9 out of 10 or 90% of Indians suffer from low health literacy. Lower health literacy translates into patients failing to seek timely medical help. In countries like the USA and UK, the health literacy rate is around 50%. Still, the USA suffers from the loss of $200 billion due to the ‘cost of ignorance’.

The diagnostic sector has been a boon in India’s healthcare as it lends value-based and timely health insights. This sector has undergone many upgrades including home collection and online report generation. Yet the contents of this report can only be interpreted by a qualified medical practitioner. Patient counselling in India depends on the practitioner and the institution. This leaves many patients unable to clearly know their own health details.

Knowing that good health can only be achieved by clearly understanding one’s condition, Shweta Gandhi and Joyneel Acharya decided to make smarter reports. The IIM graduates decide to build a healthcare SaaS startup that makes the reports smarter for the patient. Launched in 2019, NirogGyan develops SmartReports that help patients easily understand their own health reports. 

The Gurgaon-based startup uses graphs, dashboards, clear explanations and tips while preparing one’s pathology lab reports. Being visual, digital and available in multiple languages help patients understand their health in detail and improves their communication with their doctors by 90%. They have made the reports by using the feedback from 90+ labs and 80+ doctors. 

In July 2020, the startup received TIDE 2.0 grant. In 2021, they raised an undisclosed seed round from Arindam Haldar, Teji HS, Sumit Bagaria, BITS Pilani's startup incubator PIEDS (Pilani Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Society) and others. They crossed 2 lakh used in December 2020. Their website says they have entered 4 countries and have generated 3 lakh reports across 40+ labs. 

Their industry advisor is Girish Mehta and have partnered with diagnostic providers like MAX Lab, Practo, CrelioHealth, IQVIA, Itdose, Dr. B. Lal Clinical Laboratory, Dr Dangs Lab and Al-Arab Medical Laboratories.

The reports gives the patients access to their own health. Knowing about one’s health in details helps one develop an attitude to make effective longterm changes. Will such innovation help Indians take charge of their own health?