Finally, an App to Take Care of your Healthcare Needs

According to a survey, for a middle class individual to step down to below poverty line, it is just one hospitalization away. So what we have done is, we have made fixed price comparative healthcare shopping facilities available for people, mainly for the middle class individual. Just like you do in e-commerce platforms like Amazon, you compare, select and book an item; you can do the same thing in our app.

Please tell us something about yourself and your business.

My name is Deepankar Bhattacharjya and I hail from Margherita, Upper Assam. I did my graduation from B. Barooah College and then I went to Delhi for work. I worked there for seven to eight years. I worked in companies like Honeywell. I was a freelance trainer after that for almost 10 years, training anyone and everyone starting from sanitation workers to government officers. Recently, I have launched this new baby, Zemidi, just four months back. This is a healthcare startup. I am one of the co-founders and Chief Operating Officer of this project. Right now we are just trying to take this to the people so that we can bring affordable and quality healthcare to all.

Are you from a technical background?

I don't have a technical background. However, our project is very technical. It is a platform-based project.

We have two more co-founders. One is Mr. Prodyut Bora and the other is Mr. Narendra Bisht. They have their experience in medical industry and other such ones. We have done a pilot project in Gurgaon, Delhi NCR in 200 hospitals and we have been very successful. Now we want to implement the same project here in Assam. We want to make it an Assam Startup.

Give us a detailed walkthrough of Zemidi.

Zemidi is all about bringing in fixed price competitive healthcare. What that means is that, in the context of countries like India or African countries, there is no fixed price healthcare. Now let's say if I talk about three segments of the society, one is the below poverty line who gets lots of facilities like Ayushman Bharat, BPL cards and things like that. And we have a niche class of clients. If they are fixed, they do not have to think about how much money goes into the Apollos and the Vedantas or the best of the best. But we also have the middle class individuals for whom hospitalization is a big scare. According to a survey, for a middle class individual to step down to below poverty line, it is just one hospitalization away. So what we have done is, we have made fixed price comparative healthcare shopping facilities available for people, mainly for the middle class individual. Just like you do in e-commerce platforms like Amazon, you compare, select and book an item; you can do the same thing in our app. Let's say you need a knee surgery, you can type in knee surgery and you can check the different hospitals giving in the different rates as well as the facilities provided and you can choose it as per your budget or as per your geographical proximity.

What was the inspiration behind the idea?

Entrepreneurship is all about solving different problems. Since I was into training, I was with students for about seven years. Prior to this I was in a University. I was posted in University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya. Therefore, whenever I see interactive students, we always talk about solving problems. So this idea evolved while we were discussing with other co-founders as well. The idea of bringing in a fixed price for healthcare facilities through the use of an app was a great idea to be involved in. We also felt the need for such a process as it also gives the consumer the par to choose the best service for themselves. We believe we can improve the life of individuals. We can provide them better services and we can impact their lives. So yes that's about it.

What are the kind of products and services available in Zemidi?

We have different products. We have services for most of the departments. Starting from Urology to General Surgery, Pediatrics, and ENT we have endless departments. Let's say you wanted some Orthopedics related service, you can just go the orthopedics department in the app, click it and choose the required treatment you want. Then the customer can choose from different centers like Prarthana Orthopedics; who offers it at one particular rate, Patna Orthopedics offering it at another particular rate, likewise many other hospitals offer at their respective rates. Additionally the consumer can also choose the kind of cabin they want, deluxe, semi-cabin, ac, non-ac, and single cabin. So it is like different packages that come with inclusion of various facilities. So a customer can compare the prices and check the respective facilities that come along with it. They can then further choose the best package for themselves.

We are trying to bring a disruption in the healthcare industry. We thought that why should it always be that the people who go to the Apollos or the Vedantas gets to experience the best of the services. It is everyone's right to experience the best of the services. We are not signing up with big corporate hospitals. We are signing up with small and medium hospitals. This is because we want to become the OYO of hospitals. OYO haven't signed up with Radisson Blu or Vivanta. They have signed up with small hotels or homestays and empowered them. Additionally, they have improved the quality and customer services. So we are going to empower these small hospitals and clinics. They can have more customers coming to them while also standardizing the quality.

How many hospitals have you collaborated with?

We have signed up with 10+ hospitals as of now. Starting from Hayat Hospitals to Marwari Hospitals and a lot of others in Guwahati. Recently we also signed up with Seven Sisters Hospitals from Goalpara. Additionally, we are also expanding ourselves to entire northeast to sign up with more hospitals. Currently we are based in Guwahati. However, our head office is at Delhi. Zemidi falls under Bonful Health Private Limited, under the Bonful Group of Companies.

What are the challenges or problems that you have faced?

