Technology is the messiah that makes everything easy for us. The COVID19 pandemic has increased the need for remote healthcare solutions. In this scenario, Connect2MyDoctor is empowering the healthcare sector with, innovative and comprehensive offerings. Connect2MyDoctor is a comprehensive virtual care platform that manages all the logistics in the care process. The platform has been designed and developed ground up to be secure, intuitive, user-friendly, cost-efficient, and relevant.
Connect2MyDoctor uses technology as the mode to deliver high-quality telehealth care to patients. The compelling idea is simple: healthcare demand and supply are not matched. The current model insists that patients present in-person to a location of the doctor’s choice or use nonclinical tools like WhatsApp video, FaceTime, Skype, etc.
Connect2MyDoctor addresses multiple use cases of connecting tertiary and primary care, remote patient triage, homecare, ambulatory care, and direct to consumer telehealth.
In a talk with Mr. Pramod Kutty, Co-Founder & CEO at Connect2MyDoctor, he shared his views on the current industry scenario and what Connect2MyDoctor offers.
What were the initial challenges you faced?
In 2015 when I had to consult a specialist for my daughter the waiting period was too long due to the holiday season and the busy schedule of the doctor. During this time, I spent time on Dr. Google to research the condition and also connected with doctors overseas via email and WhatsApp. The whole experience of scheduling the appointment, making payment, sharing reports, etc was so cumbersome, that I thought that there has to be a better way to do it.
I started speaking to a few friends and realized they had similar issues to get connected with specialists, getting a second opinion, avoiding going to the doctor for follow-up visits because of the waiting period, traffic, busy schedules, etc.
I also spoke to over 50 doctors to understand their side of the story and realized they had concerns about data sharing, privacy, getting remunerated for consultation, platforms being easy to use, etc.
The conclusion was that the process of care was more complex than the actual care itself. This gave the idea of building a platform for patients enabling them to be closer to care and for doctors to create a secure, easy-to-use, clinically relevant connected platform.
Which was that point that triggered the growth of Connect2MyDoctor?
We have been working on Connect2MyDoctor since 2015. During this time we spent a lot of time speaking to doctors and patients understanding their needs and wants both in terms of better patient care for doctors and enabling patients to manage their health better. We onboarded around 800+ specialists across 20+ specializations and started working with around 7+ specialty and multi-specialty hospitals across India and UAE.
We supported over 15000 patients across the globe enabling them to get easy access to their own and new specialists over video and many of them who decided to travel for further treatment. In 2019, we were among the 10 high-growth companies to get incubated into Australia’s first med-tech accelerator program the MedTech Actuator. We also raised out pre-seed funding.
Until then we have been a self-funded company. Since 2019, we have seen tremendous growth with Connect2MyDoctor being LIVE across 35+ hospitals in India, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Turkey, Oman. We are also running some trials in Australia and South East Asia.
How have Connect2MyDoctor graphs changed since the foundation? Can you share a few statistics?
- 2015 – Start of the company
- 2016- Beta release of the platform. Trials in multi-specialty hospitals in India
- 2017 – 18 Onboarded 800+ doctors across 20 specializations. Commercial deployments in India, UAE, Bahrain
- 2019 – Incubated in Australia first Digital Health accelerator, Raised Pre-Seed fund
- 2020 –
- Work with 2000+ doctors across 40+ Specializations
- Services live across 35+ multi and super-specialty hospitals in India, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Turkey, Oman
- The Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI) has selected Connect2MyDoctor (C2MD) as its preferred Telemedicine/Telehealth Partner. As part of this association, 10,000+ Member hospitals and clinics of AHPI are invited to take advantage of this collaborative arrangement by working with Neev Labs (via Connect2MyDoctor) to improve their respective services and outcomes for patients via telemedicine
What is the reason behind Connect2MyDoctor’s long-standing success?
- Focus of the domain and product
- Being Nimble and Hunger to move forward (speed is temporary)
- Perseverance
- The great team that we have managed to build who have supported us all along
What are the products/services Connect2MyDoctor focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market?
Connect2MyDoctor uses technology as the mode to deliver high-quality telehealth care to patients. The compelling idea is simple: healthcare demand and supply are not matched. The current model insists that patients present in-person to a location of the doctor’s choice or use nonclinical tools like WhatsApp video, FaceTime, Skype, etc.
Connect2MyDoctor is a comprehensive virtual care platform that manages all the logistics in the care process. The platform has been designed and developed ground up to be secure, intuitive, user-friendly, cost-efficient, and relevant.
