While the world is in danger of the COVID-19 epidemic, the need for trustworthy telemedicine services providers has increased a lot. In this scenario, Tattvan is making hard and smart efforts to empower the sector with top-notched and comprehensive services.
Tattvan has a group of telemedicine services available to service different sections of society. It is India’s first chain of organized brick and mortar telemedicine centers that provide teleconsultations with the doctors of the best super-specialty hospitals in the big cities. It also provides for real-time on-site diagnostics conducting over 30+ pathology tests via tele-diagnostics.
Tattvan also has a Second Medical Opinion Service which enables a person who is suffering from an acute illness such as cancer or tumor to take not only one but 3 medical opinions from the top specialists across the country.
To cater to the corporate employees Tattvan has also launched “Workplace Wellbeing” which provides a holistic healthcare package including teleconsultations from physicians and specialists of various multi-specialty hospitals, tele-diagnostics, second medical opinion, and lifestyle improvement activities such as online webinars, and much more. All of this is done via Tattvan Mobile Application that can also monitor up to 50 health trackers.
In a talk with Mr. Ayush Mishra, Founder, and CEO at Tattvan, let’s discover more about the company and his views on the current industry scenario.
What inspired you to start the company? Please brief us on the company.
The inception of Tattvan has been more from personal experiences. It was almost 12 years back when I had met a fatal accident and realized the dearth of availability of good advance care treatment options in small towns. There was a huge gap in the demand and supply was huge so I knew something had to be done. I worked for over 10 years in the healthcare sector with various big companies and startups before I finally decided to start Tattvan E-Clinics, India’s first Organized Chain of Tele-medicine in 2017.
The main focus of Tattvan has been to provide access to Primary Healthcare Services and Advance Care Opinion at the locations that matter the most. Since then now, our focus has been heavily inclined towards providing telemedicine services in the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and small towns and villages.
What were the initial challenges you faced?
When we started with Tattvan E-Clinics, telemedicine was not a common term, there were no proper guidelines and a lot of things were left to interpretation. There was hesitation amongst the people for using teleconsultations as a platform to connect with the doctors. The same kind of hesitation was also seen in the hospitals and doctors collaborating with us and giving teleconsultations.
So, building confidence amongst the people concerning telemedicine, getting hospitals to agree to collaborate with us as care partners, making telemedicine a familiar concept for the people were some of the initial challenges.
Which was that point that triggered the growth of the company?
It was the legalization of telemedicine earlier this year in March 2020, when the Govt. of India published Guidelines on telemedicine that triggered a rapid growth for the company.
How have the company graphs changed since the foundation? Can you share a few statistics?
Tattvan is a 3-year-old startup with multiple telemedicine centers adding each passing year. There has been significant growth in the past 2 years with rising in the number of teleconsultations and tele-diagnostics across all centers. A sharp rise of about 70% has been seen in teleconsultations especially in the field of neurology, gynecology, cardiology, and pediatrics during the past year.
The queries for our Second Medical Opinion service have seen a considerable rise in the past few months of lock-down where people were afraid to visit the hospital but needed advance care opinion on either scheduling their elective surgeries, ongoing treatment, or just post-operation issues.
Tattvan pools in the opinion of 3 specialists on a query to enable the patient to choose the best possible option in all the specialties. Over the past few months, most of the queries for advanced care treatments were especially in the areas of Oncology, Gastroenterology, and Neurology. There has been an increase of more than 80% of queries for Second Medical Opinion in the year 2020.
What is the reason behind your company’s long-standing success?
The success of Tattvan lies behind the people we have been trying to cater to. There has been a massive healthcare services gap when it comes to rural and urban areas, especially in small towns, villages, and Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities. Tattvan has been focused and determined to fill these gaps by going at the grassroots level and enabling the healthcare facilities in these areas, especially the primary health care, diagnostics, and supply of medication via telemedicine in the villages. This has enabled Tattvan to associate itself with people who need the benefits arising from telemedicine the most.
As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.
Bill Gates
How do you decide to take the company a step further in terms of your products/services?
Keeping the aim of access to healthcare services in the small towns, Tattvan would be taking some interesting initiatives especially in the villages and small towns where telemedicine services would be provided to the people as a part of the larger vision of bridging the rural healthcare gap.
Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share?
There are a couple of services in the pipeline to be launched by the end of this year, at the moment all I can say is that it would be targeted towards the masses residing in small towns and villages.
What do you think are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur?
One of the biggest responsibilities is to know that in the end, you are the one responsible and accountable for all those working with you and under you. It is important to engage the team with positive reinforcement and encouragement. It is only when you have a solid foundation of the people working with you that can you achieve concrete results.
Can you please brief us about your professional experience?
I have had a decade-long experience in MedTech market research and consulting verticals. I have worked with life sciences, pharma, and big consulting companies on various healthcare studies ranging from CI, Strategy, Market assessment, market sizing, and market access.
What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?
The first would be customer validation of our business models at various locations and the second would be patient experience ultimately resulting in improved healthcare outcomes at our telemedicine centers across UP, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Telangana.
How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?
I take a keen interest in engaging with my employees regularly and ensure we have meaningful conversations which most of the time goes beyond our current working scope. I make sure to have introductory sessions with every batch that joins in, especially during these past few months where engaging with a team is not an easy job, I prefer to have weekly “coffee chats”. This not only helps me know my people on a one-on-one basis but also allows me to be a part of youthful conversations where I get to hear a lot of new and innovative ideas.
Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight?
Yes, one of the patients who was a girl nearly 17years old visited our Kashipur Clinic, Uttrakhand because she was diagnosed with breast cancer by a locally available doctor. The parents wanted to go to Delhi and consult doctors from some big hospitals. It was then when they got to know about Tattvan E-Clinics and they visited us, we got the teleconsultation done from a super-specialty hospital and after a couple of diagnostic tests and teleconsultations, the specialist concluded that she had what is called some calcified lumps, it was not breast cancer. The girl was given proper medications via teleconsultations. She is a healthy and happy girl. This I think was one of the major highlight moments for us.
Kindly brief us about your views on the current Tele-Medicine industry scenario.
The current state of the Telemedicine industry is nothing less than promising. With the telemedicine guidelines being published by the GOI, we have more players in this field, more people who are engaging with this medium of consultations, and almost every second hospital wanting to set up a telemedicine mechanism of its own. I think the time ahead is going to be very fruitful concerning telemedicine.
One person who you admire the most? And whose business story do you find the most inspiring?
Dhirubhai Ambani, came with nothing, he faced challenges and struggles with a dream to make it big and he achieved it. He makes a common man’s big dreams not only believable but also achievable. I admire him most as he always did things differently.
Constant vigilance- a need or a strategy? Please share your views.
Frankly, it is both, it is a requirement to know about the changing work dynamics, industrial standards, or geopolitical situations because it helps you strategize better for the future because like I mentioned, an Entrepreneur is not alone, he carries the responsibility of all those working with him. He or she needs to anticipate the future requirements either for the company’s growth or for his employees.
It’s a rat race out there. How do you cope with that?
By ensuring I stay connected with young and budding minds, constantly adapting to the changing times be it the technology, mindsets, working habits, and most importantly by ensuring that I manage and utilize my time to the best of my ability.
