Good health is a necessity for every individual. However, numerous direct or indirect factors affect the health of people to the extent of endangering life itself. Some of the factors include changing climatic conditions, air pollution, water pollution, traffic, a sedentary lifestyle, junk food consumption, stress, and many more. People generally remain careless until they experience any symptoms.
Regardless of the developments in the healthcare sector, there still exists a gap between patients and their accessibility to the right healthcare services. There are professional healthcare organizations that provide feasible and affordable healthcare services, including diagnosis, consultation, treatment, and recovery procedures.
Indus Health Plus Pvt Ltd led by its Joint Managing Director, Amol Naikwadi, offers exactly the complete plethora of services, thereby opening the vistas of healthcare to the people and spreading awareness about preventive healthcare. Indus Health Plus has been trailblazing the preventive healthcare and wellness industry since its inception in 2000. With the aim of making quality healthcare available, accessible, and affordable, Indus Health Plus has taken its services across the globe.
Environmental changes and sedentary lifestyles have resulted in a rising number of non-communicable diseases, affecting all age groups. Early detection of such diseases is the best way to prevent them and lead a happy life. Keeping that in consideration, Indus introduced DNA wise, a personal genetic test that studies your DNA to give a complete analysis of your body type, risks, and recommended lifestyle. Indus is backed by a team of compassionate, capable, and dedicated personnel to cater to the health needs of everyone. Headquartered in Pune, Indus has its presence in Metros, Tier I, II and III cities of India.
In an interview with the CIOLOOK India team, Amol elaborated on the idea behind starting Indus Health; the challenges tackled, risks taken and successfully mitigated, and his vision of taking the organization in the future period.
Please brief our audience about your company, its USPs, and how you are currently positioned as one of the best Healthcare Providers.
Indus Health Plus is a pioneer in preventive healthcare. Indus Health Plus offers genetic testing, lab-based solutions, pharmacogenomics testing, and high-end preventive health check-ups at affordable prices across the country. Established in 2000, Indus is the first in the preventive healthcare category to popularize CT scanning technology across a broader demography. Indus Health Plus is determined to live up to its motto of making quality healthcare ‘Available, Accessible and Affordable’ every day. Indus Health Plus is India’s only healthcare provider focused on prevention and wellness. It has also extended its healthcare services in UAE.
Tell us more about Indus Health Plus’s offerings and what aspects make it stand out in the cutthroat competition.
Indus health plus has recently launched MEDNAwise testing that helps to understand which drug suits you best, manage your treatment and increase its effectiveness. MEDNAwise can also be used as a predictive, personalized medication guide for those who like to be one step ahead.
One more offering is the DNAwise Wellness, an empowering test that decodes the information encrypted in your genes and can offers insights about the unique genetic tendencies of your body. Parameters like Health, Nutrition, Fitness and Habits and help in personalizing your wellness. We were among the first few organizations in the world to launch COVID Genetic Test. This report will help you understand your genetic risk for COVID-19 infection and its severity of it. Indus Health Plus also offers pharmacogenomics, lab-based tests, and various health checkup packages. It also provides doctor’s consultation and counseling, health-risk assessment, customized wellness programs, and personalized services. With its vast network and partnership with hospitals and diagnostic centres, Indus is present in Metros, Tier I, II and III cities of India.
Please brief us about your journey in the industry and how have you made Indus Health Plus excel in its niche.
Well, I am a CA by qualification. I began charting Indus Health Plus’s story and guided it to rapid expansion throughout India. I piloted Indus successfully for two decades, which is a testimony of his management skills and leadership. Indus continues to grow with its genuine product innovation, all thanks to our central vision. Growth is at a healthy double-digit year-on-year; a strong core management team is in place; rapidly expanding delivery centers, that are reaching out to more customers daily. Indus Health Plus has been conferred with Assocham CSR Excellence Award 2014 in the SME and another category for the outstanding CSR activities undertaken. I am glad to share about getting applauded with the Service Provider Company of the Year Award 2013 during Frost and Sullivan India Healthcare Awards in September 2013 for preventive healthcare and the ‘Special Commendation’ for the ‘Golden Peacock Business Excellence Award’ for the year 2013.
