Finally, some help with those confusing prescriptions

Mobile alerts are not new. But imagine receiving your medical prescription on your mobile soon after consultation. Well, this is exactly what primary healthcare IT start-up mTatva is aiming to do.

Its founder-promoter Baljit Singh told Business Line that the company's flagship product — HealthPIE (Patient Information and Empowerment System) — enables healthcare providers to not just improve the Out Patient Department (OPD) yield, but engage patients effectively without changing the workflow of either the doctor or the patient.

“Say you have an appointment with the doctor today. Besides alerting you about the appointment, you will receive a text message post the consultation of the prescribed medicines, information pertaining to the illness/ ailment diagnosed and alerts for intake of the prescribed dosage,” he said, explaining the function of mTatva’s HealthPIE.

“Studies show that over 45 per cent of patients forget to take their medicines on time, which could at times lead to severe health complications. Further, elderly patients often come out of the consultation room only to peep in again to clarify their doubts or to show a lab report.

“mTatva’s solution helps by providing adequate information about the ailment. We currently have an information bank of over 150 common ailments. We also give the patient a detailed report of his/her ailment, which is available both on print and online. Such records can help patients get a second opinion, if need be,” he said.

Asked how safe it is for doctors to share medical records with companies such as mTatva, he said “once the patient record is created, we will not have any access to information, as the records can be accessed only through individual login. The security standards and encryption techniques used in our products are the same as those used for online banking,” he said.

The company has tied up with a Telerad RXDX multi-speciality clinic at Whitefield in Bangalore, and serves around 1,200 patients every day.

“We are in the process of partnering with three well-known hospitals in Bangalore. We are aggressively looking to take our solution to other cities as well,” Singh said.

mTatva is contemplating to provide multi-language SMS support, he added.

Citing a Frost and Sullivan study, he said: “India’s healthcare IT market is expected to hit $1.45 billion in 2018, which is three times the market reached in 2012 ($381.3 million). Given this scenario, we are quite positive about mTatva’s growth.”