Himanshu's HealthTech Journey: Building Digital Solutions for Accessible and Affordable Healthcare in India

I started my journey in the HealthTech space in 2015 with a platform called “MeraDoctor,” which means “My Doctor.” The platform offered chat-based consultations with doctors to discuss any health concerns in India. It also provided an anonymous, encrypted chat option for sensitive topics like sexual wellness, allowing users to maintain privacy. The platform initially focused on health concerns that people were uncomfortable discussing in person. During our research, we discovered that users preferred not to share their names or personal details to ensure anonymity. To make the platform accessible and comfortable for all age groups, doctors could assist patients via phone calls, in-app/web chat, and even WhatsApp.

Within India’s rapidly evolving healthcare industry, the goal was clear: make it easy for everyone to have high-quality health conversations over the phone. Just a few months after launching the app for live messaging with doctors, the platform had helped over 300,000 people connect with quality care.

Another insight we gained was that users often sought advice from people who had experienced similar health concerns. Patients were also looking for home remedies and alternative treatments instead of relying solely on drugs. To bring that offline experience online, we launched health concern-specific communities within the app, where users could ask questions, share suggestions, and post health-related articles and videos.

Designing the Experience for Doctors and Patients:

The first thing I did was sit down with the doctors associated with the platform to understand their daily routines, consultation experiences, and how they addressed patient concerns. I also spoke with the customer support team, shadowed a few consultations, and interviewed both patients and potential users to understand how they discovered the platform and what they expected from the consultations. I prepared an analysis to identify gaps and opportunities and developed a tiered list of focus areas to build a seamless care delivery platform, ensuring that both the financial viability goals and key offerings were met.

I began by mapping the healthcare ecosystem and identifying the platform's role within it. After that, I quickly sketched, prototyped, and tested different solutions with stakeholders and users to find ways to address the problems. We conducted surveys, focus group sessions, and field studies, and I observed offline doctor-patient consultations. From research to MVP launch, we completed everything in just 15 days. Our focus was to get the experience into users’ hands, observe, and then improve. We created fast iterations to continuously refine the experience.

Staying focused, iterative, and agile were the key ingredients in building a platform that provides affordable care to everyone. MeraDoctor’s dedication to its core values—reliability, integrity, simplicity, and compassion—along with its proactive approach to regularly contacting customers to ensure their good health, stood out compared to many other services in India.

In two years, MeraDoctor’s highly trained MBBS doctors advised thousands of people across Uttar Pradesh, offering consultations by phone from its medical call center in Mumbai. One notable case involved a patient from Lucknow who called about persistent pain and swelling in her legs. After thorough probing, MeraDoctor guided her toward diagnostic tests that revealed congestive heart failure, which led to life-saving treatment.

In 2015, I worked on the MVP design for PharmEasy, an online medicine delivery platform. This was a completely new concept in India’s healthcare space, where patients and caregivers could buy genuine medicines online at affordable prices. We designed a guided, one-step-at-a-time experience for users to easily place orders for their medicine needs according to their prescriptions.

The Indian Healthcare Ecosystem in 2015:

At the time, there was no real healthcare ecosystem in India, and awareness about medication was lacking. Patients and caregivers often didn’t ask for prescriptions (Rx) from doctors, focusing more on getting medicines quickly to cure their ailments. People stored their prescriptions in files or folders but rarely referred to them, often refilling medications without consulting doctors. This led to patients taking medications for years without proper medical guidance. Pharmacies would refill orders based on empty medicine strips or bottles, and patients were generally brand-conscious, preferring well-known drug brands over generics.

The offline pharmacy associations were resistant to online pharmacies, as they feared it would affect their sales. Additionally, there was the issue of users coming to PharmEasy without prescriptions, which made it illegal to sell Rx drugs.

I spent nearly a decade at PharmEasy, working on the mission to make healthcare services affordable and accessible. We realized that we had to build everything from the ground up because there was no existing system or ecosystem.

1. In the first version of PharmEasy, all patients and caregivers needed to do was take a photo of their prescription, upload it, add their address, and choose a payment method to place an order. The app was first launched in Mumbai.
2. We began studying how patients and caregivers viewed medicines and prescriptions.
3. We created educational material to raise awareness about the importance of prescriptions and why it’s crucial to order medicines with a proper Rx.
4. We launched a doctor consultation platform called DocStat, which connected patients with doctors for teleconsultation and e-prescriptions to fulfill customer orders. We guided customers on the importance of maintaining online prescription records.
5. In India, prescription information formats and regulations vary by state. We designed a rule engine that worked in the background to validate prescriptions according to state-specific healthcare laws and presented relevant information to pharmacists.
6. We transformed our order-level digitization system into Rx-level digitization. This internal tool, used by hundreds of pharmacists, helped validate and process handwritten prescriptions, which made up 99% of the prescriptions we received. It also enabled us to track prescriptions at the patient and dosage levels, improving overall accuracy.
7. To simplify reordering medicines, we built an internal tool called "Medicine Tank" that digitized prescriptions, making it easy for customers to find and reorder medicines with just a few clicks.
8. We launched a salt/composition awareness program to address issues of dosage adherence, educating doctors and patients on the importance of prescribing and understanding the drug’s composition.
9. We created informative drug product detail pages that included rich information about drug interactions, symptoms, and alternative drugs, complete with images of tablets, capsules, and liquid forms. This initiative increased conversions and improved the overall user experience.
10. We introduced several experiments to improve the ordering experience:some text
    1. Order on chat: a bot-based chat experience that helped users place orders and connect with pharmacists for updates.
    2. Hinglish Chat: We recognized that Hinglish, a blend of Hindi and English, is the most commonly used language in chat across India. In response, we launched a chat experience that allowed users to interact in Hinglish, making the platform more accessible.
    3. Interactive Medicine Storage Box: In our study of patients and caregivers, we discovered that they often keep previous order delivery packets to reference the Order ID when refilling medicines. To address this, we developed an interactive medicine storage box.
       1. How It Works:
          1. We researched and purchased one of the most popular medicine storage boxes/containers available on Amazon.
          2. We then integrated the box with hardware featuring a SIM card and patient-specific information.
          3. The storage box has an external button, allowing patients to easily request a refill.
       2. Key Features:
          1. Storage Capacity: 80% of the box is reserved for storing medicines.
          2. Refill Request: When patients feel they need a refill, they simply press the button twice. This triggers an automated email to the PharmEasy support team, and the patient will receive a call within 10 minutes to confirm the refill order.
          3. Design: After testing multiple options, we chose a large red button for its ease of use, ensuring it is simple to press for all patients, including the elderly or those with limited dexterity.
11. To improve dosage adherence, we built a dosage reminder feature that automatically populated based on the prescription details.
12. As PharmEasy grew, we faced scaling challenges on the operations front, primarily due to the lack of healthcare-specific supply chain and logistics systems. We designed supply chain systems for warehouse, pharmacy, order, and logistics management to bring efficiency to operations, helping PharmEasy scale rapidly.
13. Loyalty program for Consumer: Problem Statement: Low adoption and renewal rates among PLUS members. Approach to Identification: Comprehensive analysis of user interaction data and behavioural patterns from the homepage to the cart checkout. Methodology: Utilised a combination of user feedback, heat map analysis, and A/B testing on the Landing Page. Adopted a content-first design strategy.

‍