The journey begins.
A couple of weeks back I completed my employee journey of 15 incredible years. The decision to move on to build something of my own was perhaps one of the most challenging ones that I took in my career.
Exuberance of the startup world is nothing short of scintillating that has its own share of challenges yet great fun, and amazing learning at times. However, to call it quits and starting something from scratch is a different ball game altogether. A lot goes in shaping up your mind to march ahead on this journey than on anything else.
None the less, the journey has started. To begin with all of this seems like some sort of matrix difficult to decode. Everything where I invested my time, whether on brainstorming the idea to finesse or to try and learn about making the idea market ready, all of it was indicating that the path ahead is going to be nothing short of vertically steep challenges.
I wanted to build something in the healthcare space — after identifying a lot of prospective options (say verticals within the space), we were clear that a larger problem that needs to be solved is the ease of consuming the service whether from the doctor or a specialist in the healthcare space like a psychologist or a psychiatrist. We all agree with the fact that everyone wants to maintain a good state of health. This is among the top human priorities represented in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As of May 2020, there is a great need for health-related products dictated by the coronavirus pandemic and worldwide lockdown.
Telehealth can help to support the healthcare system across patients, doctors, and medical establishments. The main assignment of telehealth services is to provide remote doctor visits, increase medical service efficiency, and monitor health conditions from a distance.
Here are some of the initial thoughts around which we will start building our product -
1. Availability of medical services
For starters, a telemedicine platform can provide healthcare service for remote regions with no access to clinics. NRHA states that there is a problem of healthcare personnel shortage. This is observed in rural areas especially (39.8 physicians per 100,000 people, compared to 53.3 physicians per 100,000 in urban areas). Telemedicine apps can help veterans, elderly people, school kids, etc. reach medical services easily.
2. Convenient and time-efficient medical care
No extra time should be spent visiting a hospital and waiting in line to get a preliminary doctor consultation.
What if you need to visit a few different specialists? This process could take ages.
Telehealth can be used to schedule an appointment for remote medical help. Patient and doctor can connect at the earliest convenience. So, the necessary treatment starts quickly and more effectively. Telemedicine applications may also have great applicability in emergency care.
Based on the Research2Guidance questionnaire, the majority of patients (53%) are interested in remote doctor visits or have already taken part in them.
3. Medical record keeping
Telemedicine applications help practitioners access and store medical data effectively. These days, it can otherwise be very difficult to access these records and transmit them to other doctors for better treatment prescriptions.
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the landscape of the healthcare industry upside down. Telehealth is now the primary goal of healthcare companies wishing to provide healthcare services to patients from a distance.
Before the pandemic, Statista predicted that the telemedicine market size would increase to $41.2 billion by 2021.
I strongly feel today is the best time to invest in a telehealth product, since this niche is still unoccupied, the demand for such services is growing and will continue to rise.
