You are on page 1of 37

PROJECT REPORT

ON

DIGITALIZATION OF HEALTHCARE IN RURAL AND URBAN


SECTOR VIA MOBILE APPLICATION

SUBMITTED BY

ABHISHEK SINGH

2017-2019

17DM015 SUBMITTED TO

PROF. DR. ASHWANI SINGH

1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The satiation and euphoria that accompany the successful completion of the project
would be incomplete without the mention of the people who made it possible.

I gratefully acknowledge the contribution of people who took an active part and provided
valuable support to me during the course of this project. To begin with, I sincerely thank
Mr. Saurabh Kumar (COO) and Dr. Akshat Jain co-founder of tardigrade for giving
me the opportunity to do my summer training at tardigrade health tech. Without their
guidance, support and valuable suggestions during the research, the project would not
have been accomplished.

My heartfelt gratitude to the entire team at tardigrade Lucknow for their co-operation
and willingness to answer all my queries, and provide valuable assistance.

I also thank, my faculty mentor Dr. Ashwani Singh at BIMTECH who provided valuable
suggestions, shared his rich corporate experience, and helped me script the exact
requisites.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank all doctors for sharing their experience and
giving their valuable time to me during the course of my project.

2
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Mr. Saurabh Kumar Date: 24th May, 2017

Coo

Tardigrade health tech

C- 845, Shadab colony, Mahanagar

Lucknow (226001), India.

Dear sir,

Subject: summer project report

Attached herewith is a copy of my summer-project report “digitalization of healthcare


in rural and urban sector via mobile application” which I am submitting in order to
mark the completion of 10-week summer project at your organization. This report was
prepared by me using the best of practices and summarizes the work performed on the
project and is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an award of a
post-graduate diploma.

I would like to mention that the overall experience with the organization was very good,
and helped me to know how work is carried out in real practice with the help of your
esteemed organization. I feel honored that I got an opportunity to work with tardigrade
health tech.

I hope I did justice to the project and added some value to the organization. Any
suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

Yours truly,

Abhishek Singh

3
LETTER OF AUTHORIZATION

I, Abhishek Singh student of Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH),


hereby declare that I have worked on a project titled “Digitalization of Healthcare in
rural and urban sector” during my summer internship at “ Tardigrade Healthtech”, in
partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Post Graduate Diploma in Management
program.

I guarantee/underwrite my research work to be authenticate and original to the best of


my knowledge in all respects of the process carried out during the project tenure.

My learning experience at Tardigrade Healthcare , under the guidance of Mr. Saurabh


Kumar (COO) of Tardigrade Healthcare and Prof. Dr. Ashwani Singh , has been
truly enriching.

Date:
-------------------------
(Abhishek Singh)

4
INDUSTRY CERTIFICATE

5
TABLE OF CONTENT
S. NO Topic Page Number

1 Executive Summary 7

2 Introduction to the Health Care Industry 8

3 Digital Reforms in Healthcare 11

4 Introduction to the company 12

5 Competitors 20

6 Literature Review 21

7 Problem Statement 29

8 Approach to the problem 30

9 Findings 31

10 Limitations 33

11 Suggestion and Recommendation 34

12 Conclusion 35

13 Key learnings 35

14 References 36

6
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This project report is the planning activity for the summer project at Tardigrade Health
tech private limited in Lucknow, India. The report provides a comprehensive
knowledge about healthcare industry its' scope and weaknesses in the healthcare
system in India.India is country with population over a billion and such a vast population
requires a large number of medical services but it's not the case.

Only a fraction of Medical service providers are there to serve such a large population
and even the people of the country are not aware of the healthcare facilities provided by
private players in the market. People living in an area find hard to find a doctor,
ambulance and other services mainly outsiders, until and unless they are living in that
specified area for a longer period of time. To help under such circumstances,
Tardigrade entered with a solution by building a healthcare information system and also
started to create awareness among the people of the country, especially in rural and
metropolitan cities. Tardigrade made the product and connected the good doctor to act
as middlemen between healthcare facilities seekers and the healthcare facilities
providers.

