Lead

Pioneering mobile healthcare

With the introduction of mHealth, Dr. Batra's has pioneered an innovative healthcare delivery system that facilitates homeopathic treatment over the mobile phone. By Nivedan Prakash

Mobile phones have brought about a revolution in the way we communicate, work and access information. It’s no wonder that new technologies are being constantly developed to leverage the popularity of this platform. The mHealth initiative developed by Dr. Batra’s, perhaps the best known chain of homeopathy clinics in the country, is an effort to make healthcare facilities easily available to patients through their cell phones.

Talking about the mHealth initiative, Dr. Soundararajan, CIO and IT Head of Dr. Batra’s, said, “mHealth is the first initiative of this sort that has been taken up by a homeopathic organization in India and it highlights how the innovative application of technology can help make healthcare solutions available to the masses.”

mHealth or ‘homeopathy on the mobile phone’ is a service that provides multiple facilities to mobile phone users who want to avail of homeopathic treatment from Dr. Batra’s. The system allows patients to register using their mobile phones and submit their case history in brief, chat online with doctors from anywhere in the world, request or reschedule appointments, locate the chain’s clinics, and commence or renew treatment plans. Patients can also order medicines to be delivered to their homes and make secure payments through their cell phones.

The health clinic believes that mHealth will reach out to one of the world’s largest and fastest growing communities of mobile users, effectively using this medium to provide prompt healthcare access to the over 45 crore mobile phone users in India. This WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) enabled service is notable for offering free consultation to any mobile phone user, irrespective of whether or not this person is a patient of Dr. Batra’s.

Dr. Soundararajan pointed out that the rationale behind this enterprise was to ensure that there was a qualified and recognized doctor whenever you needed one. mHealth was a conscious decision that was taken to reach out to different segments of the Indian population and provide them with expert opinions and homeopathic treatment instantly on their cell phones. Patients do not need to register to avail of services such as figuring out what type of treatment they want to take or to locate a clinic—these services are free. However, some services—such as treatment for a particular ailment—require registration (the creation of a user ID and password).

“Basically, we give all the details to the new patients. For example, how they can approach the clinic, information about their ailment or clarifications regarding the same—all of these services are available to them,” stated Dr. Soundararajan.

How this technology works

A WAP proxy sits between Dr. Batra’s Web server and the end user’s mobile phone converting HTML to Wireless Markup Language (WML) for mobile users so that they can access the information that they need on their phones. Information about health services is also provided to users along with access to treatment. When you connect to a wireless network and request access to a WAP-enabled site, your mobile phone sends a request to the nearest cell tower from where it is routed via the Internet to a gateway server which, in turn, translates the request into the Web’s standard HTTP format and sends it to the site in question.

When the site responds with HTML documents to the gateway server, these are converted to WML and routed to the nearest cell tower from where they are transmitted to your WAP device and the phone’s browser displays the relevant page.

“They can go online with the help of any GPRS phone [with a working data connection], and gain access to our clinic and services. We have developed an offline model as well, wherein patients who lack a GPRS connection can send an SMS to 9022400093 to get all the information related to Dr. Batra’s,” commented Dr. Soundararajan.

Patients can seek out any information that they require by using a GPRS data connection to access www.drbatras.com on their phone. The patient will also get the exact location of the nearest clinic on a map, and what its timings are amongst other things. “Whereas, in the offline mode, the patient will send us the requirement and in return we will SMS a menu through which he or she will get a fair idea of all of our services. The SMS-based service is platform independent,” added Dr. Soundararajan.

Registered patients with GPRS-enabled phones can reschedule an appointment, get medicines delivered to their doorstep or can take feedback from the doctor. Registration can be done online wherein the prospective user is allotted a code and then he or she becomes eligible for the usual services.

“With regards to payments, we have registered with a secure payment gateway and all payments done through this WAP-enabled service are secure,” said Dr. Soundararajan.

“Technology has always changed the face of healthcare delivery for the better. Over the past 27 years, Dr. Batra’s has brought about a shift in people’s perceptions towards homeopathy, successfully creating acceptance for this healing system’s holistic approach that treats the individual rather than the disease,” he added.

The chain opened its first computerized clinic in 1982, followed by a Cyber Clinic in 1996 and the Tele-Homeopathy Clinic in 2008. India has a mobile user base that encompasses most working adults. Keeping this fact in mind, this launch reemphasizes the organization’s commitment to providing timely and accessible homeopathic healthcare solutions that would benefit patients across the length and breadth of the country, averred Dr. Soundararajan.

The technology team at Dr. Batra’s is positive about mHealth’s prospects. It believes that modern technology can change the perception of homeopathy in India by introducing innovative techniques that cater to the needs of a developing nation.

nivedan.prakash@expressindia.com