Tech For Health: The Practo Way

With Covid-19 becoming a tipping point for business, the startup that helps people find and consult with doctors is doubling down on expanding and deepening its tech platforms

- Harichandan Arakali

Kalpana V, a Practo user, found herself in need of a doctor for her child at a time when she was in a village near a coastal area. There were a cyclone and rain, and going to a doctor in the closest town would have been difficult. Practo, an app for finding and consulting with doctors, came to her aid. Kalpana’s internet connection was patchy, so she got a call on her phone instead of from a doctor, and got a prescription as well, she wrote in her review of the app last November, on Google’s Play store.

Instances like Kalpana’s are less uncommon today in India after the Covid-19 pandemic pushed millions of people to seek doctors online, from the safety of their homes.

“India is going through this revival of our understanding that a lot of health issues are inter-connected,” says Abhinav Lal, co-founder, and chief technology officer at Bengaluru’s Practo. Practo, which offers various health services under the same brand name, is doubling down on making itself the go-to online platform for people to take a holistic approach to their health, rather than seek doctors in an episodic manner, he explains.

SHIFT TO DIGITAL HEALTH CARE

When the pandemic came, “whatever growth we expected over the next three to four years, we saw more than that happen in the last 10 months,” Lal says.