Interview Times Bhubaneshwar: An ambitious start-up — CureBay — has now been launched to bridge the critical gap in the under-served market. In the rural hinterland of India where the number of primary healthcare centres (PHCs) is limited and service delivery is handicapped further by doctors’ shortage, patients are left with little options.
A group of top-rung executives of multinational companies has joined hands to aggregate all branches of healthcare services and make those available to villagers at their doorstep through an innovative technological platform.
Priyadarshi Mohapatra, founder and Chief Executive Officer of CureBay, said “It will prove to be a game-changer,”.
These professionals found that majority of investments in health sector have taken place in secondary and tertiary sectors in Tier-1 or Tier-II cities. Primary healthcare has not been given due attention. Majority of people in the countryside depend on PHCs. But, in reality shortage of doctors defeats all stated objectives.
Mohapatra further included, ”Like this only, interventions had been made on the technological front. “Telemedicine and e-commerce have not helped people in remote areas,”.
The group decided to use a hybrid model which is the combination of technology and physical presence.
Priyadarshi says’ “We aggregate doctors, hospitals, pharmacy and laboratories. We created a healthcare ecosystem through our platform with a hyper-local focus,”. “The physical centres have two trained healthcare persons such as nursing staff and pharmacists. The start-up provides three basic facilities to them – access to the platform, medical-grade devices, and point of care devices which enable them to carry out basic tests” he said.
People are advised to reach the nearest centre. The trained staff would facilitate teleconsultation with a doctor. Soon, the centre extracts two basic things from e-prescriptions —- medicine and required tests.
CureBay is planning a physical logistics by which they will deliver the branded and ethical medicine physically in the interior area. The trained staff would draw samples and send those to NABL approved laboratories. The idea is to provide 70% of healthcare needs including consultation, pathological tests, and medicine at the center itself without letting patients undertake travels.
CureBay opened its first centre at Bamanala on November 17.
(Source- The Hindu)
