We have all faced long lines to take tickets in hospitals, wait for doctor appointment and again wait for list of test reports. Even after so, we are not satisfied and want to take second opinion with any other doctor. On top of that, managing our busy schedules for checkup and payments are more of a hassle. With all these existing problems, group of youths started an initiative to solve it through e-commerce platform venturing Hamro Doctor to solve the gap between service seeker and service provider. They have invested 50 lakhs till now with 11 shareholders.
Story Behind Initiation
Two teams of two companies; Mantra Ideas Pvt. Ltd. and Utkristha Media Pvt. Ltd. working independently merged to work on the venture, Hamro Doctor in 2015 and launched in 2016. Mr. Uddhav from Utkristha Media and Mr. Roshan from Mantra Ideas used to work in Kantipur Television. Mr. Uddhav used to work for health news as journalist and Mr. Roshan as technical specialist. They both started to team up with the group of other team members; Hem Shrestha, Ashok Basnet, Madhu Sudan Dhakal as acting members.
The team started with mobile application Hamro Doctor for android and IOS listing all the data and few services. Later they opened website platform for services hamrodoctor.com and online media for information hamrodoctornews.com.
They started with developing mobile application where users can get the data of hospitals, emergency numbers with their service, facility, doctors and equipment. To make it more efficeint for users, they added blood doors, health clubs, etc. For business perspectives, website was made as hamrodoctor.com. to sustain and long-term revenue along with database and upgraded app. They started health news portal where they can aware people and at the same time have revenue through advertisements. The media model has sustained Hamro Doctor so far with few daily e-transactions via consulting services.
Mr. Uddhav says, “We have explored huge business potential with technological innovations. The system is still in testing for all the services. However, all existing 5,000 users are getting the services of online consulting, second opinions, appointments, online payments.”
Right now, they are running Hamro Doctor website, Youtube channel, Ios and Android app. That was not enough to sustain in the early phase of the startup. Therefore, they started magazines of informative health news and issues. IT engineers, administrative, journalist all were in the team and they had to sustain all the way. In this way, they celebrated second anniversary with formal program and press invitation with almost 5 lakhs investment.
March 2016, wed and app, magazines was launched for sustaining model that increased revenue through magazine advertisement.
About Hamro Doctor
Hamro Doctor is the First Online Healthcare Service Provider from Nepal where patients can consult certified medical personnel and get additional health related services along with other information related to health online. Along with online consultation it also provides services like blood donation, online discussion and health feed.
One can get detailed, personalized research based and certified information along with expert opinions from qualified doctors. This service is used commonly in order to understand medical condition, diagnosis, treatment options or alternatives and recommendations for future therapeutic conditions.
Hamro doctor is also a virtual community where doctors and patients can engage in live chats and discussions in order to make things more convenient. Their facilities help patients understand their health better, make better decisions related to their health and find the best doctors and the best cure.
Features of Hamro Doctor
- Users who login either in web or in app, they can make storage of all medical records of them.
- They can consult with 500 doctors available.
- Doctors will have profile and recommendation from others.
- Pharmaceutical industries can login where they can market their products through available doctors.
- Hospital information with all the services is also available. They can update any packages of hospital themselves and pay through Hamro Doctor.
- Discussion forum where anyone can raise a question and discuss within the users.
- Online payment for online consulting package
From march 2018, the site was separated as hamrodoctor.com and hamrodoctornews.com as online media. Hamro Doctor app and hamrodoctor.com has personalized login system through which users can take online consulting with doctors, take appointment in hospitals. Similarly, second opinion from doctor for re-verification though uploading all document. Online payment has been added from 2018 through which one time payment of 200 rupees will give validation of 7 days consultation.
On the other side, doctors can login in the app. Doctors can register themselves claiming their identity through documents and evidences. They can share their experience, op-ed, etc.
Online consulting is on payment basis. Therefore, doctors after signing MoU with the company can only be available for online consulting
Challenges
Mr. Uddhav says, “There are challenges in operation, human resource, legal issues, small internet user market, etc. However, every challenge provides us much opportunities of innovation and opportunities in this field.” According to him, legally there are no laws made where users and company can avoid any accidents ad problems. He adds, “Though we pay tax, there are no laws to avoid any problems in future.”
Less internet users and online payment gateway is a challenge which is slowly improving in current scenario of Nepal. There are challenges to recruit members for new culture of e-commerce. The most challenge is to make support system of Hamro Doctor efficient.
The challenge is they can only give 20% answer to the queries they receive in social media and website. They have 2000 doctors registered but those doctors are busy and communicating them to ask for solutions will be delayed. He mentions, “We have to bounce many queries and now we are working on to how we can solve it. This has even given us hope for many opportunities.”
Linking service provider and seeker
Online solution to health problems have provided better services to users at remote places in Nepal like Khotang. They are able to take services and consult with doctor online without having to go in urban areas. Mr. Uddav says, “if the health problems are small and you want to take second opinion or you don’t know who to consult, where to go for check up for your health issues, online consulting can be easiest way to solve your simple problems. The patient in Khotang can consult with doctors in Kathmandu for their health problems.”
“The physical appearance in examination of definitely required. However, if online consulting can save time to be in line, make multiple test. If the patients have to go three times just for followup, they can now go only twice with direct communication. Moreover, there are huge number of people living abroad. Health advice to those people can be made through online consulting. In the first phase, at least they can know the issue and what they can do before going to hospital.”, he added.
Future Plans
Hamro Doctor team have future plan to solve problems through technology, making services paper less and giving better service to the users. The mobile app and website services are undergoing for upgrade version. Once the tests are over, they plan to promote in bigger scale.
Message to youths
Mr. Uddhav shares, “We complain a lot everywhere we go. However, we need to work in our skill and take action to change. Instead to follow the crowd, we need to look for untapped opportunities.”
Startups to support #skills2grow4life
By: Alina Prajapati