This information system not only provides the information about medical service 
Providers but will also help in monitoring and improving for the health of populations. As
the internet is not available everywhere for the patients to avail the information about
health facilities, so for availing the information they have two options that are via phone
call and SMS. It has outstanding features such as selecting and searching the faculty
and facility available at various healthcare stakeholders. This service will provide
patient a new kind of connectivity with healthcare service and providers with an
additional option for maintaining electronic healthcare records for them.

7
INTRODUCTION OF HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Today the healthcare industry has emerged as one of the most challenging sectors as
well as one of the largest service sector industries in India. Healthcare has become one
of India's largest sectors - both in terms of revenue and employment. Healthcare
comprises hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical
tourism, health insurance and medical equipment. The Indian healthcare sector is
growing at a brisk pace due to its strengthening coverage, services and increasing
expenditure by the public as well as private players.
Indian healthcare delivery system is categorized into two major components - public and
private. The government, i.e. Public healthcare system comprises limited secondary and
tertiary care institutions in key cities and focuses on providing basic healthcare facilities
in the form of primary healthcare centers (phcs) in rural areas. The private sector
provides a majority of secondary, tertiary and quaternary care institutions with a major
concentration in metros, tier I and tier ii cities.
India is experiencing 22-25 percent growth in medical tourism and the industry is
expected to double its size from the present (April 2017) us$ 3 billion to us$ 6 billion by
2018. Medical tourist arrivals in India increased more than 50 percent to 200,000 in
2016 from 130,000 in 2015.
Rural healthcare is one of biggest challenges facing the health ministry of India. With
more than 70 percent population living in rural areas and low level of health facilities,
mortality rates due to diseases are on a high.
While the private sector dominates healthcare delivery across the country, a majority of
the population living below the poverty line (BPL) — the ability to spend Rs. 47 per day
in urban areas, Rs. 32 per day in rural areas — continues to rely on the under-financed
and short-staffed public sector for its healthcare needs, as a result of which these
remain unmet.

Moreover, the majority of healthcare professionals happen to be concentrated in urban


areas where consumers have higher paying power, leaving rural areas underserved.

8
Inflation is skyrocketing, and there is nothing new in that. Over couple of years, India
has seen a steady rise in inflation, which is not being complemented by the rise in
salary of the majority of the population of India. The facilities offered by the public health
care system is just not enough for the majority, private health care needs to supplement
it. The government hospitals are overburdened with long queues of patients and limited
staff and to add to the worries most of the high-end medical equipment’s primarily lie
un-utilized due to lack of skilled technicians. So it is no rocket science to reduce that
middle class in India are looking to private healthcare offerings.
Private hospitals in India are comparatively very expensive for treatments. Patients are
required to pay huge amount to get the required treatment. This should be an eye-
opener for the government to justify the taxpayer, by focusing more on public health
care system. Although lots of initiatives have been taken, this has not materialized at
the execution level.

Challenges faced by healthcare in India

 Reaching the location, transportation- the problem of transportation for rural


people to travel to urban areas for consulting the doctor. Every doctor lives in the
urban area to standardize its living, and people living in villages face the problem
of transportation and spend a lot of money on traveling.

 Facilities- in some areas there is a very bad condition of medical facilities, lack
of proper equipment, infrastructure, and space for patients. Patients don't get
proper facilities in comparison to many other developed countries.

 Lack of doctors- in India shortage of medical personnel like doctors, a nurse


etc. It is a basic problem in the health sector. In 1999-2000, while there were only

9
5.5 doctors per 10,000 population in India, the same is 25 in the USA and 20 in
China. Similarly, the number of hospitals and dispensaries is insufficient in
comparison to our vast population.

 Lack of money- in India, health services especially allopathic are quite


expensive. It hits hard the common man. Prices of various essential drugs have
gone up. Therefore more emphasis should be given to the alternative systems of
medicine. Ayurveda, Unani and homeopathy systems are less costly and will
serve the common man in a better way. Concluding the health system has many
problems. These problems can be overcome by effective planning and allocating
more funds.

 Lack of education about sanitary practices, low hygiene - like spitting


wherever they feel like and cough loudly without covering their mouths
thereby spreading the diseases.

 Lack or a limited number of dispensaries in rural areas-the ones that are


there are attuned to the atmosphere of that region and may not function as
they were expected to.

10
DIGITAL REFORMS IN HEALTH CARE SECTOR

Recently the Indian market has seen a surge in digital healthcare apps. Online medical
consultation has started to gain some traction and people are opening up to the
possibility of replacing a visit to a physical hospital with an online alternative.

