On A Mission To Digitise Global OPD Processes, Healthtech Startup Doxper Raises $1.1 Mn Funding

Taking the total funding raised to date to $1.9 Mn, Doxper has raised $1.1 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round led by existing investor Vidal Healthcare. Earlier, in August 2017, it raised $750K in a Seed round of funding led by Vidal Healthcare and growx ventures along with Capier Investments, Globevestor as well as private individuals in the medical space.

The development was first reported by paper.vc. The Doxper founder and CEO Shailesh Prithani confirmed the development to Inc42.

The Mumbai-based healthtech startup now aims to take its mission of digitising the global OPD (outpatient department) processes to the UK, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Brazil and South Africa by early next year. The startup is already piloting operations in Bangladesh and Nigeria.

“Globally, OPD contributes significantly more than IPD to insurance. Cashless OPD insurance is set to grow in India and Doxper will play a significant part in promoting this growth,” said Girish Rao, Chairman and MD of Vidal Healthcare Services.

Doxper was founded in 2015 by  Randeep Singh, Shailesh Prithani and Pawan Jain. Headquartered in Mumbai, with 60 employees across Delhi/NCR, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Pune, it allows clinicians to instantly digitise their case sheets using a smart digital pen and encoded paper without the need to change their behavior at all. As per the website, the pen can hold the data of 1,000 prescriptions at a time and works on auto-power

“Electronic medical record systems (EMRs) are disliked worldwide by the doctor community as they significantly lengthen consultation times and impede the doctor-patient relationship. The adoption of EMR has either been mandatory but unpopular, or negligible in the case of India because doctors are not comfortable typing,” says Shailesh.

Doxper is directly addressing the bottleneck of clinical data capture, with its proprietary algorithms, presently in beta and under continuous advancements. These algorithms convert handwriting into the typed text to open up new patient engagement, analytics and workflow efficiency opportunities across the healthcare ecosystem.

It has an easy scheduling and management system for healthcare practitioners to effectively manage their patients. Doxper also has an API solution for hospitals to integrate into their systems to keep track of patient records in ICU, Emergency, Casualty and OPD departments. And, for patients, it plans to be a one-stop platform where they can access medical reports and other related information.

So how effective it is? The existing client base of 800 independent doctors and clinicians across five cities is a number to be proud of for a startup operating at an early stage. Plus, as Doxper readily integrates with any existing HIS and with almost no required training, any institution can implement Doxper in no time.

“Doxper is building India’s first real-time and cashless OPD network. New products will be possible with Doxper’s end-to-end technology suite, opening up the cashless OPD insurance market for rapid growth. Other areas of application and impact include Public Health (screening, disease registries, disease trends, healthcare supply chain and policy), Pharma (real world evidence & CROs) and Remote and Home healthcare (geriatric care, sample pickups, allied healthcare services),” added Shailesh.

The startup also claims to have signed-up three of the country’s largest corporate hospitals in Mumbai and Delhi and one large pan India super-specialty chain for complete OPD digitisation.

According to a report by IBEF, the Indian healthcare market will rise to $280 Bn by 2020, from the current $100 Bn. One reason for this is the adoption of data and IoT-based digital solutions, such as Doxper. Also, with the Indian government’s growing impetus on digitisation, adoption of AI, ML and IoT as well as providing better healthcare services at low cost, the time is ripe for the startups like Doxper to channalise its strategies well. However, with a doctor to patient ratio of 1:921 in the country, and a significantly low acceptance to digital methodologies compared to vast, the road is still long and Doxper has its own share of challenges to focus upon.

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