Health-tech application Practo is moving beyond teleconsultations and doctors’ appointments, and on to facilitating secondary care surgeries such as appendectomy, kidney stone removal, and others. In a press release on September 23, the company announced the development, saying that it has already started the service, called ‘Practo Care Surgeries’ in 6 cities – Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad – and plans to expand to more cities and add more procedures.
The move marks a shift for the company from offering purely digital services to digital and physical services. At present, its end-user services include teleconsultation, appointment booking, ordering medicines, and booking medical tests. The company reportedly earns revenue by offering a suite of software for doctors, clinics, hospitals, and diagnostics labs on a software-as-a-service model apart from letting institutions advertise on its platform.
What is ‘Practo Care Surgeries’ ?
Practo describes the service as an ‘omnichannel healthcare ecosystem for secondary care procedures’. This, according to Practo’s website, involves expert surgeons, advanced surgical technology to conduct surgeries, personal care assistants who will facilitate the entire process including post-operative care, and financial assistance with no-cost EMIs, discounts, and support for insurance policies.
The company says that it would implement this through partnerships with doctors, clinics, and hospitals. While it is unclear how these ‘partnerships’ would work, Practo says it has already onboarded 200 surgeons onto its network and conducted consultations with over 5,000 patients in the last three months that it has been operational. These doctors, it says, will have more than 10 years of experience.
In its statement, the company hints that its patient loans facility will also be available on the service and that it will expand the service to tier-2 and tier-3 cities. It may also partner with insurance companies for the service, to simplify ‘paperwork’.
MediaNama has reached out to Practo with a list of queries on Practo Care Surgeries and will update the story when they respond.
Expansion of Practo’s services
While this is the latest expansion of Practo’s services, last year, Practo’s co-founder Shashank N said that they recorded 170 million users on its platform, with a 500% rise in teleconsultations. During that time, the company also began Covid-19 home testing in Mumbai and entered into partnerships with insurance companies. In its latest statement, Practo said that it plans to facilitate Rs 1000 crore worth of healthcare financing in India over the next three years.
Also read:
- NDHM Consultation: Practo says UHI could enable healthcare monopolies
- Govt telemedicine platform eSanjeevani alloted Rs 100 crore
- Summary: India’s Telemedicine Guidelines 2020
