A portal for your health needs

Sonal Sachdev says he chose Bangalore for his health website because he felt the adoption of a new e-habit is likely happen faster in namma silicon valley

August 03, 2014 07:39 pm | Updated 07:39 pm IST - Bangalore

MAKING IT EASY And online

MAKING IT EASY And online

Have you ever put off a doctor’s appointment or procrastinated over a blood test because you haven’t had the time? The health portal saralhealth.com is here to set it all right with just a click on the mouse. Launched a month ago in our fair city, the portal offers a range of services from booking doctor’s appointments, to diagnostic tests, getting insurance and home health care. There is also a provision for maintaining health records, getting alerts, buying health products from the e-store and an ask-the-doctor section. The CEO of saralhealth, Sonal Sachdev, talks about initiative.

How did the idea for saralhealth.com come up?

When you are new to a city and pressed for time, finding good medical practitioners and labs, fixing appointments and getting tests done can be quite an ordeal. I went through this when I moved to Mumbai for the first time from Delhi with a new job as Executive Editor at NDTV-Profit.

My son fell ill and we knew no one around. Our health ecosystem in Delhi was very strong — my wife’s brother is an ENT surgeon and his many friends were always a phone call away. Coping with a new job that required you to keep near 24x7 timings and my son’s ailment proved to be quite something and I thought why can’t access to quality healthcare be much simpler? My colleague in Bangalore, Nandita Datta, also had quite trying experiences trying to locate a good home nurse and a wheelchair most suitable for her mother-in-law. Our personal experiences provided us with the conviction to start saralhealth.

Why did you start with Bangalore?

Bangalore is the IT city of India. The natural conclusion is that adoption of a new e-habit will likely happen faster in the city. The city also boasts of a high migrant population and therefore the lack of established health ecosystems for many working here and coming to the city for employment. I have seen more hoardings for hospitals in Bangalore than in any other city. This is just one indication of the phenomena.

How do you decide which hospital/diagnostic centre to tie up with?

Credibility is the cornerstone of our offerings. We have partnered the most reputed brands in healthcare, including Apollo, Fortis, Manipal and Sprash-Narayana. Across segments, we seek feedback from various quarters before signing a partner on. While our prominent partners are extremely helpful in enabling this, we also have a network of practitioners we consult.

Most people would prefer to go to their family physician and see the expert he suggests...

Very true. But that’s also why we are starting with Bangalore. With so many of us moving cities during the course of our careers, it takes time to set up the ecosystem afresh in a new city. This is where we come in. Besides, it may happen that your GP doesn’t know someone in a specific stream personally — say, an ankle specialist. That is where we can help you zero in on the right person. What is more many people in a new city will seek a second opinion before taking a significant decision regarding one’s health. There too we can assist.

Don’t lab tests need a prescription?

Patients should get tests done only on prescription by a qualified practitioner. Once you know the test prescribed, you can book it online. The prescription should be shown at the lab or to the visiting technician.

Could you tell us about the online health store?

We have over 5,000 products at our online health store, which are offered at significant discounts to prices charged by offline stores. Besides, you can choose from a wide range of products like wheelchairs, for instance, that won’t be feasible for an offline store to stock. Orthopedic supports, mobility aids, monitoring devices, nutritional supplements, ayurveda and homeopathy products are some of the categories available for purchase online for doorstep delivery.

Taking an appointment for a consultation or a medical test, never ensures it will happen at the particular time. How does saral plan to work around this?

The challenge is with doctor’s appointments, due to their nature of work, not really in case of lab tests. If you book a home collection at 8 am, the technician will be at your doorstep at 8 am. In the case of medical practitioners, some of them also perform surgeries and attend to emergencies. It is quite possible that due to such a call your appointment might get delayed. While we have no control over such exigencies, we try and ensure the patient is informed in advance — so far as possible — to prevent inconvenience by rescheduling the appointment.

Saralhealth.com also provides medical insurance. How does that work?

Saralhealth.com has partnered Insuring India, a health insurance broker, to facilitate online access to health insurance products from all the leading players in the country. Once you select and confirm your intent to purchase a particular health insurance policy, the health insurer whose product you have selected will get in touch with you to see the process and documentation through.

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