The online consultation provides a hassle-free option to address non-emergency


medical queries. While growing up in India we had the option of a family physician who
was available to us at our beck and call but with time this concept has mostly
disappeared.

Compared to the existing process of searching for a good doctor, booking an


appointment after few days, traveling in never-ending traffic to go to the clinic/hospital,
again waiting there for your turn, making you still sicker, consulting doctor online is very
convenient and also saves a lot of time and money.

Telemedicine is an emerging sector in India; several major hospitals (Apollo, Narayan


hrudayalaya, AIIMS) have acknowledged telemedicine services. As per a recent
survey, the telemedicine market in India was projected at 7.5 million USD and is
expected to rise to 18.7 million USD by 2017.

11
INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPANY
Tardigrade health tech is an organization which was formed in mid of 2016 by a team
with professionals from IITs, IIMs and doctors in Lucknow. The technical department of
the organization works in Gurgaon and head marketing office is in Lucknow. They took
the name tardigrade because it’s a microscopic animal who can survive in any
environmental conditions. The motive of the organization is to make healthcare sector
digitalized by developing the technology which bridges the gap between doctors and
patients via mobile application for healthcare in rural and urban areas. As we all know
the condition of the healthcare sector in rural areas, medical facilities are bad in quality.
There are many problems that are faced by rural people that are lack of awareness, low
quality of care and limited access to the facility. India has one doctor for 1,700 people
while the one who suggests a benchmark of one for every 1000 people'. Our
organization is working alongside the government and NGO's to help rural public via a
mobile application.

Tardigrade Brand

Name - tardigrade also known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets are water-
dwelling, eight-legged, segmented micro animals.

12
Symbol - Tardigrades are among the most resilient known animals, with individual
species able to survive extreme conditions that would be rapidly fatal to nearly all other
known life forms, such as exposure to extreme temperatures, extreme pressures (both
high and low), air deprivation, radiation, dehydration, and starvation. 

Vision
 "To build a globally scalable business of excellence in its domain".
 “Be the leading healthcare exchanger in India”.

Mission
“To institutionalize and put into place, processes that shall enable the organization”
“To achieve a leadership position in its domain and to develop, build and nurture high-
quality client relationships backed by diligence, ethics, and values".

Values
The following values are core to tardigrade. The values are rooted in current reality, but
also represent the path we wish to follow tomorrow.
 Integrity and fairness to employees and customers
 Equal opportunities for all- no discrimination on any ground.
 Move ahead together
 Deliver value through deep domain expertise.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Guide is the healthcare mobile application. It bridges the gap between patients
from rural areas and doctors. Healthcare is the right of every individual but lack of
quality infrastructure, a dearth of qualified medical functionaries, and non- access to
basic medicines and medical facilities thwarts its reach to 60% of the population in
India. A majority of 700 million people lives in rural areas where the condition of

13
medical facilities is deplorable. Considering the picture of grim facts there is a dire
need of new practices and procedures to ensure that quality and timely healthcare
reaches the deprived corners of the Indian villages. Though a lot of policies and
programs are being run by the government the success and effectiveness of these
programs are questionable due to gaps in the implementation. In rural India, where
the number of primary health care centers (phcs) is limited, 8% of the centers do not
have doctors or medical staff, 39% do not have lab technicians and 18% phcs do not
even have a pharmacist.
The largest number of maternity deaths happen in India, majority of these are in
rural area and the proper medical facility can save a life. Rural population wastes
lots of money and time travelling to doctors residing in urban areas. We connect
patients from a rural area to doctors through video and audio call. Working alongside
the government, doctors, pathologies and NGO's. Our application gives full medical
facilities in rural areas from doctor consultation to the delivery of medicines.
Tardigrade works with hospitals, government and NGO's and they make volunteers
for villages, who can connect patients from villages to doctors online via video call.
We provide login id to volunteers in villages for Rs.500inr per login for one month.

We are providing a platform for different specialist doctors like orthopedics,


neurologist, gynecologist etc. To increase their revenue by providing them with
online consultation from rural patients and also give them prescription online itself. A
patient can order medicine from the application or they can purchase it from outside
medical shops. Guide application helps many villages to give them good medical
facilities, guide application is working with 60 gram panchayats in West Bengal and
also successfully working in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh.