When Indus Health Plus was founded, there was limited awareness about preventive healthcare. There was a more ‘curative’ approach rather than preventive. Preventive Healthcare available at that time was not affordable and accessible to the masses. We started Indus Health Plus with an aim to encourage individuals and society to adopt a healthy lifestyle through our health awareness initiatives, establishing prevention as a culture within the society.
With our vision to become the most preferred organization in the healthcare industry, we are continuously striving to ensure that quality healthcare is made accessible to households even in Tier II and III cities. With our pan India presence, today, we have reached multiple cities across India with the same cost and experience everywhere. Along with that, we have the latest and most intricate preventive healthcare technology, like genetic testing, available for all age groups, across all regions.
Indus Health Plus’ services are available at an affordable price, substantially lesser than the medical tests conducted elsewhere. All our services are under one roof – the entire testing process, reports, and counselling are completed in a single day – such is the all-around advantage that Indus is proud to offer its consumers.
Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies like AI and ML is impacting the Healthcare space and how is your company adapting to the change?
The healthcare ecosystem is beginning to recognize the significance of AI-powered technologies in the newest medical technology. The operation and delivery of healthcare processes are thought to benefit from AI. For instance, the ability of AI to reduce costs for the healthcare system is a critical factor in adopting AI applications. Machine learning improves access to care, adding more value in treatment options, and helping personalize treatment, and with the help of that, each patient are able to avail effective treatment.
Indus Health Plus offers services and solutions backed by the latest genomics and pharmacogenomics technology. The organization aims to transform and shape the preventive healthcare and personalized medicine segment through these innovative approaches. To enhance the overall process and make it more robust, Indus Health Plus also provides an automated bioinformatics pipeline that experts develop; it also allows integration of the analyzed results into the HER/ HMIS/LMIS through APIs. Lastly, generating easy-to-understand, multi-lingual, and guided customized test reports is an outcome.
Considering the current scenario, what initial challenges did you face, and what are the challenges now that you must overcome?
For us, the challenge was to develop an integrated model to combine the strengths of hospitals, diagnostic centers, labs, and path services with a holistic approach to deliver an affordable and comprehensive preventive health check-up to the masses. Apart from the regular challenges of resource allocation, faced by every new enterprise, the initial challenge for us was to sensitize people about the nature of NCDs and make them aware of their own lifestyles. Another major challenge was convincing doctors, hospitals, and diagnostic centers to partner with us.
The major challenge for us even today is the lack of awareness among people towards genetic testing and its relevance in preventive healthcare. We seek to promote awareness about genetic testing and its benefits in preventative healthcare. If the disease cannot be detected on time, it can impact a person’s financial and mental condition. Preventive health check-up helps in identifying the abnormalities on time, leading to timely intervention and early treatment.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the Healthcare space?
Since covid-19, the healthcare industry has shifted towards technological advancement, and now people are more aware of their health conditions. In the preventive health check-up segment, the demand for genetic testing and personalized medicine have been increased as it helps in effective and timely treatment. This segment has massive career potential as it will rise in the coming time. Other than this, Medical Tourism in India will see huge growth in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Multi-specialty healthcare is another growth opportunity.
Single specialty healthcare—such as eye care, dental care, fertility clinics, and oncology are opportunity areas that should be considered. Segments like diagnostics facilities, which are very fragmented, have great growth opportunities. Medical device firms that innovate will also be very interesting. Firms developing intellectual property in medical technology will be the ones to look out for in the future. Healthcare information technology and mobile health are also growing fast in speech recognition, analytics, and revenue cycle improvement areas. Electronic medical records are yet another opportunity. We are at an inflection point, and there will be a tremendous opportunity for growth in several segments of the healthcare industry.
How do you envision scaling your company’s operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?
We will be expanding in more tier-2 and tier-3 markets as we have been observing a positively growing trend towards preventive in these markets. In the first phase, we focused more on Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Gujarat, and in the next phase, our focus will be to strengthen the culture of health and wellness across India. We currently have MEDNA-wise, DNA-wise, and home collections available pan India and corporate wellness solutions. Hence, we intend to take all our services to the next level in the coming months.
