In a recent interview with media representatives, Alok Awasthi, founder of SeekMed, a mobile medical app that helps anyone from around the world seek medical advice from top Indian doctors, revealed the uniqueness of the platform, among other issues. ROTIMI IGE brings excerpts.
What is SeekMed App all about?
It’s a telemedicine platform that allows patients from anywhere in the world to seek expert medical advice from India’s award winning and top doctors via video consultation. With this app, we’re providing a reliable platform for patients and doctors to connect, to discuss their medical conditions, surgery options about new or existing treatments with India’s best doctors and leaders in their fields. With SeekMed app, we’re providing a platform that patients can trust to seek expert, credible and ethical medical opinion.
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When was the app developed and what was the motivation behind it?
The telemedicine version was launched in October 2018. Motivation really came from a personal experience involving my son. When he was six months old, he was diagnosed with a condition called Craniosynostosis. Doctor advised to go for surgery but we’re not sure. We’re looking for a second opinion but couldn’t get hold of the right doctor. At the end, everything went well but that triggered a thought to create something that gives people a choice and allow them to take control of their medical decisions.
How long did you take you to develop the app?
It took us almost two years to build and launch the app after carefully analysing opportunities to serve patients, performing stakeholder analysis, building a relationship with our medical advisor, identifying teams and partners and going through different stages of product development.
Is the app indigenous thinking or was it developed in partnership with any foreign organisation?
No foreign organisation was involved in any partnership. It was essentially an indigenous thinking where original idea got refined based on valuable and timely feedback from thought leaders and advisors. Technology is the key enabler here and the product was designed with users in mind. We wanted to create an app that even our parents could easily use and that is reflected in our simple to use interface and navigation.
Kindly take us through the usage of the app and the cost of usage?
There’s no cost to install the app from Google Play store. There’s absolutely no cost to register and search doctor profiles on the app. Getting video consultation involves few simple steps after the patient has successfully registered on the app. Patient searches for the doctor and sends appointment request, doctor creates an appointment, patient makes online payment using credit/debit card prior to appointment, doctor initiates a video consultation, doctor submits an online report. If for some reason, the doctor is not available for consultation, patients can ask for a refund. As part of the consultation, the doctor may ask the patient to get an X-ray, CT/MRI scan or blood work done and upload the digital file on the app. Patients can get these tests done locally. Doctor’s fee is typically in the range of $30 per consultation however this has been reduced to $14 per consultation during the promo period that’s ending in April 5th 2019.
It is believed that the app will save Nigerians a huge amount of money, time and inconvenience before they embark on a medical trip amid lot of uncertainties in mind. How much do you estimate it will save Nigerians annually?
The saving depends upon a variety of factors including travel costs, nature of disease, time and efforts, knowledge about the place of travel and etc.. A simple example is if some patient needs to go for a cardiac surgery can connect to multiple doctors on our platform for a fraction of the cost and understand the options available to the patient and cost involved in advance of travel planning. This exercise can enable patient to take the most appropriate decision about their medical condition and at the same time provide a fair idea of cost. Patient can compare cost, look for doctors profile and take the best decision. Moreover, there is no mediator between doctor and patient (ie agent) hence a significant amount of commission is already saved. We do not charge anything for patient except doctors consultation fees. Additionally, SeekMed platform can be very useful to understand whether surgery is really needed for the conditions or there are other alternatives available which are more reliable and cost effective. Further, once a patient returns back after surgery or other treatment, they can simply connect to their doctor using this app for follow up and that saves a very significant cost. We understand, using our platform can result into significant cost saving and patient will be confident of their decision before making the trip.
How secure is the app against fraudulent people especially from India who may pose as doctors?
Our process to on board doctors is very rigorous. We add doctors only based on recommendation by our panel. The panel looks after doctors detailed profile, background and affiliations through Industry sources. Quality of doctors is our key value proposition. We’re committed to maintaining this focus by engaging a panel of doctors that’d take decision on whether to onboard a doctor to the platform. Our doctors come from some of the most prestigious hospitals of india such as AIIMS, Medanta, PSRI, Max, Sir Ganga Ram, Fortis and others. Because of this commitment to quality, renowned doctors (some have served Presidents & Prime Ministers of India) have agreed to join our platform and we’re very proud of this association. Moreover all our doctors are affiliated with most prestigious institutions across the world and their profile can be searched in google before taking any decision.
How does the app protect people’s privacy on medical issues?
We take data privacy very seriously. Our technology provides end to end encryption of data and we’re HIPAA (US Healthcare Data Privacy Law) compliant. None of our data is shared with any third party. Doctor-Patient interactions, doctor reports, scans, test results etc. are stored on secure AWS cloud and can be accessed by the user from anywhere in the world.
About how much do you think Nigerians spend on a medical trip to India annually?
From one estimate, nearly 20,000 Nigerians travelled to India in 2018 for various medical procedures and treatments. Cost depends on multiple factors such as hospital, location, nature of medical procedure or treatment but average cost can easily be several thousand dollars.
How are the Indian doctors ready to collaborate with Nigerian medical seekers through this app?
Doctors joining our platform have agreed to serve patients through our app. The patient could be in India, Nigeria or any other part of the world. In fact, there’s a large Indian diaspora that lives outside India, who could benefit from this. The doctor will create appointments subject to his/her availability.
What other value/ services does the app provide to its users apart from connecting them to Indian doctors?
In addition to providing access to quality doctors, SeekMed app really helps patients save a lot of time and money. Many times, the patient is not in a position to travel long distances or sit for long hours in the waiting room to see a good doctor. In another case, patient can get a second opinion and potentially avoid or postpone an expensive surgery. Patient can now independently consult with the trusted doctor from the comfort of his or her home.
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