Surjeet (name changed), 28, lives with Type 1 Diabetes, a form of diabetes that begins in childhood due to diminished insulin production by pancreatic cells. Through his life, Surjeet had always been quite diligent with his blood tests and had remained loyal to a leading diagnostic chain. One day, Surjeet’s doctor highlighted elevated cholesterol levels. This could be a complication of the disease or the side effect of one of the drugs he was taking. To learn that what went wrong and when, Surjeet tried to obtain his data – his past readings and trends from the diagnostic chain. Despite Surjeet having had all his tests done in one place, the lab was unable to help in any meaningful way. There was one major issue – they didn’t have the clinical data structured in the right way, and they didn’t know how to fix it.
Prema Nayar (name changed), 30, is a new mother. Over the last year, she visited her doctor at Nath Hospital (name changed) for regular consultations, got her diagnostic tests done from Nath Hospital and sometimes from a local lab close to her home. She delivered her baby at Jagjannani Maternity Home (name changed). In this journey, no one turned out to be a complete winner – Nath Hospital lost out to retain Prema for inpatient revenue, diagnostics was split across multiple centers, Jagjannani Maternity Home could only offer the last leg of the journey. This largely happened because none of the providers (a) could timely pick up the intelligence that Prema is not getting complete care from their facility and is dependent on her doctor’s schedule; accordingly, they didn’t take any corrective measures, (b) drove any proactive, personalized and comprehensive care to retain Prema. It was a simple unidirectional relationship – Prema reaching out to her providers, and not vice versa.
There are many such examples across specialties, age groups, and locations, and across healthcare providers, where there are many half-won or (in many cases) completely lost out battles – because the providers did not have right information and tools at the right time. There is a ton of meaningful healthcare data out there, stored away, waiting to become meaningful. In most cases, providers don’t know what to do with it, and what might be relevant use cases. THB sees that as an opportunity to make a difference for the entire healthcare ecosystem, for patients like Surjeet and Prema, and for providers such as Nath Hospital, and Jagjannani Maternity Home.
Founded in Sep 2015, THB (stands for Technology, Healthcare, Big Data Analytics) is a clinical research and data analytics company, with a vision to realize the full-potential value of healthcare data. As first step, THB is targeting over $1bn Indian healthcare analytics market. Rapid adoption of technology in the healthcare market is directly proportional to generation of big data, which is giving a strong thrust to healthcare analytics. THB wants to lead the charge of making sense of Indian healthcare data.
THB leverages smart technology to automate comprehensive analytics for healthcare providers. THB’s technology products help hospitals, labs and clinics drive value for all the three main stakeholders: (a) Patients, through personalized care & engagement, (b) Management, through best practices and business intelligence metrics, and (c) Clinicians, through clinical analytics and decision support systems. THB’s products integrate with multiple IT systems at a given provider, creating one coherent view of the providers’ datasets, offering the ability to run seamless analytics.
Healthcare analytics in India requires flexible technology that can seamlessly work with old/rudimentary IT systems across providers, automation of data clean-up, restructuring & analytics, and educating the stakeholders on the relevant use cases and the hidden potential – THB delivers its solution by offering such end-to-end proposition, and often tying commercials with end outcomes, to drive true partnership with its clients. No wonder that in a short span of one year, THB claims to be a 30-member team, working with over 15 clients, including some of the leading corporate hospital chains in the country.
To deliver its proposition, the startup team includes a healthy mix of cross-functional experts. The 4 cofounders include Rajesh Pachar, an ex-Microsoft geek driving technology; Rohit Kumar, Data Scientist who worked on big data analytics at American Express; Gagandeep Singh, Operations lead with large scale SAP implementation experience; and Akansh Khurana, an ex-Bain consultant leading business and keeping the vision intact. The core team includes ex-Novartis Sales expert, an ex-head of an Apollo Clinics center, and Medical Directors from AIIMS Delhi and PGI Chandigarh. THB continues to get guidance from some of the leading healthcare veterans and business leaders in the country, and has closed two rounds of undisclosed funding – an angel-round in November 2015, and a recent seed-round in October 2016. THB is currently building on its technology and analytics capabilities to develop strong IP and algorithms that can deliver smarter healthcare and impact each person’s healthcare journey.
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Soumya is a young writer and journalist, with bachelors in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an alumini of the Asian College of Journalism, and finds politics and sustainability intriguing beats to work with.
