These women entrepreneurs are making medical and healthcare facilities available to all
From a medical tourism platform, a medical equipment e-marketplace to a portal helping the elderly with doctor’s appointments, these women-led medtech startups are doing their bit to keep you in the pink of health.
With coronavirus spreading to several parts of the world and being declared a global pandemic, people are realising the importance of hygiene and good health. There is also now an increased focus to help people get access to quality healthcare.
Many entrepreneurs and startups in the healthcare and medtech sector have been making great strides with their innovations and unique services even before the pandemic began. Today, they continue with the same fervour as healthcare tops the list of priorities of every Indian.
Here are some women entrepreneurs who have created medtech startups that help hospitals with affordable and quality medical equipment, and help people be healthy and safe.
Mitika Gupta, Lyfboat
Mitika Gupta had a successful 15-year career in STEM, with stints at Dell, Microsoft, and Amazon in the US, before turning entrepreneur. A personal crisis, when her father was critically ill made her realise how difficult it was to get treatment abroad. This experience led her to start Lyfboat, a tech-based medical tourism marketplace to ease people’s experiences of seeking medical treatment abroad.
Lyfboat allows patients to discover, compare, and connect with credible hospitals and healthcare providers - mostly for critical illnesses — from across the globe. With medical tourism growing its stack, not only are Indians travelling abroad for better healthcare, hundreds and thousands of patients from less-developed nations also come to India.
The cloud-based platform provides a curated marketplace which lists doctors, medical experts, facilities, and services from about 70 hospitals, mainly in India, APAC and the Middle East. It provides an assortment of accredited partner-hospitals, 24/7 patient assistance, including medical visas, free doctor consultations, price comparisons, and enquiry resolutions.
Rumita Ghosh, MedSamaan
Rumita was 13 when she was diagnosed with blood cancer. Her young psyche was affected with all the scenes at the hospital and she was determined to help change the scenario in the healthcare system. This desire coupled with her dream of being a businesswoman led her to become a medtech entrepreneur with two healthcare startups - MedSamaan and Admirus.
She launched MedSamaan, an online platform featuring the latest medical devices from domestic and overseas manufacturers, sourced and supplied post stringent quality control.
It focuses on disposables, consumables, wound care, ortho support aids, infection management, and various point-of-care medical devices and supplies.
Through the startup, she has been able to impact health outcomes through timely interventions in areas from Himachal to rural Orissa - in reproductive health, sanitary hygiene of women and dignified living for elder care.
Shanthi Mathur and Sakshi Khandelwal, PrimedeQ
Shanthi Mathur and Sakshi Khandelwal were working as consultants in health analytics and performance management until an idea for a virtual marketplace for medical equipment crossed their minds. In the line of work, they had seen several hospitals, especially doctor-run, struggle to find functioning and affordable medical equipment.
With , the women set out to help hospitals gain access to pre-owned, quality medical equipment and services. It is a B2B e-marketplace that facilitates buying, selling, renting, and servicing of medical equipment. It is a destination platform for healthcare providers, medical equipment dealers and service providers.
Shikha Suman, Medimojo
Shikha’s mother was in a coma and it was while caring for her that she found her entrepreneurial calling. In 2015, she started Medimojo, a patient engagement platform powered by artificial intelligence.
A B2B SaaS offering, Medimojo works with hospitals and diagnostics labs to help their patient care needs. Medimojo provides its clients algorithm-based intelligence from disparate demographic, economic, clinical and morbidity data to identify, assess, understand, and manage patient needs accordingly.
It provides services that help providers stay connected, reduce no-shows, and keep patients engaged in their care, by turning insights into performance results.
Neiharika Rajiv, Suvida Care
Elderly people require more doctor visits and monitoring and Neiharika wanted to help people to make life easier for them. The thought of seeing elderly people alone and without support at hospitals was quite difficult for her. But she knew that it was a reality for many with nuclear families becoming the norm.
In January 2018, she launched the Suvida Care app, where care providers can book appointments and have access to all medical reports and prescriptions without any hassle.
After booking an appointment on the app, on the day of the appointment, the care recipient is accompanied by a Suvida Care manager who takes them to the doctor, sits with them through the consultation, drops them back home, and uploads all the relevant documents such as prescriptions, visit summaries, and reports on the app for easy access.
This makes it easier for care providers who are not with the care recipient to ensure that necessary medical treatments are accessible to the elderly.
(Edited by Rekha Balakrishnan)