In the second chapter of our series of interviews with key stakeholders across the Indian healthcare industry, we spoke at length with Abhimanyu Bhonsale, Co-Founder and CEO at Livehealth — one of India’s premier laboratory information management system (LIMS) service providers.
We talked about the diagnostics industry; the role of LIS providers as drivers of change within it; and about how COVID-19 factors into the diagnostic experience.
The interview began with Abhimanyu talking to us about Livehealth and what they do. Having started in 2013, Abhimanyu explained, they set out with the broad vision of democratising diagnostics so it’s accessible, useful, and affordable for everyone. This meant standardising the data that goes in and out of the industry’s records. They knew that diagnostics was the most easily scalable part of the industry, and therefore attempted to make use of data to the best of their ability to achieve that change in scale. Their labour of 2 years saw customers streaming in to make use of their affordable, cloud-based, SaaS offerings.
Speaking about how they’ve seen the industry change, Abhimanyu recognised that the healthcare industry is massive and so complete change will take some time. Nevertheless, he explained, they have definitely seen change right from the start, change that continues to happen. Working with the broader goal of converting all diagnostic labs to a cloud-based setup, something that they internally call ‘cloudifying’ labs, the integration of all the pre-existing user data and diagnostic tools are essential to achieving their goal of making this industry efficient and affordable for everyone.
Abhimanyu also expanded on the importance of having this broad idea of integrating everyone — he said that diagnostics drive all clinical decisions, and so the industry would be much better off if these decisions were made reliably and quickly. This will make diagnostics a core part of everyone’s life. In this area, the existence of companies such as Niroggyan and their SmartReport excites them, because they know that this all contributes to better utilisation of pre-existing data in the healthcare sphere.
When asked about the changes that Abhimanyu plans to see in this industry ten years from now, he postulated that test centers are going to be very active.
Expanding on the earlier stated premise of healthcare being available everywhere, he added that accessibility with the arrival of delivered testing kits is going to make a huge change in the industry. Abhimanyu feels that this will create a surge in data points available within the industry, which will then drive people to build AI-based solutions within diagnostics. He feels that if one were to know the complete medical history of their family members, they could have vastly better diagnostic and treatment experiences.
On current issues that he expects resolved ten years from now, Abhimanyu spoke at length about how currently, a lot of diagnostic labs don’t employ people who can work on IT infrastructure. He explained that this creates bottlenecks in productivity, such as one that we are currently seeing during the appearance of a global pandemic. He believes this problem would gradually go away, as they have seen technological adoption going up ever since their product came onto the market — something that they also observed via noticing commensurate growth in their customer base.
On SmartReports, Abhimanyu said that he most appreciates the fact that above anything else, they help customers make the most out of their data.
SmartReports take chunks of information and make them understandable for the user in a clear context, which helps the industry grow. Speaking of Niroggyan’s efforts in the area, Abhimanyu said that he loves the fact that we are just as excited about making changes in this industry as they are.
He feels that having introduced a high-utility product, the next challenge that awaits us is the idea of making SmartReports the essential market element that it can be.
With all his experience, he feels that Niroggyan’s biggest impact area — of engaging with the patient first — is an important part of any customer’s experience. Livehealth is excited to see where we go next with our product offerings. Having worked with us to integrate our services onto the same cloud architecture as theirs, he described the process as being quite pleasant.
We wish Abhimanyu and Livehealth the best of success in their voyage towards making healthcare as democratised as possible.
Lab test reports are essential. We are sure you knew that before, and if not, COVID-19 must have done that by now.
At Niroggyan, we know how important your health is. Our products in the form of user-friendly lab test reports are meant to improve health awareness & better living. All so you can live a better life.
We provide seamless API integration with labs, integration that’s fast enough to get your business up and running in just a couple of clicks. Visit us at niroggyan.com to know more.