14
Logo

Inner Workings

15
The Good Doctor – this application is our new product launched on 1st may
2018. The purpose of this application is to provide doctor services online. The
good doctor helps doctors to develop their business. According to Pareto’s law
80% revenue coming from 20% of loyal customer and this applies in medical
sector also. Every doctor is having their loyal patients and to maintain their
loyalty they expect the doctor to give them good medical treatment and facilities.
Medical treatment is in doctor's hand, but we can make them approachable and
help them to provide more facilities to their patients. The good doctor is an
android application with 2 end one is for doctor and other is for patients where a
patient can connect to their doctor from anywhere via chat, audio, and video call.
Doctor just have to take subscription of 1000 INR for one year and after that, they
can generate the clinic code of their choice. Patients just have to type the clinic
code of the doctor and they can also send consultation fees direct to doctors to
account and then they can consult to doctor and can also get the prescription on
the application itself which can never be deleted, that also keep the records of
the patient prescriptions, tests, etc.

Advantages of the Good Doctor App


 Appointment scheduler
Book, cancel and reschedule appointments with ease!
 Total security
Access and transfer your data securely on amazon's virtual private cloud!
 Digital health records
Keeping track of your patient reports and prescriptions was never this easy!
 Great customer support
Reach our experts on a phone, live chat, and email anytime!
 Follow up reminders
Send automated SMS and email reminders for follow up and routine checkups
 Access anywhere, anytime
On the go or on a vacation? Your practice is now just a click away with our
Android application.

16
Logo

Description

SWOT analysis of the products:

17
Strengths:

o Excellent quality product


o Working with collaboration of NGO's and government.
o Easy to use application.
o Experienced and highly qualified executives.
o Convenience in an online consultation.
o Affordable prices of various it solutions and other enterprise solution in the
market

Weaknesses:

o Less visibility and market share across the country because of


major players in the industry.
o New in market.
o Strong competition stiffing its growth.
o Brand visibility lower than other major players.
o Margins are not the most attractive.
o Lack of awareness about digitalization in the healthcare industry.
o corporate tie-ups
o low footfall

Opportunities:

o Broaden its range to capture more market share.


o Capture more market share by introducing solutions in new markets with
Improvements and innovations so it will help to establish them in those
Markets.
o Increase its brand awareness through excessive marketing and better
market communication.
o Establish itself in the whole Indian market as they are currently present in
only 3 states.

18
o Take risk willingly in product innovations to capture more market share
and increase the sales.
o Improve brand awareness network across India and gain market
share.
o New schemes for customers so that a good brand name can be
created in the minds of the customers.
o Digital advertising for better visibility.
o New outsourcing deals
o The scope of high revenue generation
o Recruit more marketing employees.

Threats:

o Dominant competitors of the good doctor.


o Promotional activities of competitors are stronger.
o brand name of competitors are well known, for e.g.: practo, lybrate etc
o Threat from the existing competitors as well as local clinics.
o Mobile Network issue in most of the places.
o People usually don’t trust online consultation.

COMPETITORS

19
1. Practo- practo search is a patient-focused, unbiased, independent
medical website with over 100,000 doctor profiles from across India and
Singapore. Patients can book confirmed appointments with doctors listed
on practo's website. This is a free service for both the patient and the
doctor. We had booked over 28,000 appointments for the month of June
2014.

2. Lybrate- this is highly evolved and easy-to-use practice management


software. It enables doctors to manage information for one or more clinics.
Doctors can be in touch with their patients and manage their practice on
the go with the lybrate app.

3. Docsapp- docsapp is an online doctor consultation app that makes sure


that doctors are easily accessible to the patients. The team plans to
connect the healthcare ecosystem and in a way that patients will have an
easy access to healthcare services.

LITERATURE REVIEW

20
There are limits to the time a care team can spend with patients and their families,
especially in rural areas with limited access to providers.

But healthcare-related mobile applications can help bridge gaps in care. With a
smartphone in hand and the right app, patients can engage with their physician and
manage their own healthcare with the swipe of a finger.

