[100 Emerging Women Leaders] Meet Srushti Adani, who is making healthcare accessible with medtech

Srushti Adani was 22 years old when she founded Wellnest Tech, a medtech organisation that develops self-testing healthcare solutions. She talks to HerStory about the last four years of delving deep into healthcare and building a connected healthcare ecosystem.

“My parents are doctors and I grew up in the doctors’ quarters near an emergency ward of a hospital. I saw first-hand the importance of access to timely, quality, and affordable healthcare. My parents took a lot of effort to provide healthcare in rural areas through camps where I volunteered as a young kid. But I realised that the impact of a camp was limited by the number of doctors volunteering in the camp,” says Srushti.

After deciding not to become a doctor, Srushti completed her engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, US.

When she was ready to take the entrepreneurial plunge, she was shocked at the blatant stereotypes that arose due to her age and gender.

“The entire sexism towards me was garbed in the form of statements like ‘oh you are too young’. When I was trying to look for co-founders with greater experience who could guide me, I often found people who questioned me about my marriage plans, and if the venture was a ‘hobby’. So, I used to question them back … whether they would raise the same questions if it was a 22-year-old man. Would they still think that the man would change his mind after marriage and kids, or would they call it his ‘hobby’?”

Srushti identified the accessibility issues in cardio related ailments and developed the organisation Wellnest, which doesn't need super-specialty or big infrastructure to operate.

A passionate problem-solver, Srushti was keen to leverage the intersection of technology and innovation to make healthcare accessible and affordable.

Wellnest is a health-tech company established from a desire to employ innovation, design thinking, and cutting-edge technology to solve healthcare problems across the world.

With a goal to reduce diagnostic delay, the organisation uses IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) to develop diagnostic solutions that are affordable, accessible, and actionable.

The company has developed an app-enabled ECG (echocardiography) machine. The machine helps people conduct an ECG test by themselves, which can then be sent to a doctor through the app for analysis.

Advising women entrepreneurs, Srushti says, “Be very self-assured. A lot of people will question you on the basis of your gender. But just be prepared and be confident to sometimes answer back.”