Healthcare Startups have revolutionized the healthcare delivery process for better patient experiences. The Indian Healthcare ecosystem is witnessing innovative disruptions that are solving big challenges of the healthcare system like Affordability, Availability, and Accessibility. Through this series, we aim to raise awareness about the impact of this initiative, the latest developments on this front, and the areas in which there is some scope for improvements.

Pankaj Sindhu is a successful entrepreneur with a proven track record of building startups and scaling them to a respectable scale. He carries a meaningful 18+ years of experience in the healthcare domain.

Pankaj started his entrepreneurial journey in April-2010 and by Mar-2016 he had created & exited from two successful startups in the healthcare space. Pankaj has moved on to his next venture WondRx in the healthcare space.

WonDRx is India’s first prescription exchange platform which enables prescriptions to secure storage and timely access of the relevant data to Patients

WONDRx is an innovation-based Health-Tech Start-up, based in Mumbai, Maharashtra (India).

WONDRx is conceptualized and executed with an attempt to integrate fragmented Healthcare Ecosystems in India & similar developing economies

WONDRx is a futuristic and smart solution that also helps to digitize the services of other healthcare partners thereby successfully creating a world of connected healthcare. 

All you need to know about WondRx

Pankaj Sindhu says, “There are 1.1 million doctors. According to statistics, 90 % believe in handwritten prescriptions. There are many reasons behind this. Typing is considered uncomfortable and time-consuming by doctors. We are not aware of the number of prescriptions being generated today. It is very important in this digitalization world. Prescriptions that are written on paper are sometimes misplaced by the patients. Also, there is no track of health records maintained by patients. 

Many healthcare startups have come up with apps and products. So, we have come up with an app for patients and doctors to record their journey and experience. 

Smart Rx in WondRx provides digitalization of prescription and voice records of doctors. Digitized prescriptions can be preserved for a long time and voice records can help them know about the dosage by the patient. It is an E-consult that can be recorded. The app also allows you to record the voice and monitor your prescription as documented by the doctor. 

There are much healthcare provides today- 

Lakhs of pharmacies  Diagnostic centers

These healthcare providers do not have the digital app in place, WondRx aims to provide help to these healthcare providers where they will get connected to the patient directly. With the WondRx app, you can get connected directly to the doctor and the pharmacy nearby. This is convenient for patients, doctors, and healthcare providers. This is an integrated system of networks for all of them that works for urban and rural areas. It is a revolution about various prescriptions every day, COVID trend, data control. This is all about WondRx.”

Paperless and digitized prescriptions 

Pankaj says,” WondRx provides customized and sample formats for the doctors which allow the patients to be engaged post clinic and during clinic time. So, this is a great doctor-patient experience.” 

Healthcare resources post COVID 

Pankaj states, “According to telemedicine guidelines, the prescription is must for every patient by the doctor. The prescription cannot happen on whats app or zoom. This is not considered the right form of prescription. Many doctors had to join through different modes of treatment, prescription, consultation, and professional fees. It was quite a disintegrating process. 

At this point, we have come up with a WondRx app that helps provide a kit that has E consultation embedded with advance payment and they get reminders at the correct time through voice calls. The digitalized prescription is also embedded which is received by the patients immediately and this helps the entire procedure to be compliant. Telemedicine is needed for the hour. In healthcare, physical and eye contact with doctor patients is a must which is good enough. Our product WondRx works remotely and in clinics as well. This helps in rural areas and urban areas.”

Challenges met by WondRx

Pankaj informs, “The best challenge seen is in the remote areas where there is reduced availability of infrastructure. The Internet is not available everywhere. All the more, it is not efficient enough to provide laptops and Ipads to rural areas due to lack of connectivity. In such cases, our digitized prescription works the best. The rural workers can take their survey easily with the WondRx App. This is a good product fit for rural areas. 

We have taken a unique initiative with “DORI” which is Doctors Of Rajasthan India. We have requested international doctors to come on our platform and consult patients online as our Indian doctors were very busy. We are connected with 18+ countries worldwide who have taken Econsult online. This is a unique initiative through technology.”

Offerings and funding by WondRx 

Pankaj states, “When we were on the idea stage, we got seed funding in July itself. Recently, we have raised another round which is about to get closed. We have completed two rounds by now and closed. WondRx is completely free for patients in terms of affordability, accessibility, and availability. There are many benefits for patients. Standalone healthcare providers are given 1 year complimentary to all the patients. Our motto is to democratize healthcare.”

Message for healthcare entrepreneurs 

Pankaj informs, “Let us build a product to find solutions to problems. It is important not just to build something futuristic but something useful for end-users. Some problems can be solved in a simplified manner. We have to find simple solutions to most complicated problems and our products will fit in the healthcare system perfectly.”

(Edited by Dr.Rati Parwani)