Mobile apps, in general, are extremely popular, and health apps are no different.
Estimates show there are more than 165,000 healthcare apps currently available.
What's more, use of these apps is on the rise. More than 50 percent of smartphone
users surveyed responded that they have used their device to gather health information,
and almost 20 percent of this population has at least one healthcare app on their
device.

The national institutes of health (NIH) calls this growing phenomenon mhealth, a
shorthand reference for the use of mobile devices to improve health outcomes,
services, and research. Not only is mhealth on the rise, it’s also effective.

A recent study by nationwide children’s hospital shows that when patients and their
families use mobile health apps, they are more engaged in their healthcare and have
improved outcomes. For example, the study indicates patients are inclined to use apps
to:

 Communicate with their physician or provider team


 Educate themselves on their condition or course of treatment
 Monitor their progress or compliance as related to their care plan

But why are mobile health apps so effective? For one thing, there's the convenience
factor. Conventional wisdom says the more convenient something is to do, the more
likely it is to be done — whether that's checking off milestones on a care-focused digital
timeline or quickly typing up a therapy journal.

21
For another, there’s the value of patient education. Mobile health apps allow patients to
view condition-specific educational videos right in the palm of their hand and receive
notifications when it’s time to take their medication. To put it simply, mobile health apps
help patients remember what their doctor tells them — which is no small feat.

More than 80 percent of patients leave the doctor’s office and are not able to remember
what they were told before they reach their car,” said Jeff Harper, CEO of duet health, a
provider of patient education engagement technology. Uneducated patients have a
significant impact on outcomes, readmission rates, satisfaction, and other critical
success factors.

CHALLENGES FACED BY HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

1) A weak primary healthcare sector

India has made strides in the expansion of public services. For instance, in 2015, there
was one government hospital bed for every 1,833 people compared with 2,336 persons
a decade earlier. For instance, there is one government hospital bed for every 614
people in Goa compared with one every 8,789 people in Bihar. The care provided in
these facilities is also not up to the mark. For example, in 2011, six out of every 10
hospitals in the less developed states did not provide intensive care and a quarter of
them struggle with issues like sanitation and drainage.

22
2) Unequally distributed skilled human resources

There aren’t enough skilled healthcare professionals in India despite recent increases in
MBBS programs and nursing courses. This shortage is compounded by inequitable
distribution of these resources. In community health centers in rural areas of many
states, ranging from Gujarat to West Bengal, the shortfall of specialists exceeds 80%.
“India does not have an overarching national policy for human resources for health. The
dominance of medical lobbies such as the medical council of India has hindered
adequate task sharing and, consequently, development of nurses and other health
cadres, even in a state like Kerala that has historically encouraged nurse education and
has been providing trained nurses to other parts of India and other countries,” said
the Lancet study.

23
3) Large unregulated private sector

Given the quality of care available, few frequent public sector hospitals. The national
sample survey office (NSSO) numbers show a decrease in the use of public hospitals
over the past two decades—only 32% of urban Indians use them now, compared with
43% in 1995-96. However, a significant portion of these private practitioners may not be
qualified or are under-qualified. For instance, a study in rural Madhya Pradesh found
that only 11% of the sampled health care providers had a medical degree, and only
53% had completed high school. Moreover, the many new institutions set up in the past
decade... Encouraged by commercial incentives, have often fuelled corrupt practices
and failed to offer quality education, the study said.

24
4) Low public spending on health

Public health expenditure remains very low in India. Even though real state expenditure
on health has increased by 7% annually in recent years, central government
expenditure has plateaued. Economically weaker states are particularly susceptible to
low public health investments. Many state governments also fail to use allocated funds,
but this might simply reflect structural weaknesses in the system and that need to be
addressed with more resources and a different approach to provision and delivery of
care. The 14th finance commission recommendations, which will transfer a greater
share of central taxes to states, offers an opportunity for the latter to increase
investments in health.

25
5) Fragmented health information systems

Like in most facets of life in modern India, getting quality, clean, up-to-date data is
difficult in the health sector as well. This is despite the presence of many agencies
ranging from (NSSO) to the registrar general of India to disease-specific program-based
systems to survey malaria to HIV. Data is incomplete (in many cases it excludes the
private sector) and many a time, it's duplicated. Worse, the agencies don't talk to each
other. Further, its use is limited because of an inadequate focus on outputs and
outcomes.

