By Ila Garg
Credihealth, as the name suggests, aims at bringing credibility to the healthcare sector in India. The firm has a dedicated website, complete with an interactive chat column wherein they invite people to talk and discuss their health issues free of cost with the experts. Apt to today's lifestyle, Credihealth is designed to give deeper insights into medical facilities to the patients so that they can understand themselves in a better way.
The patients can go through the profiles of the specialties and this way they can build their trust. It aims at bridging gaps between the doctors and patients by bringing them close to each other. The team of founders comprises successful business leaders and career professionals.
Ravi Virmani, an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur, was the COO of Max Healthcare before founding Credihealth. Gaurav Gaggar is a successful Chartered Accountant, investment banker, and e-venture co-founder. Saurabh Uboweja, an alumnus of IIM Calcutta has been running India's first truly holistic brand consulting and design firm, Brands of Desire. Piush Kumar owns an investment office called Hausela which aims at funding startups in the digital technology space.
NewsGram interacted with Ravi Virmani to know Credihealth closely:
Ila Garg: How does credihealth works?
Founder Ravi Virmani: Credihealth helps navigate through the complex healthcare system. It offers an easy-to-use website with the options to search, compare and select doctors, hospitals and treatments providing the relevant solutions. You can send your query on the website or request a call back from our team of in-house doctors. Based on your choice of doctor, the team member schedules your appointment. We support you throughout your hospitalization journey, regularly following up after the procedure for post-op care or rehab.
IG: What are the basic aims of this startup?
RV: We aspire to leverage technology to expand the healthcare boundaries, by enabling access to healthcare, which includes –
(i) Information – Hospital and Doctor Credentials, Procedures, Treatments, Feedback, and healthcare content for the common man;
(ii) Ensuring Delivery – Credible partner to support the patient through the entire experience of their hospital journey.
Our overarching goal is to start the Right Cost Movement, bringing transparency to healthcare where the aim is to empower people to make informed healthcare decisions, by way of verified reviews, price comparisons, multiple treatment options and a belief that now there's a better way!
IG: How is credihealth different?
RV: Credihealth is the first omni-channel player in the hospitalization / inpatient business in India that allows a patient to compare and select doctors, hospitals, treatments and cost options from the comfort of his home.
• People from different parts of the country and abroad can now easily access information on experts and treatment options from thousands of miles away. To give you a real time instance, we currently have 8 liver transplant patients from across the globe who will be getting treatment done in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore through Credihealth. We are broadening the accessibility to healthcare world-wide.
• The Credihealth blog is a first-of-its-kind health blog in India that features over a thousand comprehensive articles explaining symptoms, treatment methods and prevention from several diseases, hundreds of exclusive doctor interviews and patient experiences. CrediHeroes – another initiative, is a platform for cancer patients to share their stories of courage.
• We are the only healthcare website in India to have over 250 exclusive doctor interviews and patient feedback.
IG: How will it benefit the patients?
RV: Credihealth essentially helps patients in the following ways –
• Discovery & Search (Online): Provides extensive information on their website & blog to help users make an informed decision on their treatment
• Quality & Trust (The Personal touch): A user can ask for a call-back to clarify any additional queries / doubts and discuss options with a team of operations executives to decide the best way forward
• Convenience (Offline): Project manage the entire hospitalization process for the user /patient through to post-op care
IG: Is it free to use or you charge a fee?
RV: Credihealth.com is a completely free portal. We do not charge our patients any fee. Since we are a source of patients, our main source of revenue is from 'market development' fee from hospitals. After an initial Proof of Concept in 2014, we have been able to earn Credi revenue through this medium.
IG: Are the doctors willing to talk in detail with the patients online?
RV: We have a team of in-house doctors that cater to patient problems via online chats and emails. Occasionally, Credihealth conducts live chat sessions with famous doctors to answer questions via chat and social media. On a similar note, we also have several Facebook communities that welcome doctors to answer intricate health issues on these groups.
IG: What if an immediate help is required? Do you have any means to provide immediate attention?
RV: We do not provide immediate emergency help at the moment. We do, however, connect patients in need of immediate medical help to the emergency department in the concerning hospital.
Apart from the conventional approach, the Credihealth team is creating health awareness on social media giants too. They are active in engaging youth through Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook groups. These groups are created to spread health awareness in addition to cater to people sharing their intricate health issues, doubts, and experiences.