from sample collection to delivery of reports is controlled by technology. With our App, this process becomes seamless for customers.

We have an early mover advantage and have been able to evolve the business on our capabilities of assuring high quality, reliable, fast diagnostic services at 50% lower cost than the market. There are many diagnostic aggregators and marketplaces, but Healthians is the only online company that controls the end to end process, guaranteeing quality, backed with money-back accuracy to each of its customers. We are also technologically ahead of most of them.

How do you deliver home-based services without compromising on quality?

To ensure quality, every step of diagnostic at home is tech-controlled. We work with only NABL accredited labs. Additionally, we follow 300 International quality compliance for error free and accurate test results. Each field representative is a diploma or degree holder as medical laboratory technician; some are even M.Sc. holders in MLT. Each of them are medically checked, vaccinated and trained to strictly comply with all processes and hygiene standards. We have in-house built Coolsure and Black code technology to ensure dust, pollution and heat contamination-free sample transportation. Moreover, sample temperature is monitored constantly via cloud devices.

Tell us about the expansion plans, funding & vision of 2022 of Healthians.com

We aim to increase our reach to 3 million customers in next 12 months and would be doing over 3,00,000 booking every month by end of next financial year. Recently, we launched our services in Kanpur and Lucknow and this wave of reaching out to all major cities of India will continue. We will launch services in another 5 cities in this quarter. We aim to add over 200 labs and over 3,000 phlebotomists across 30 cities by the end of 2019. By 2022, Healthians IPO will hit Street.



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