6) Irrational use and the spiraling cost of drugs

Costs of medical treatment have increased so much that they are one of the primary
reasons driving people into poverty, as mint has pointed out previously. Yes, there
have been schemes such as the Jan aushadhi campaign to provide 361 generic drugs
at affordable prices and different price regulation policies, but their implementation has
been patchy and varied in different states. Corruption also increases irrational use of
drugs and technology. For instance, kickbacks from referrals to other doctors or from
pharmaceutical and Device Company’s lead to unnecessary procedures such as CT
scans, stent insertions, and cesarean sections, the study said.

26
7) Weak governance and accountability

In the past 5 years, the government has introduced several new laws to strengthen
governance of the health system, but many of these laws have not been widely
implemented. In some instances, the scope of (some) regulations is still unclear, and
there are fears that these laws have hindered public health trials led by non-commercial
entities, it added.

A study identified inadequate public investment in health, the missing trust and
engagement between various healthcare sectors and poor coordination between state
and central governments as the main constraints why universal healthcare is not
assured in India.

At the heart of these constraints is the apparent unwillingness on the part of the state to
prioritize health as a fundamental public good, central to India's developmental

27
aspirations, on par with education. Put simply, there is no clear ownership of the idea of
universal health coverage within the government it said.

28
PROBLEM STATEMENT

The main problem after making “the good doctor” application was how to make it enter
in the medical sector, among doctors and patients. Convincing doctors and other people
to use our application was the toughest part of any product. Money doesn’t matter for
doctors if the application is giving them more revenue, the thing that matters is to
manage the application and to manage the time to use the application and purpose of
this application is different from its competitor apps like procto and lybrate, making
doctors understand the purpose of the application is very difficult. The good doctor app
is to make good relations between doctor and their loyal customers. After convincing
doctors, our job is to make their patients aware of the application and tell them the
purpose of this online doctor product and make them a user of our application.

Guide healthcare was the second application I worked on, guide bridges the gap
between the rural patients and doctors, in words, it looks very simple but it was
practically complicated. In rural areas, there is a lack of smartphone and people don’t
know how to use the application and to connect rural patients to online doctors was a
mission. People living in rural areas have different type on mentality their earnings are
very less and they can’t spend thousands for their treatment or medicines, patients in
rural areas prefer to consult their local doctors who don't even have proper certification
and specialty and medicines in rural areas are 50% fake. Providing them with the proper
medical facility was the best thing any organization can do but only making the product
was not enough, managing it was the toughest part for the organization.

29
APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM
The aim of the project was to publicize and generate awareness about the application
among both doctors as well as patients. To understand the product, company and
industry, research about it was done through gathering information from employees as
well as internet. The primary major challenge faced in the project was gathering the
contact data of the doctors in located in Lucknow region. Due to unavailability of
secondary data from the company, primary data was collected from local listing
websites including Google, just dial etc., after which Tele-calling was made to 600
doctors to brief them about the application and to generate leads.

After making a qualified lead list with all the doctor’s name along with contact
information, personal visits were made to all doctors and pitched them about the
application by making them understand about the product and benefits they would
derive from the application. Out of the total 20 visits made, 6 doctors agreed to register
for the application.

Second major task was to make the patients aware about the application too. This task
was accomplished by putting up posters about the application in the clinic and medical
stores.

In the rural part of the country, due to illiteracy and unawareness about using
application, it is difficult for the people to use the application. To overcome with this
issue, people with basic knowledge of using application were pitched to become
volunteers who shall help patients from rural part to connect with doctors directly
through the video calling feature, for this 23 NGOs were contacted and the application
was presented so as to have support from the volunteers and to register the NGOs
doctors.

30
FINDINGS

DOCTOR’S BEHAVIOUR

During the interaction with doctors from the very first time it was clear that they are
tremendously busy and do not entertain stories, so the product had to be pitched
perfectly and precisely.

Upon interacting with numerous doctors in the city, it was observed that the doctors
which are of the younger generation and are aware of the benefits of the online
consultation are eager to pounce at the opportunity to reap the benefits by opting to buy
a subscription service. While the doctors who are not so aware about the internet and
belong to the older generation, believe that these apps are useless and reject to adapt.

Doctors who want to become more accessible and offer complete around service by
being in contact with the patient anytime, opted to buy the subscription. Also doctors
who want to be more reachable to the distant customers find the app productive.

