New Delhi: Taking use of technology, an Indian entrepreneur has developed a tool which can be used as a “virtual clinic” for availing healthcare facilities sitting at home, with just a click on his/her cellphone, 24×7.
Manish Chhabra, born in India but now an Australian national, has launched a mobile application named “Shifa Care” which can be used for medical consultations with local as well as specialist doctors from across the world sitting at home. It enables doctors and practitioners to manage their patients, consultations, diagnoses, record keeping, prescriptions and time, wisely, nationally or internationally (NRI doctors).
The application is in a pilot phase as of now, but 4,000 doctors have already registered their interests and the numbers are increasing every day, Chhabra told The Sunday Guardian. The patient will have to pay Rs 500 for the first consultation. The “Shifa Care” application allows the patient to connect with any doctor or multiple doctors for multidisciplinary care in 60 plus Indian languages from smartphone via video call to get diagnosis, second opinion, consultation, prescription and get the medicines delivered to his home.
“There are times, like in the midnight, when you need medical advice. There are other moments also when it is difficult for the patient to move out and visit the doctor physically. The application provides the solution as one can get connected to the doctor immediately and get consultation from him through video conferencing. This takes care of the first, urgent requirement of the patient. Subsequently, he can consult second or third medical opinion for further clarification and follow-up,” Chhabra said. According to him, it will be like “Uber for healthcare services”.
Chhabra is a trained molecular biologist and Harvard Business School alumnus in big data and deep machine learning. He has 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical sector in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region in sales, marketing, key account management and general management with profit and loss accountability. He said the application aims to develop the healthcare ecosystem in India with the help of new-age technology and solve the issue of shortage of specialised doctors in tier 2, tier 3 cities, especially in rural India. “Shifa provides you the comfort of comprehensive care at your doorstep. Based on your convenience and your choice of doctor and pharmacist at any given time, you can receive medical consultation and prescription through smartphones. The application is built with full HIPPA (Health Information Portability Protection Act-USA) and allows any patient to connect with any doctor or multiple doctors, for multidisciplinary care in 75 Indian languages from smartphone,” he said.
Talking about the name of the application, Chhabra said “Shifa” means “healing”, which means a spiritual blessing to help others heal or “being a healer”. Chhabra plans to launch the services in Gulf countries for which he has already held negotiations with the authorities there.
The idea behind the application was coined to facilitate the best medical solutions to people in need of affordable, yet quality healthcare. The application service dispenses accuracy and transparency within one professional standard-lined medical domain. “Shifa Care” claims to be the world’s first multi-user and multilingual healthcare provision in one application.
With the technology interface, doctors and pharmacists in the Shifa network, diagnose patients, suggest treatment and make medicines available from smartphones. Through Shifa application, patients in rural areas can access specialists from cities using its new five-way video consultation ability. This is to be noted that on a population of seven billion on Earth, there are only 15 million doctors which translates to a doctor-patient ratio of 0.2%, that is, 466 patients per doctor. In India, there is only one doctor for a population of 14,000.