Connect2MyDoctor addresses multiple use cases of connecting tertiary and primary care, remote patient triage, homecare, ambulatory care, and direct-to-consumer telehealth.
How are we different? (As heard from our customers)
- Product User Experience (Easy to Use)
- Product Features and Capabilities (Clinically relevant)
- Team – Nimble and Easy to do business with
Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share?
While we are deploying the solutions in various hospitals across multiple geographies there is fine-tuning and feature development as an ongoing activity. We are running some trials and would be investing our time in Remote Patient Monitoring.
What do you think are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur?
I would not say responsibilities but key traits
- Be Passionate
- Be Perseverant
- Don’t burn bridges in your journey, you never know who can be of help
- Focus on effort; Results will follow
- Be the leader of the ship and take people along
Can you please brief us about your professional experience?
Pramod is an experienced New Product Development Manager and Technology entrepreneur. Pramod fulfilled the responsibility of launching new products across multi-channels and geographies. His core strengths have been New Product Development, Product Evangelist, Business Development, Teambuilding, and Cross-functional alignment. Key areas: Mobile, Internet, Digital Health.
At Connect2MyDoctor, Pramod bootstrapped a world-class telehealth platform ground up and engaged with some of the largest multi-specialty hospitals in India and the Middle East. Before founding Connect2MyDoctor, Pramod had been assisted clients in Healthcare, Media, and Beverages domains across Melbourne and Dubai to launch products on the Web and Mobile.
Before relocating to Melbourne, Pramod worked at Omnicom Media Group (NYSE: OMC) Dubai as a Business Manager – Mobility. He managed the entire responsibility to launch the business unit, build the practice, recruit and train the team, and lead the business development. The business unit went on to create several award-winning products for some of the largest clients in the network during his time.
You are not out there to prove anything to anyone. Be good and Do good; Results will follow…
Before Omnicom, Pramod was hired to launch the Asia and the Middle East business at July Systems (Now part of Cisco) as Sr. Program Manager. He worked with major telecom and media companies in the region to help them go mobile. He was responsible for overall business management, marketing, revenue maximization, and relationship management functions for the allocated region.
He also played an active role in launching IPL (India’s most popular Sports league) on Mobile which was selected as 1st place for the “Mobile International” category at the 2010 Mobile Excellence Awards. Other finalists included Conde Nast, EA Mobile, and Warner Bros.
Before July Systems, as one of the first Product Managers of OnMobile, Pramod joined as an Account Manager and later then went ahead to head the Data and Messaging business.
What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?
I come from a product development background were being observant, having the pulse on this requirement, looking at the big picture, and learning on the go is very critical. Connect2MyDoctor is a similar story. I don’t come from a Healthcare background so no old baggage to carry, it is a clean slate. So from there to build a product that touches many lives and enables doctors to provide their care across all physical boundaries, I consider it an achievement.
And all credit goes to our partner hospitals who believed in us and continue to work with us to the new associations, patients who we have been able to serve directly or indirectly along with my team that I have been able to build is something that keeps me going forward.
How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?
We look after each other. The team that has been with us from the very early days is very proud of their contributions. Together we keep the customer interests first and this has been the success of the organization and helped us build a world-class platform.
Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight?
We have a very supportive relationship with the customers – hospitals, doctors. We understand each other and work together to ensure that the patient who is the end customer gets the best. This relationship has helped us to co-create many platform features which add value to the overall offering.
Kindly brief us about your views on the current Tele-Medicine industry scenario.
The concept of TELEMEDICINE isn’t new or unfamiliar, but it seems to only NOW be reaching a critical mass, building towards the tipping point at which mass adoption takes hold.
As mentioned earlier, today the process of care is far more complex than the care itself. For a 5-10 min consultation with the doctor, the whole process of arranging home, work, traffic, parking, waiting period at the doctor’s office, etc.
We truly believe that care is best given in person, but the care provided via telehealth is truly complementary to the care process and never a replacement. Most suited for first-time consultation, the second opinion, follow-up visits, medical report reviews, repeat prescriptions, home care, post-procedure care.
In the initial days one of the patients from Dubai who used the system sums up the benefits/experience – Pramod, I have bought tickets online, ordered food online but never have I imagined that I could consult with my doctor from Tirur, Malappuram sitting in my living room with my family. Thank you very much for supporting us.
One person who you admire the most?
There are many…but Richard Branson for the way he did things differently and Simon Sinek for the optimism that he drives
Which is the most inspiring quote you have read?
Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life! – This is so very important as start-up founders we burn out trying to get things going and moving forward…it is very important to know that building a company is like running a marathon and not a sprint.
