Ex-NASA engineer returns to start up in preventive healthcare after losing his friends
Imagine if someone told you that reducing your waistline by a few centimeters could reduce the risk of a heart attack. All of us visit a doctor only after we realise we need treatment. But what if the doctor provides preventive measures in case of high risk individuals? 360 Health Vectors is an analytics company which helps you with exactly that.
Dr. Subhasish Sircar, an engineer who has worked for over 20 yrs with organizations like Lockheed and NASA among others and holds over 20 international patents in different sectors, founded 360 Health Vectors. Subhasish returned to India to work in preventive health care when two of his friends, who were perfectly healthy, lost their lives soon after going through a regular medical checkup.
“Though I am a US citizen and have spent almost 30 years there, I always had a longing to do something in India. Then I lost two friends in India between the ages of 32 and 37 years following cardiac arrest. They had undergone a full health check up five months before the tragedy. They left a huge void in my life. Something was wrong in the system. I wanted to change that,” says Subhasish.
How does it work?
Health Vectors works mainly on a B2B basis. The team partners with companies and then visits their location for a health check up. Before the check up, people have to fill an online questionnaire and their basic parameters like blood pressure and ECG are checked. After the data is acquired, these details are analyzed using their proprietary patent pending algorithms which provide the disease risk profile for various diseases and provide preventive measures for the particular individual.
The entire process is driven by evidence-based science and mathematics.
Health Vectors also helps corporations by designing location specific health and wellness programs that would give them maximum returns, reduced health insurance premiums, improved productivity, and more engaged employees.
Why they stand apart
One of the things which make Health Vectors stand apart from the crowd is that they are a completely paperless company. As a result of which things get done at a lightning pace. Imagine if you want to go for a health check up at a regular hospital, you take half a day off from work, book an appointment with the doctor and then keep hopping to different labs in the hospital for tests, not to mention the long queues, and another day’s leave to collect the reports.
The entire process at Health Vectors takes less than an hour as all the test equipment is already setup and thus the company time is saved. All the reports and follow up is done on email.
Another thing which makes them remarkable is the fact that they are a preventive health care company in its truest sense and makes sure that people get to know their risk factor. Talking about preventive care, Dr. Subhasish says,
“The word ‘preventive care’ – means different things to different people. In India, judging from the statements made by various stakeholder and industry and government leaders, it is obvious that ‘prevention’ means the prevention of disease progression and not so much the onset of the disease. To us at Health Vectors, disease prevention has a very strong focus on disease onset, because in most cases early detection is not ever early enough because many of these diseases are not reversible. That does not mean that we do not work in the area of prevention of disease progression. However, we are an organization that focuses largely on empowering individuals and organizations to become more proactive than being reactive.”
Dr. Subhasish shares three important lessons from his journey,
Don’t be a ‘me too’ – you will never have a sustainable advantage in doing so, that is, you have to constantly innovate.
Think deep about your business model – be your worst critic – test the model as thoroughly as you can – be truthful to yourself.
Control your costs from day one – spending is easy. Just be prepared to swim as long as you possibly can so that you are ready and available for that favorable wind gust that can take you to the promised land.
Visit 360 Health Vectors.
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