Introducing The Latest Inc42+ Playbook: Dissecting The State Of Healthtech In India

Health is wealth — it’s a centuries-old cliche that has regained meaning with Covid-19 bringing medicine and healthcare under the spotlight. And technology is possibly the most crucial factor today that will show the resilience of India’s healthcare system.

As healthcare workers toil on the frontlines of the pandemic, startups are working relentlessly to back them with scalable solutions and business models using cutting-edge technologies. While Inc42 has been covering such efforts and initiatives since the beginning of the outbreak, the latest Inc42+ playbook “Dissecting India’s Healthtech” looks to dissect the state of India’s healthtech ecosystem and peer into its future.

As usual, the Inc42+ Playbook will take you into uncharted waters in the healthtech ecosystem and dig deeper into the most crucial topics, at every stage of the healthcare chain including in research, production, financing and delivery.

On similar lines, the healthtech playbook will look into various developments ranging from digitisation of health insurance, the rise of telemedicine, the shifting tides of mental health and how entrepreneurs are dealing with stress, as well as the National Digital Health Blueprint 2019 and a deep dive into the functioning of one of the most promising healthtech startups of the day.

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The Cost Of Going Digital: Can Legacy Health Insurance Bear The Burden?

The cost of physically maintaining the branches, customer acquisition, underwriting and claims processing is quite high and many legacy health insurance players are now looking to offset these with tech. However, even end-to-end tech solutions don’t come cheap and the bulk of health insurance companies choose to partner with digital intermediaries with focus on distribution. Between distribution and in-house technology, what will legacy organisations choose in future?

Social Distancing Brings Telemedicine To The Fore

Telehealth, originally a rural concept, which aimed to connect villagers to doctors in the cities using technology, was introduced to urban India through healthtech startups such as Practo, mFine, Lybrate and DocsApp. Today, as social distancing becomes the norm, it has opened the market to many more who were till now hesitant to explore the segment. Also, as the government clears the policies around telemedicine, more doctors are expected to join the bandwagon.

The Mental Toll On Startup Founders

According to a 2019 study by the University of San Francisco researcher Michael A. Freeman, approximately half (49%) the entrepreneurs globally suffer from at least one form of mental health condition during their lifetimes. These include ADHD, bipolar disorder and a host of addictive disorders. What makes the highly efficient and hardworking founders, many from prestigious colleges across the world, crumble? Inc42 talks to founders and leading psychologists to understand the impact of cut-throat competition in India’s startup ecosystem on the backbone of the industry.

The Regulatory Challenges For Healthtech

While India has been an early adopter of technology and lakhs of people world over flock to the country seeking medical help, how effective have been the health policies in addressing challenges? Is it time we looked into a uniform regulatory mechanism?

India’s National Digital Health Blueprint 2019, recently approved by the standing finance committee, envisions to create a much required digital infrastructure for the health sector. With the conceptualisation of a national health e-register, the national health stack aims to provide a seamless transfer of one’s health data from one platform to another, from one region to another. This will undoubtedly create new markets and opportunities for Indian Indian healthtech startups.

How An Eight-Year-Old Genomics Company Is Changing The Game

MapMyGenome is one of those startups that has managed to stay relevant in the changing healthtech landscape for over eight years. Over these eight years, it has built a reputation as being at the forefront of genomic innovation. For instance, in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic founder Anu Acharya teamed up with researchers to launch the Project PCR sample pooling. It works on reducing the cost of testing by 60% to 80% and has proven highly effective for mass testing.

Not only have the Inc42+ Playbooks unearthed new trends, business models and emerging players within, but also brought the spotlight on the data that matters, which goes a long way towards filling the information gap in India’s tech startup coverage.

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