Do you have a splitting headache but no time to go to a doctor to check if it is a symptom of something serious? Do you have a problem you are too embarrassed to speak to a doctor face-to-face about? Barely eight months old, new healthcare startup DocsApp seeks to provide people with issues like these a platform to consult a doctor on the go. All you need is a smartphone and the DocsApp app, and a doctor will be online with you within 30 minutes.
“We first conceptualised the service when we realised just how many health-related issues do not need a face to face meeting with a doctor to be resolved,” said Satish Kannan, co-founder, DocsApp, adding that 72 per cent of health issues are minor and can be diagnosed and treated without a face-to-face interaction.
Kannan and his IIT Madras classmate D Enbasekhar launched DocsApp in July 2015 to address issues and leverage the opportunity in three target segments — those who were too busy and find no time to go to a doctor, those too embarrassed and those in small towns with a distinct lack of specialists.
DocsApp is simple. The service puts you in contact with specialists in several disciplines — Gynaecology, Sexology, Peadiatrics, General medicine, Psychiatry etc — once you specify your ailment or symptom. If you are not sure of your ailment, DocsApp will assign a relevant specialist based on the symptoms specified.
In less than 30 minutes, DocsApp connects you with a doctor whom you can consult with, either through the chat option that the app provides or through the call button.
“Once you hit the call button, the doctor will call you for the consultation. We currently have 500 plus MD holding specialists enrolled with us,” said Kannan. DocsApp has increased its user base to more than 70,000 currently and connects 500 customers with doctors every day.
The rates per consultation are Rs 150, except for Sexology or Psychiatric consultations where one consultation costs between Rs 250 and Rs 500. “These two segments have consultation duration typically running to over 30 minutes,” said Kannan, adding that these two segments have seen a significant percentage of customers.
DocsApp has already gone through two rounds of raising funds to get started, with investors like IIT Madras Incubation Cell, the Rural Technology Business Incubator and Medall chief executive officer Raju Venkatraman participating in the exercise. According to the founders, one more round of fund raising to provide additional capital is currently in the works.