VitaCloud is using data to make healthcare easily accessible
A digital healthcare platform, VitaCloud consolidates different kinds of healthcare data of consumers on a single API which can be accessed by healthcare providers for better healthcare solutions.
In this growing digital ecosystem, Vinod Shankar and Rohin Bhargava, two data engineers at Capgemini, were struck by the amount of data being generated in the healthcare space. They thought of how this could be helpful in managing chronic healthcare concerns.
“Healthcare providers are always trying to combine lifestyle, metabolic, and other factors to decide the right treatment. The main challenge here is the access to that kind of data which is scattered across various disconnected parts of the healthcare universe,” says Vinod.
The kind of data being talked about here comprises biometric vitals from wearables, physical activities, lifestyle information, and medication taken. Mulling over the benefits of collating this information, Vinod and Rohin started VitaCloud — a business-to-business (B2B) platform that gathers all health-related information to show a unified picture of the health of the consumer.
The healthcare providers are able to follow health parameters in real-time and track physiological changes that happen in an individual during a course of time or even in their daily routine; thus, making it possible for them to render even remote and continuous care.
How it works
Started in Bengaluru, in January last year, VitaCloud claims to have tied up with home healthcare providers like Nightingales and Health Care at Home. Besides, it also works with Tata Health. Its five-member team affirms that the company is reaching out to mid-market healthcare providers like independent doctors and private clinics.
VitaCloud follows a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) model — through its single API, healthcare providers can access the data. For those who cannot access an API, VitaCloud provides a full-stack model — it includes a consumer mobile app and a dashboard of the data for the providers so that they get access to the details they need.
For the API model, the team has a SaaS-based slab-based tiered pricing. For 0-1,000 patients, the healthcare providers are charged a flat fee of Rs 10,000. The next slab is for Rs 25,000 and it touches Rs 1,00,000.
The full-stack solution works on a per patient model, where the pricing is based on every consumer. In the first year, VitaCloud charges Rs 7,500 and goes up by Rs 100 per month per user. As the conditions become complex, per user charges increase.
Once the raw data is collated, VitaCloud team analyses it in a way that makes it easy for healthcare providers to understand and use it. “We analyse outliers and patterns using machine learning and AI. This, in turn, helps the healthcare providers to take quick decisions, make timely medical interventions, and identify diseases before it is too late,” explains Vinod.
Preventive healthcare and India
With lifestyle diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular ailments fast becoming endemic to India and given the huge costs of treating them, it is not surprising that preventive care is now one of the rapidly growing segments in healthcare.
Even biggies like Practo, which raised a Series D funding led by Tencent, have rebranded to focus on complete healthcare platform, where prevention plays a major role. Apart from that 1mg too is looking closer at preventive care. Data, machine learning, and AI are becoming key drivers of healthcare.
Future plans for VitaCloud
However, breaking the healthcare market isn’t easy. Vinod highlights the need of bringing in strong cultural and behavioural change. “We need healthcare providers to speak the same language. Just to change from a hospital-based sick care model to a transformative proactive healthcare system is challenging. But doctors are now open to this change,” says Vinod.
Moreover, integrating data from different parts of the cloud is a challenge. Different sets of sporadic data need to be standardised into one format. “This is where our data engineering background and experience helps,” adds Vinod.
Vinod points out that their core differentiator is their ‘Internet of Medical Things’ platform — it has the ability to integrate data from more than 200 different data sources, which makes the data easily accessible to everyone.
“All the patient needs to do is give a one-time authentication that they are okay with sharing the data. Once that is done, all the data flows into the IoMT platform, which later analysis it for the healthcare providers,” explains Vinod.
Recognising the positive changes their platform has introduced, the team at VitaCloud believes that the future of healthcare can be disrupted by the efficient and effective use of data.