Monitoring COVID-19 patients remotely

India continues its fight against the deadly COVID-19 second wave even as the healthcare system struggles with the overwhelming surge of cases in the second wave.

Choked hospitals, a huge shortage of oxygen, beds, and other medical equipment, and a lack of adequate healthcare workers are forcing companies and startups to think out of the box. 

Gurugram-based healthtech startup MyHealthcare with its MyHealthcare Home initiative is doing its bit to help by enabling healthcare workers to monitor COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms remotely.  

Shyatto Raha, Co-founder and CEO of MyHealthcare, said the main challenge in India in the coming weeks will be the availability of doctors to cater to patient needs.

The healthtech startup — which offers services such as consultation, diagnostics, health monitoring, preventive health, and more — has pivoted to help India fight the pandemic.

Founded in 2017, MyHealthcare works in partnership with hospitals such as Fortis, BLK, and Nanavati for online doctor consultations. 

Read about how the Indian startup ecosystem is battling the second wave of COVID-19 here.

Here are some useful tools and links that can help you find the nearest vaccine centres in real-time.

The Interview

Can technology help bridge the gender gap? Chetna Gala Sinha from the Mann Deshi Foundation, Anuranjita Kumar from WiT, and Dr Rashmi Singh from the Government of Delhi discuss how technology and platforms such as WhatsApp are enabling women to gain financial independence, and a chance to explore new opportunities for growth through wider market access.

Editor’s Pick: Product Roadmap

India’s agriculture sector contributes 58 percent of employment for the country’s population, but the segment has a lot of information asymmetry. Certain that technology could remove this asymmetry, Tauseef Khan and Nishant Mahatre, batchmates at IIT-Kharagpur and IIM-Ahmedabad, launched the Gramophone app in 2016. 

The app, which has mapped over 2.5 million acres of agricultural land, helps farmers get personalised agri advice on crops, soil, weather, etc., and functions as a one-stop solution to achieve better crop yields. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

This startup offers affordable insurance for SMEs, startups

Back in 2020, Abhishek Poddar and Saurabh Arora found a massive gap in the employee health insurance space. The duo realised that most SMEs and startups don’t get the right health insurance solutions for their employees. 

They felt they could build a tech product in the space given their combined experience. This got the duo to start Plum Insurance in 2020. It is a Bengaluru-based group health insurance startup that works with corporates. Read more.

News & Updates

• AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria warned against rushing for CT scan in cases of mild COVID-19, saying it has side effects and can end up doing more harm than good.

• The Aayu App, developed by healthcare startup MedCords, delivers medicines and other essential items within two hours. Medicines can also be ordered by uploading a prescription or by just searching the names of the medicines on the app.

• The Serum Institute of India will invest 240 million pounds in the UK to expand its vaccine business and set up a new sales office, creating a large number of jobs, Downing Street announced as part of plans for a 1-billion pound India-UK Enhanced Trade Partnership, creating around 6,500 jobs in Britain.

• Samsung will donate $3 million to the Centre and states of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and provide $2 million worth of medical supplies, including 100 Oxygen Concentrators, 3,000 Oxygen Cylinders, and one million LDS syringes (to Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu). 

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“In the coming weeks, the main challenge will be the availability of healthcare workers. At that time, we will need technological interventions to allow remote monitoring or care of patients in their homes. Our home healthcare solution will allow hospitals to manage thousands of patients remotely from a single command centre,” 

— Shyatto Raha, Co-founder and CEO of MyHealthcare

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