India is the second most populous country in the world with a population of over 120 crores. The number of doctors to cater to this continuously rising population is not equally sufficient. Owing to this fact, adequate and equitable distribution of healthcare services has always been a challenge in our country. Adding to this mismatch is the recent trend of concentration of healthcare facilities in the cities and towns which includes 75 percent of the population of doctors, which is away from rural India, where 68.84 percent of the national population lives. To add to the above challenges, in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has also contributed its bit to the unprecedented burden on an already burdened healthcare system in a country like ours. At a time like this, Telemedicine empowers doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to reach patients who might otherwise not receive the specialized care they need, and its use has exploded significantly in the past few years.

"DOCSMART has been created with the intention of organizing the health care system in not just India but also beyond"

Especially in India, the telemedicine concept has come a long way from ISRO’s Telemedicine Pilot Project in 2001, and this has increased significantly in the current pandemic era. With the steps taken by ISRO, the Department of Information Technology (DIT), the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the state governments, this is bound to grow exponentially in the years to come. The fast exchange of patient information, timely advice, and last-mile connectivity with patients are some of the reasons for e-Health solutions' growing demand among users as well. The Indian market is expected to reach $5.4 billion by 2025 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate(CAGR) of 31 percent. This omnipresent demand for better healthcare services and infrastructure requires an efficient healthcare management system to bring affordable healthcare to rural and urban areas and break the physical barriers, and this is where DOCSMART plays a key role.

A One-Stop Healthcare Platform
An initiative by Relife Medicare Services, DOCSMART is a tech driven platform that aims at redefining the healthcare system by increasing overall convenience be it for patients, doctorsblood banks, pharmacies, diagnostic centers, ambulances, or other service providers. Speaking about the inception story, Dr. Deepak Baid, Founder, DOCSMART shares, “Being a Doctor, I noticed that most healthcare apps cover only one vertical of health and are mostly incomplete. A doctor’s app did not interact with the patient’s app in realtime. There existed Apps for Doctors, Discounted Medicines, Tests, Ambulances, Blood, and more, and customers had to download multiple apps and still were at a loss as to which to use when the need arises. This is what led us to come up with the concept of DOCSMART, a super health app that has all verticals of health on one single platform. Now, patients don’t need to shuffle through many apps for their routine or emergency needs. While accomplishing this was challenging since it meant integrating the entire health care of India on one platform, however, the concept was accepted by the service providers and today, DOCSMART is the best health care platform around”.

DOCSMART has been created with the intention of organizing the health care system in not just India but also beyond. This is the only platform in the country that organizes all the gamuts of health care in one app allowing the customer as well as the various health care service providers to interact digitally in realtime. DOCSMART enables patients to book appointments, order medicines, pre-book diagnostic tests, call an ambulance and view blood banks/hospitals in their vicinity thereby increasing patient convenience. The App digitalizes the entire physical interactions which take place among healthcare verticals. It removes the need for mediators, franchisees, or 3rd party apps and connects the customers directly with the service providers. “DOCSMART is like the Amazon of the healthcare sector it addresses all the requirements of the customer by offering the entire gamut of healthcare services under one roof ”, says Dr. Deepak Baid.

DOCSMART through its technology has succeeded in making the entire healthcare sphere digitized

Making the Best Use of Technology
Like every young business, DOCSMART had its own share of ups and downs. “The main challenge we faced was to reach out to all verticals of health Pan India. After extensive research, we appointed marketing companies who were trained and carried a ground level app for the same to register the various service providers. Our second challenge was to convince the doctors and others about the need for the app and its safety,security, reliability, and ease of use. We had to quote the various laws and threat perception in the near future from the various existing Apps to get the break through. And most importantly, since we believe in the app completely we have seed funded it ourselves. We have also successfully overcome all the challenges thrown at us. Today, the company has grown to a nearly Rs.200 crores valued company and we are now in the phase of approaching investors for funding in order to increase our geographical reach”, shares Dr. Deepak Baid.

DOCSMART through its technology has succeeded in making the entire healthcare sphere digitized. This has helped clients connect digitally and with ease. Telemedicine is the future of Indian health care in India, connecting each and every vertical of health, and DOCSMART is a key role player in this initiative. “When we talk of the Healthcare ecosystem, we mean an integration of all verticals of health be it; Patients, doctors, pharmacy, diagnostics, blood banks, hospitals, vendors, and more. By integration we mean an interaction among all the verticals in real time”, highlights Dr. Deepak Baid.

With an attempt to make DOCSMART a safe space for patients and healthcare professionals to interact, the platform comes with the concept of Red Flags and Black Flags. Throwing more light on this, Dr. Deepak says, “Healthcare today is faced with many challenges. Patients and relatives often tend to get abusive and violent. At DOCSMART, we allow the doctors and service providers to Red Flag such a person which is seen across the system by other service providers (after approval from the DOCSMART Admin). This shall act as a deterrent for patients from being abusive. Often patients do not pay the legitimate charges of the doctors and service providers, for this Black flagging is a mechanism where the balance payable of the patient is seen as a percentage( if above 20 percent)to all the service providers”.

DOCSMART integrates all verticals of health on its platform and even helps insurance customers to avail service providers across the country. The customers can know in which hospital they can avail cashless facility for their admission. DOCSMART created the first cashless insurance system for OPD (Outpatient Department) where a customer can avail cashless facility with all verticals of health such as Doctors, Pharmacies, Diagnostic tests, Ambulances, and more.

Talking about the plans ahead, Dr. Deepak Baid shares, “We have already developed the App (Phase 1), and now we shall integrate the inventory of various service providers (Phase 2) and create the Hospital Indoor Admission module. (Phase 3). Phase 2 shall allow customers to know in real time the availability of various medicines and tests. Phase 3 shall have a dedicated Hospital software linking all verticals of health. Patients will also know about their treatment and the cost involved in real-time. We also plan to collaborate with Apps that provide AI in medicine in reading Images and also AI in diagnosis based on complaint profiles”.