Sirish Singaram is the Founder of Swasth. They are a multidisciplinary group of the top physicians, technologists, and healthcare specialists in India, with the goal of providing cheap healthcare to every home in the country.

Swasth Healthcare startup

Sirish says, “Swasth is the team of doctors, healthcare experts, and technologists with a vision of bringing affordable and accessible healthcare to every home. In health in general there are two big problems.

We have been taught since our childhood that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Although apples are good for health, it doesn’t keep the doctors away. This has really changed our mindset and the way we think. This way we have developed the fear or phobia of doctors and we only go to medical establishments or doctors if we are very sick or can’t be treated with home remedies. As a result, these small issues end up developing into much larger issues. But what has proven to keep the problems away is the regular engagement with medical professionals.” 

“The second problem is that if you do want to interact with doctors on a regular basis, we really don’t know where we have to go, and whom to trust. For every small query, you can’t visit hospitals, we end up googling health information which really leads to a lot of anxiety and stress.” 

More about Swasth Circle

Sirish describes, “Thus we launched Swasth Circle, easy-to-use pocket hospitals to change the health dialogue between patient and doctor. This was to empower every household with their very own Swasth circle. And using this Swasth circle app patients can subscribe to their very own trusted Swasth circle for a small subscription fee. After this, you will have access to one dedicated family physician whom you can contact anytime and anyplace. The family physician is basically like your friend in need. And also, within the circle, we have the most empathetic doctors across all specializations like nephrologists, neurologists, cardiologists, and more. You can access any specialization with just a single click. 

In addition to this, you also have a Swasth health assistant whom you can use for any assistant that you require, need a hospital bed or surgery to be scheduled. He is the assistant to all your health-related help. You can also book lab tests and medicine delivery directly from the Swasth Circle app. A trusted network of doctors is just a phone call away or a message away. Especially at swasth, we focus on removing stigma, and the fear of doctors. 

We try to build the relationship between doctors and patients. Our family physician engages patients on a regular basis so that the patient gets comfortable with them and builds a bond of trust and confidence. At Swasth, our aim is to build such relationships so that patients think the family physician is just another member of the family.” 

Sirish adds, “Patients do have to go to the hospital, for this also, we have products that help doctors manage their outpatient departments and clinics. Currently, we have 250 doctors in our Swasth ecosystem and have conducted more than 15,000 consultations over different platforms.” 

Swasth USP

Sirish states, “Nowadays there are a lot of healthcare startups in the market. We still have a multitude of reasons as to why we are different from others. They are

• We have the best doctors available on our platform. All the 250 doctors are the most empathetic and caring doctors. 

• In other telehealth startups, you get random doctors but in Swasth, we are really building relationships between patient and doctor. We want patients to get comfortable with doctors so much that they can ask anything from doctors. We want patients to have a network of doctors in their pocket whom they can trust blindly.

• We allow doctors to create their informal networks and also use our networks. It becomes easy for them to refer and manage patients.”

Client base

Sirish informs, “We have seen 15,000 patients through various platforms across different 18 specializations. We are able to save lives through our apps and patients are getting benefited enormously. 

We have decided one thing since its inception, we will keep it completely bootstrapped. We want to grow organically. The best growth is sustainable growth. Everything we have earned is invested back in the company.”

Goal and future expansion

Sirish mentions, “The Swasth’s vision is to make sure every single household has access to affordable and quality healthcare. All should have a circle of doctors whom they can rely upon and trust. Our short-term goal is to expand to tier 1 and tier 2 cities. We really want to impact the tier 2 and tier 3 cities.” 

Advice for the budding entrepreneur 

Sirish concludes, “The most important thing is to be passionate about your product and really love the product that you are building. Along with passion, be persistent as well because as failures come in, passion does fade off. Put everything that you have.”

(Edited by Renu Gupta)