PATIENT’S BEHAVIOUR

The people who opted most for the app were found out to be pressed for time, as
visiting the doctors takes nearly 1.5-2hrs of time that too according to the visiting hours
of the doctor, and the people couldn’t afford to free up that much time from their tightly
packed schedule.

The people who wanted to be in touch with their concerned doctors throughout the day,
were instantly attracted towards the use of the app, as the app solves their purpose
instantly.

The patients with ongoing treatments with their family doctors or other doctors when
away from their home, use this app fondly and it helps them stay in touch with ease.

31
NGO’S BEHAVIOUR

As the organization’s main goal and focus is to on helping the poor reach towards help,
they prefer to stay away from opportunities that add on extra work.

The organization whose main focus is to help speed up the growth of healthcare in the
rural areas of the society, and are actively taking steps towards the cause.

The NGOs which want to increase their cash flows and diversify their sources of income
opted to get associated with the app.

Organizations with lower manpower and will to reach a greater audience are huge
customers for the app.

32
LIMITATIONS
1. Shortage of employees: Since it was a startup there was a continuous problem
of shortage of marketing employees.
2. Trust: the end users that is the doctors did not trust the company regarding the
privacy of data of their patients. There was no such privacy clause of the
company.
3. User interface similar: the user interface of the application was similar to that of
WhatsApp, therefore the doctors said that why they can’t use WhatsApp only as
the functioning is similar only.
4. Not useful in emergency : the application of my company was not for the
emergency purpose, it was basically for the loyal and regular patients of the
doctor.
5. Sample size: the sample size is limited to a particular area.
6. Accuracy: the accuracy of the information collected.

33
SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 The study of competitors helped us understand the areas we are lacking


and improve on our areas of strengths.
 The 7 P's of marketing helped us to refine our approach so that we as a
startup can get more percentage hold of market share in this online
healthcare industry.
 The analysis part helped in knowing the market size of different
specialization of doctors in Lucknow.
 To make government school teachers our volunteers, to gain the trust of
patients in rural areas.
 Collaborate with medical representatives (MR) on a commission basis.
 As young generation is interested and there is a vast market, so an
attractive and effective promotional strategy should be adopted.
 Like just dial, practo.com also has to focus to make a brand image in the
market
 As people are not interested to tell about their diseases then free medical
camp is recommended to organize for all level of people on society.
 By campaign people, awareness about the usefulness of the health-line is
recommended.

34
CONCLUSION
It was found that doctors are really excited about the use of this app for the welfare of
their patients and people who are farther away from modern amenities. The app helps
to build a relation between the doctor and their patients by making the communication
easy and reach within the fingertips.

In the modern developing India, there are vast number of rural regions which do not get
any medical help and desperately need it. India has the highest number of maternity
related deaths globally, and these can be reduced by the help and guidance of doctors
through the app.

As the rural area habitants do not have the power to spend money on both conveyance
as well as the fees of the doctor, people can save money in travelling expense get the
help of the doctors. Jio with their cheap internet has helped the cause by making the
internet facility available to masses.

KEY LEARNINGS

The summer internship on market research profile helped me in getting in-depth


knowledge of the healthcare industry as it is totally a new field for me, who doesn't have
any background of medical terminologies. Meetings with doctors and NGO's helped me
in improvising my communication and convincing skills. The internship helped me in
getting and knowing the working of a startup. While working in rural areas it shows the
real face of the healthcare sector in rural areas.

35
References

Links and reports referred:

 Rural healthcare
http://www.gramvaani.org/?p=1629

 The major problem of health services


http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/articles/7-major-problems-of-health-
services-in-india/2305

 Digital healthcare in India on the cusp of a revolution.


https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/health-it/digital-healthcare-in-
india-on-the-cusp-of-a-revolution/59447572

 http://www.tardigrade.in/team.html

SUGGESTIONS AND COMMENTS

1. There were lots of grammatical errors.


2. Proper formatting was not done in the report.
3. The name of the company was not highlighted.
4. Spelling mistakes were there mostly in every page.
5. Table of content, page number and page borders was not added in report.
6. The acknowledgement page has lot of mistakes and was not drafted well.

36
7. Limitations were not drafted correctly.

37

You might also like