Lybrate Healthcare App | Some interesting observations

The biggest challenge with digitizing healthcare in a country like India is trying to get medical professionals, especially doctors, to accept and embrace technology innovation. Given the nature of their work, the paucity of time and the demands on their continuous education, doctors and allied healthcare professionals have been hard pressed for a solution.

Until Lybrate – India’s first and largest mobile healthcare communication and delivery platform – appeared on the scene! Lybrate first appeared on the scene in the year 2013 has today become the most popular Healthcare App for both patients and healthcare professionals. With over 80,000 doctors registered on the platform and daily visitors of over 100,000, Lybrate has overtaken its rivals in the space to become the go-to solution.

Lybrate functions like a Zomato for healthcare. Users can register on the site and find information on nearby doctors, their services, ratings and clinic timings for free. The easy-to-use user interface makes it a breeze to filter and find the right options. Content powers the platform and user reviews are given utmost importance. A simple button also makes it possible for users to schedule appointments with doctors.

In the back-end, there is a fully functional CRM system that doctors and healthcare professionals can use to accept, schedule or reject patient appointments. This CRM system includes vertical-specific modules like appointment booking, scheduling, billing and prescription handling. Doctors choose from one of three monthly packs which given them incremental clinic management tools, marketing options and SMS options to reach out to patients.

In addition to the above subscription based model for doctors and healthcare professionals, Lybrate also makes use of contextual advertising on the App and Website to serve relevant ads to consumers. Free and paid online consultations also contribute to revenues.

In late 2015, Lybrate also tied-up with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) – India’s premier Association of Healthcare Professionals – to become their Digital Partner. Under the partnership spanning a year, Lybrate is tasked with providing technical expertise to the IMA, coach it’s 2.5 lakh member doctors in digital technology adoption, and expose the entire medical and healthcare fraternity better communication and treatment technologies.

Allied responsibilities include assistance with policy making and program implementation, especially in the field of e-Health and m-Health. This is especially important in a country like India which has a pathetic doctor-patient ration of 1:1700 – among the lowest in the world. Technology is the only solution to bridge this gap and it is indeed fortunate that players like Lybrate are taking the right steps in the right direction.