India has amongst the best physicians in the world, across specialties. While many of them practice exclusively within a hospital, most have practices outside a hospital, either in their own clinics, or in other locations, which could be other hospitals, nursing homes or poly clinics. While their hospital practices benefit from the formal structures within the hospital, whether relating to technology use, or insurance coverage, their private practices have to deal with these on their own entirely. OPD Services in India are likely to grow at ~ 20% CAGR and physicians who raise their game by taking advantage of key areas like quality, patient engagement and technology will come out on top. Vidal Health is working closely with physicians to help them benefit from technology use, as well as become part of the insurance/third party payment eco-system
Market Access Services
Physicians have traditionally depended upon word of mouth referrals for new patients. Increasingly they seem to be taking advantage of various internet/online services to enhance their visibility to a new breed of digitally savvy consumers who search online for physicians. Vidal Health has a large captive customer base to which it can actively promote credentialed physicians who are willing to go beyond simply providing clinic based consultation into areas like online appointment scheduling, teleconsultations, and preventive health, targeting both new as well as existing patients. Vidal Health will provide such physicians with the technology tools and support they require to provide such services.
Health scribing solution for clinics
Of late there is an explosion in number of technology solutions that seek to help doctors capture patient clinical data for various purposes. While these solutions may be effective in hospitals which can assign staff to support the doctors in such data capture, in their own clinics doctors might not have the luxury to employ additional staff for this. Even if doctors are keen to use such solutions on their own, it is often taxing for the doctors to diligently key in all the information that is discovered during the consultation into any software application, however sophisticated it might be. Recognizing this, Vidal Health has invested in a technology platform that simply allows the doctor to continue doing what they are used to-write prescriptions. Vidal Health solution allows real-time capture of the entire contents of the prescription on an extremely secure cloud based server that enables this data to be used for various purposes, only by the doctors themselves.
Group Purchasing
As physicians increase the range of services they provide in their clinics to their patients, they will have to invest time and effort into procurement of materials and consumables required to provide these services. Their existing staff might not have the skills required for this activity. Also, given their moderate size, such clinics will be unable to get the benefit of quantity discounts that puts them at a disadvantage when compared to hospitals. Becoming part of a group purchasing program could reset this and help them deal with this more efficiently, and without having to invest in additional staffing. Vidal Health operates group purchasing programs that focus on the specific requirement of clinical establishments and can help clinics deal with procurement more efficiently. Vidal Health will provide easy to use technology platforms supported by services to help physicians transition their procurement without incurring any upfront costs.
Vidal Health member access to Out-patient Services
Increasingly individuals are being recommended a wide range of medical/health services, many of which might be delivered within a hospital, but do not require hospitalization. Services could include doctor consultations, lab investigations, expensive pharma therapies, counselling, preventive and well-being services, and many more. More often than not, individuals will pay for such services out of pocket (at this time most insurance policies do not include these services for coverage, though a few may be able to get this reimbursed later from the insurance company since their policies might cover these services) and will therefore seek convenient access to these services. Vidal Health has a large membership base across its stakeholder relationships, which regularly accesses these services. By integrating its various technology platforms with any platforms that hospitals might have already implemented, Vidal Health makes it easy for its members to access such services. Hospitals open to such integration will be at an advantage since their outpatient services will be more discoverable.
Appointment scheduling
For clinics that do not have customer facing technology platforms for convenient access to their services, Vidal Health can license its technology platforms that allow discovery of services, purchase, as well as appointment scheduling for such services. Vidal Health technology platforms go beyond just appointment scheduling, they allow customers to more precisely manage their entire visit to the clinic, as well as their waiting times.
Preventive Health and wellness solutions for patients
Increasingly individuals are taking a lot of interest in staying healthy. While the underlying objectives for this could vary from person to person, preventive health and well-being programs are being seen as a compelling way for doctors to not just engage with their patients, but also create new revenue streams from such services. These programs could include among others, health screenings, risk assessments, in-clinic activities, weight management programs, counselling, and many more. Over the last few years, Vidal Health has delivered such programs to a large number of individuals (many of them through large employers) which resulted in over a hundred thousand participants and yielded some amazing insights into the health status of the population, and allowed for targeted interventions. These programs can definitely help clinics create a more compelling narrative for themselves. Vidal Health can help the clinic with all aspects of offering such programs to their patients