A tedious spine surgery experience creates GoDoctor, an online platform that goes beyond search and discovery

Rahul Shokeen, a post grad from Greenwich University, London, had undergone a spine surgery. Apart from the pain and discomfort associated with the process, was the difficulty in finding the right treatment, advice, and doctor. It was this physical and mental battle that gave birth to the idea of creating a medical solution which would help patients reach out for the right treatment with least effort.

Research and ideation

Rahul shared this idea with his friends - Nalin Ahuja, a sales, marketing, and business development professional, and Anubhav Jain, a MBA graduate from Macquarie Graduate School of Management, who has over 10 years of experience in technology and management.

It was after their initial research and market analysis they happened to identify a bigger problem. A doctor search engine could find you a doctor, but maybe not the right one or the best one to suit your requirement. Anubhav says that this got them thinking how helpful it would be to just connect a doctor and a patient without knowing either’s history.

They realised that there was a need for a well-connected medical world, which would empower medical professionals across geographies to connect, collaborate, and build a better tomorrow.

Also read: This Ghaziabad based healthtech startup aims to enable customers with quick and easy access to medicines

Workings and challenges

With Godoctor, the founders envision a unique, global, and exclusive online platform comprising doctors, hospitals, medical equipment manufacturers, pharma companies, medical institutes/colleges and all other medical professionals with the biggest networking opportunity that has the capability to catapult their potential qualitatively and quantum-wise.

Anubhav says that there were a couple of hiccups in three aspects namely:

1. The shift in their initial vision and thought process, which was overcome by a significant amount of research and analysis
2. Finding the right Angels -after meeting a fair bit of HNIs,they finally found their Angel
3. Hiring the right development resources and aligning them to their product development plan. They managed to find an IT partner who has provided them with experienced resources.

With GoDoctor, the team aims to build an online global network that has a user base from across different industries and geographies. It aims to serve the purpose of building and maintaining a dynamic data repository for the good health of humanity.

How it works

The idea, Anubhav says, is to network with the best in the medical industry. "Whether it is doctors and specialists, medical equipment manufacturers, hospitals and clinics or medical institutes and colleges; we have access to the best minds in each of these individual fields and their work," adds Anubhav.

GoDoctor is a medical fraternity that is comprehensively represented and gives you the opportunity to network:

a) With external partners outside the scope of your domain

b) Within the same organisation, for example doctors belonging to the same hospital, ex-colleagues from medical organisations and students from medical colleges etc.

It is a platform that allows social interaction, but more importantly is an enabler for knowledge sharing and exchange within a system of peers. One could create groups or communities based on specific specialisations, medical cases, fields of research, for domain-specific inputs or conversations.

Anubhav says that their advanced data analytics and search tools help one sift and mine data, enabling awareness towards changing dynamics of the medical industry. It also allows one to post opinion or research, blog and spread your knowledge.

Also read: This startup aims to answers all your healthcare queries via video conversations

Building a team

Anubhav says that their vision is to keep their core team fairly nimble. The core team currently consists of five people and a development team of 20 engineers.

The team has raised a seed round of Angel funding from technologists who have a cumulative experience of more than 30 years in the industry. "They have been involved first hand in developing unicorn products themselves and they strongly believe in the vision and team of GoDoctor," adds Anubhav.

Future plans

The platform is scheduled for launch in December 2015; the beta launch feedback from various individuals from the medical community has been overwhelming, the founders say. They have established a medical advisory panel of top global doctors and industry veterans.

In 2016,the team aims to bring 1,00,000 medical professionals on the GoDoctor Platform. They seek to expand their horizons and user base across geographies for a greater exposure in the global medical community.

YourStory take

Expected to touch $79 billion in 2012, the healthcare sector is now expected to reach $ 160 billion by 2017, and $280 billion by 2020. Today, it is considered one of the largest sectors in India, in terms of both revenue and employment.

Last year, close to 7,500 startups across the globe were looking to develop digital solutions in the healthcare space. While several startups in India are working towards bringing medical practitioners and consumers closer using technology, there seems to be a problem at the supply end.

The paid healthcare apps market is believed to be growing at close to 33.8 per cent CAGR. In the Asian market, Japan and India are believed to be the emerging, and most promising countries for healthcare apps. For many healthcare app organisations, creating these apps means bringing technology to an otherwise troubled system; reports have suggested that India, as a nation, has only 0.6 doctors per 1000 people.