With a population of over 1.3 billion scattered across urban and rural India, the country poses a unique healthcare challenge. According to a report by the United Nations, 75 per cent of all healthcare infrastructure including medical specialists and doctors is concentrated in urban areas where only 27 per cent of the Indian population live. Added to this is that private hospitals and quality healthcare are limited to urban areas.

A lack of affordability, accessibility, and awareness surrounding healthcare services throughout India continues to inhibit the penetration of quality medical services, especially in rural regions and tier III urban centres, where the majority of the Indian population lives. Most specialized physicians and high-end healthcare facilities are concentrated in large hospitals in tier I and tier II cities, resulting in unequal access to care, particularly regarding the latest medical technologies.

Worldwide, healthcare systems are turning patient centric. Patients are also now getting digitally empowered, with a smartphone in hand and access to information technology. They desire good healthcare and personalized treatment. India is now adopting 5G technology.

The doctors’ clinics have almost zero data on patient outcomes and medical records. This is partly because medical insurance covers only the hospital business. Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are digital versions of the paper charts in the clinician’s office. An EMR contains the medical and treatment history of the patients in one practice.

In the future, India will witness a complete spectrum of the healthcare ecosystem wherein small clinics will co-exist with home healthcare and large sophisticated hospitals. The trend is pointing towards more and more homecare, ambulatory and emergent care services outside of the hospitals. The focus is also shifting towards a preventive approach from a curative approach.

Medibriefcase

With the healthcare value chain becoming more and more integrated and patient-centric, we, Dr. Anuj, Dr. Judhajit, Dr. Abhay, Ms. Shayanti, and Mrs. Jagrata, have formed a firm under the name of Medibriefcase.  We are working with a Ranchi-based software development company to develop a digital solution, which can be accessed via smartphones, to make the healthcare ecosystem available and accessible to the patients and doctors working in deprived and remote areas at par with the urban centres. Mr. Indrajit is our mentor. This digital solution is especially aimed at meeting the healthcare ecosystem requirements of backward states like Jharkhand.

The further details will be disclosed as the solution is developed and launched. The unique feature of the proposed digital solution is that it is being developed in Jharkhand by the doctors and healthcare professionals of Ranchi for the patients and doctors primarily in the state of Jharkhand, using their hands-on clinical experience, the needs of the patients, and their zeal to provide easy, accessible, affordable, quality healthcare to one and all in Jharkhand. We will expand the reach of the solution to other parts of the country based on our experience in the state of Jharkhand later on.

Medical Check-up Camp

In our endeavour to make quality healthcare available at smaller centres and to the deprived sections of society, the Medibriefcase has organised a free medical check-up camp on 19 October 2022 at orphanage — Vatsalya Dham — at village Chhatarmaru in the Ramgarh district of the Jharkhand state. Dr. Anuj, Dr. Abhay, and Dr. Rahul along with me were there in the medical check-up camp. My father, my wife, and Rajnath uncle were there to support us in registration and basic health data collection.

Thirty children and others attended the camp. A few came from the nearby villages. At the end, we had lunch with the children of Vatsalya Dham.

This was our first camp, and the response was quite encouraging. It was a good learning experience for us and we are planning to organise more free medical check-up camps at various other places in Jharkhand in the coming days and keep our mission continuing.

Acknowledgement

We sincerely acknowledge the cooperation and support of the Managing Committee of NGO Abhiyan, Mr. Amit, Mr. Manoj, and Mrs. Ambika Rani to help us organize the camp. We also appreciate and acknowledge the encouragement and support provided by Mr. Indrajit Roy Choudhury, Mrs. Tania Siddhartha, and Mr. Rajnath Mahato.