Founded in October 2014 by Raghuraj,
HealthPlix's goal is to transform diabetes care by improving Patient experience. There are 68 million diabetes patients in India, and approximately 80% of these patients do not achieve their blood sugar and HbA1c goal. This means we are faced with a burgeoning problem of diabetes mismanagement which is the source of several serious health conditions (for e.g., 47% of patients with renal failure who are on dialysis owe their condition to mismanaged diabetes).
Improving Patient experience in chronic diabetes care eases the burden of diabetes management. For this HealthPlix has developed a platform that addresses the problem by covering both the patients and their treating doctors.
In an interaction with Sujata Sangwan of BWDisrupt, Raghuraj Sunder Raju, CEO & Founder, HealthPlix, shares his entrepreneurial journey and details about his venture including present status and future plans.
How did the entrepreneurial bug bite you?Entrepreneurial bug was latent in me, just was waiting for the right problem for which I could fully devote my energies and time. When I personally went through the frustrations of not finding the best care for chronic problem, I fully realize the extent of gap that exists for chronic care in India. I decided to do something about it, and quit my job at Huawei within months of this realization and started HealthPlix.
What is your Product or Service / Offerings to Customer? No two Diabetes cases are identical. Which means even for the similar blood sugar levels the treatment is different for different patients (it depends on patient's degree of insulin deficiency and insulin resistance). So the only way is to personalize treatment for each patient. And this personalization requires several iterations of monitoring.
HealthPlix’s focus is to help diabetes patients improve treatment outcomes. We use technology to make the doctor-patient interaction for on-going chronic care seamless, quick and more efficient - which helps in identifying the optimum treatment option for the patient.
What were the challenges your startup faced while setting up the business?The behaviorial predisposition of the doctors when it came to diabetes care proved to be a big challenge for us initially. We did overcome this by focusing incessantly on ways to seamlessly fit our product into the existing clinical practice of the doctor. Once incorporated, however, the doctors immediately began to see the benefits of using HealthPlix to manage their diabetes patients.
We now have a blueprint we follow to get our product within any new clinic that treats diabetes.
Who are your competitors? This space is emerging. There aren't many large players who are doing this already in India. Nonetheless, the problem is too big and the need extremely acute.
How is your business model different from the existing ones? We are unique in a way that we focus both on the doctors who treat diabetes and their patients. And the doctors we select are those who have extensive Diabetes practice - leading General Physicians, Diabetologists and Endocrinologists are our doctor users.
Who are your clients? How do you look at expanding?General Physicians with a large diabetes practice, Diabetologists and Endocrinologists. We are looking at expanding to 450 doctors by the end of the year.
What are the traction details?We have a pipeline of 80 doctors who have signed up with us after showing interest in incorporating our solution. Many are in different stages of sales conversion cycle.
35 doctors actively use our product for clinical management of diabetes. More than 1000 patients on the app are now connected to their doctor.
Best and worst memories while starting up…There is no such thing as worst memory while starting up! We face tough times almost everyday. In the beginning it appears difficult, and when you don't give up and persevere it becomes another day at work!
There are, however, plenty of best times. For us the best times are those when we see the tangible difference our product is able to make in the lives of the patients! A few that I would like to count are:
1. When a doctor told us that using HealthPlix he was able to avoid a definite case of hospitalization for a patient who had uncontrolled hyperglycemia.
2. Mother of a young boy who is Type-1 diabetic tells us that she finds it liberating that help from her doctor is just a tap away.
3. Patients who use our app write to us appreciating what we have done, and tell us what they would love to see in the app. The sense of attachment they show with the app is immensely gratifying to us
4. Best of all - we heard one diabetes patient tell us that he has found a new way of life with HealthPlix!
It is moments like these that energize and motivate us to do better!
What is the funding status and how do you monetize?We are angel funded currently. We charge the doctors a fee for using the tech platform when their patients subscribe to a care plan with them.
What is the market size and market opportunity?With 70 million people in India being diabetic and an additional 80 million in pre-diabetes stage, there is a huge need for the product we are building. This is what we are unlocking for the benefits of the patients and doctors.