Well one specific problem that we are targeting is to bring about a behavioural change. Now what happens is that you might book something from Swiggy, but you might not book a medical package through an app. Because it takes time to build that trust. It is a behavioural change that we are trying to achieve. Now just to give you an example, 10 years ago I would not be comfortable in sending my wife with an unknown driver. Now I can comfortably send her in an Uber or OLA. This is because I trust the brand and not the driver. That is what we are trying to bring about. We want Zemidi to become a trustworthy brand so far as healthcare is concerned. That is what we are trying to penetrate. We are setting up camps in many areas; we are going to the communities and talking to them. We are trying to come up with something called the Healthcare Mitra, i.e., who would be one person in every community or village or block, where this person would actually assist someone in healthcare. Therefore, these are few things in the pipeline.

Will these Healthcare Mitra be professionally trained?

They will be partially trained. Now let's say someone goes to one such person to do some test. For example Blood Pressure test. So this person will be able to tell the other person that you have a high pressure or your pressure is low. So they will be trained to be able to provide the primary assistance. After that they will go the next level, which is doctor consultation. We have collaborated with a company called the WeHealth for that. And after the doctor consultation we are there with all our packages. We have 350 plus packages as of now. We are trying to build an ecosystem, from providing blood to ambulance services, to bring it all under one roof, under one umbrella.

Is your app live?

We launched in the month of July. We have received almost 160 plus calls so far, which we have addressed and the customers are happy. Recently, our app achieved the milestone of 1000 downloads. So the customers are responding, they are downloading our app so that they can get this assistance. We are promoting our helpline number right now. We are taking up different strategies. Right now, we are providing a free doctor consultation. So if anyone needs a doctor consultation, they can book it for free through our app. Additionally, the customer does not have to call the doctor; our doctor will call the person. It will be a telephonic consultation. In addition, we are getting a lot of conversions like blood test, some cancer support services that people are looking for and basic primary care. We are getting around 70 to 80 percent basic primary care calls like headache, stomach ache, swelling throats etc. However, we are not receiving much package conversion. I think the wheel has started moving and as we are getting more calls, we are expecting more conversions.

How many employees do you have?

We are running in a very lean mode. We have an IT team consisting of two persons, including two more and me. So there are around 6 to 7 people who are actively working here on the field and off the field. We also have a lot of interns who are helping us, and that is how we are reaching out to people.

Have you received any government support from schemes or incubation programmes?

No, not till now. However, we have applied for VC to a few organizations. As of now, our company is running on funding raised by us. Because the co-founders round just got over recently and next we have the friends and family round. We have raised enough funds so that we can run it for the next three to four months. In the process we should get the VC fund. We are following an Action Plan and the strategy which needs to be followed for VC. Our company is valued at 3.75 crores, out of which we have liquidated around 10 per cent, which is Rs 37.05 lakh and we have raised about 70 per cent of that amount. And since we are running on a lean mode it should be enough to run it for the next few months.

Have you received any awards and achievements?

Nothing like that, as of now.

What is your take on entrepreneurship?

See, nowadays most people want to be entrepreneur. Before you become that, you need to understand that an entrepreneur is not someone who is just going into the market and making money. An entrepreneur is someone who drives his entire team and solves a problem which exists in the society, irrespective of how small, or big the problem is. Entrepreneurship is a journey where money becomes the byproduct. When we actually have the right solution to give it to the public or masses, money would come in regardless.

Secondly, if someone is trying to be comfortable, entrepreneurship would not be the right choice. We need people from each segment of the society for a developing ecosystem. Everyone cannot be anyone, that's why they have their respective choices. Few skills which are required in an entrepreneurship journey is the connectivity, how you build your network and communication skills. Tomorrow if you want to raise fund, you have to communicate effectively. If you want to raise funds and scale up your company, you have to build a good network of people. So networking is an important skill which one has to imbibe. And it is a long, continuous journey. One cannot be an entrepreneur and become a billionaire in a short span of time. This continuous process keeps on growing till the time you actually help people benefit from your products and services. So whenever you have the right decision, the right means and follow the right kind of ethics to achieve what you want, that is when you get to experience the real entrepreneurial journey. I would also say that you should enjoy the journey. After five to ten years you will have enough content to say on the stage and people wouldn't like to hear a comfortable journey. So that is how I personally feel about an entrepreneurship journey.

What advice would you give to our readers?

I just have one suggestion or advice. Napoleon Hill once said, "Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." I believe in this part of earth, we are scared of thinking. When I ask my students how long does it take to reach Delhi from Guwahati, majority of them states how it takes 3 to 4 days. Only a few of them talks about the 3 hours. So it takes a lot of time to even imagine the 3 hour flight. What I am saying is that if you are not able to visualize that window seat on a flight while taking black coffee from the airhostess, it is not going to come. So if you want to become anything in life, the first thing that has to happen is your visualization. Your photograph should be very specific and clear. If you have the photograph in your mind, everything is going to fall into place.

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