LinkedIn-esque app for doctors helped save lives after Nepal earthquake

When you're sick, you can choose the doctor who treats you. If that doctor can't handle your case, he or she refers you to another doctor. On what basis does the former recommend the latter? Is it word-of-mouth, friendship, or former acquaintance? Generally, doctors rely on their ad hoc professional network based on friendship and goodwill, rather than experience and professional acumen, for patient referrals.

Imagine a doctor having access to an extensive and refined network of medical professionals at his or her fingertips. They can access this network to recommend the best specialist or super-specialist in the city for their ailing patients in a few minutes. Imagine if this network was pan-India or even global. This is what this Gurgaon-based startup called Curofy aims to achieve -– create a LinkedIn-like app for doctors.

Back in 2012, around midnight, a group of three engineering IIT Delhi grad students decided to start their own venture. Pawan Gupta, Mudit Vijayvergiya, and Nipun Goyal initially experimented with a medical tourism company, which achieved a fair bit of success. The idea evolved over time, as they interacted with numerous doctors and other industry stakeholders. They uncovered a huge gap in the way doctors interact and collaborate, and decided to bridge this gap with Curofy.

The network of healers

The company's app helps doctors discover other doctors in the city, or other cities, in a quick, efficient and spam-free manner, through its online directory. This way, a general physician can refer his patient to the best specialist in the city, based on academic qualifications, professional acumen, and experience, in a matter of minutes. The doctor can even chat or call the specialist to make an informed decision.

"This collaborative learning and networking app also features a content sharing module, which allows doctors to share cases, trending news, and discussion topics with other doctors from their specialty, hospital, or city. Data safety is among our foremost concerns and we are working on technologies for secure sharing of patient information that's compliant with laws," says Goyal.

The company recently assembled a team of 10 medical experts to treat the Nepal earthquake victims. The recent earthquake in Nepal tore down the country, killing more than 8,000 people and injuring thousands more. Victims required immediate medical attention for their injuries and to ward off malnutrition and disease outbreak. In the wake of this disaster, numerous organizations and NGOs rushed to the aid of the victims; so did Curofy.

"We sought interest from our community for volunteering in Nepal, and the response was overwhelming. The team consisted of super specialists and general physicians. For seven days, the team worked in remote villages, tending over 300 patients a day, including military and police officials. They were able to save countless lives and provide hope to the disaster victims," Gupta tells Tech in Asia.

The growth pie of Curofy

Curofy received its seed funding at TiEcon 2014, the annual conference for all stakeholders in the startup universe, sponsored by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). Some prominent angel investors like Rajul Garg (Sunstone Business School, Global Logic, Pine Labs), Alok Mittal (JobsAhead, Canaan), India Quotient, Spice Labs, Dinesh Agarwal (Indiamart), Dr. Shuchin Bajaj (Cygnus Hospitals), and Presha Paragash (Zostel, Sol Primero) have also invested in the company.

"With our seed funding, we managed to build this product and a strong team of 25 engineers and doctors. We are now ready for our next growth phase. Though we have been approached by many VC firms since our app launch in February, we recently started engaging with some of them. We are looking for the right set of investors who possess proper understanding of the healthcare industry," says Goyal.

The company has empaneled more than 3,000 doctors from across 50 cities in its database within a short span of time. It has also partnered with almost all the major hospitals in Delhi including Apollo, Medanta and Primus.

"We have proven the model in regions in and around Delhi. Now we plan to raise more funds to scale up and reach out to all the major healthcare hubs of India," says Vijayvergiya. The company recently entered the Gujarat market and added the doctors in the region to its network.

The company faces some strong competition in the domestic medical networking market, with players like DocPlexus and DailyRounds already around. DocPlexus, founded by Phanish Chandra, has a strong network of over 75,000 medical professionals in the country, providing peer advice, secure collaboration for patient treatment, career opportunities, and medical updates. It also plans to launch a broad drug database and a free video conferencing tool for real-time interaction with doctors.

Bengaluru-based startup Daily Rounds boasts a network of over 45,000 doctors. It recently raised seed funding worth US$500,000 from Kae Capital, Teruhide Sato and GSF.

Rohan Desai, an Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) graduate, started a network for medical professionals called Plexusmd.com, which serves as a job portal for doctors.

Gupta however believes that Curofy is fundamentally

different from its competitors. "Their focus is content, while ours is to provide a network that enables coordinated care," he says.

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