Interaction of E-Commerce and Healthcare

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START-UPS IN THE FIELD OF HEALTHCARE AND THEIR IMPACTS
1. Introduction
With the advent of Web3.0 and the “Internet of things” there is rapid change in the way consumers interact with the business touch points. The communication channel has never been so sublime and transparent. The change in the way the consumers see the business and demand the convenience has led to an entire shift in the paradigm in which industries operate. Healthcare Industry has not been untouched with this changing modulus operandi. Girish Navani, the CEO of eClinicalWorks, in an interview with ‘Forbes’ said that he envisions his company to emulate in the healthcare industry, what Amazon.com did for e-commerce.
I will keep the focus of the discussion limited to the Indian healthcare market which in itself is an $80 Billion industry and growing at an impressive CAGR of 15.7%. Also, it is estimated that till 2017 the Indian Healthcare industry will have reached $160 billion.
Understanding the potential of the Healthcare Industry is important in the context of why so many startups are focusing and investing heavily here and how this beautiful merger of e- commerce and Health care is the future.
Figure 1 Source – IBEF
2. Indian Healthcare start-ups
Ehealthaccess(now eVaidya.com): The founder of eVaidya.com(originally Ehalthacccess) Mr. Ram Prabhu says, ‘India has a billion un-connected patient population and currently there is no means to bridge the gap in the patient-doctor ratio. The solution should be common and still have differentiation to cater to health needs. I feel the solution for our healthcare should cater to 4 As - Applicable, Available, Accessible and Affordable.’EVaidya.com tries to solves this issue faced by the

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patients. The web portal gives the patients a platform to interact with the doctor of their preference no matter where they are located. They have already commercialized the telemedicine practice and hence are favorites to beat their competition. Mr. Prabhu is a big advocate of technology and appreciates the role of Big Data in the industry. Answering to the difficulties that he might face while changing the way the patients interact with the patients, he says, ‘Data plays a crucial role in the accurate diagnosis of patients. How technology can complement the doctor in taking informed decision will change health care for ever’. Because of advancements in this sphere, the patients are likely to gain more out of this new concept. The website has partnered with more than 800 specialist doctors among others who not only interact with the patients one-to-one but also are involved in making unique plans for families and pregnant women. With a 24/7 customer care facility, customer base of 40000 and a user satisfaction of 98.3%, the company looks set to achieve great heights. MeraMedicare.com: MeraMedicare.com is a brilliant concept which focuses on technologically driven logistics to facilitate easy and cost efficient way of delivering medicines and other pharma products at the doorsteps of the consumers. It is the first company to align capabilities of pharmacists’ network with e-commerce. The website allows any registered user to upload a doctor’s prescription on the website as a photograph. This prescription is sent to the registered pharmacists who sent back a quote on the availability and cost of the medicines to the user. Depending upon the time of delivery, cost efficiency and other factors, the user can select one of the quotes and ask for the delivery.
Figure 3 Source: www. meramedicare.com
This process is not only simple and easy to use but is also very convenient as it prevents the hassle of travelling to a pharmacist and waiting in the long queue to order the medicine. It also reduces the burden on the patient as well his family members/friends. The concept also enables and empowers the pharmacist by increasing their visibility to a larger
Figure 2 Source: www.evaidya.com

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network and increasing their reach. The easy access to the customers also enables them to quote a fair price. With the only boundary being their own disabilities the platform enables them to grow and also makes them aware of the competition around. Social blood: Socialblood is again a unique platform which capitalizes on the social media trend among the youth. It uses Facebook, a world where everything is public and everyone knows everyone, to organize a blood donation drive and emergency blood needs. The ‘commander-in-chief’, as he calls himself – Karthik Naralasetty says that Socialblood is an initiative to, ‘Make a difference without waiting for anybody else to take the step.’ On syncing the services of the SocialBlood with Facebook, there is a flow of information such as the city, place, blood group and acceptance to providing blood etc. Apart from this the user adds information like the geo- fence for notification of blood donation requests (basically how far are you willing to travel to donate like 5 km, 10 km or the entire city) and blood type. It then pulls up a list of connections that are already using the service. The platform is easy and convenient to interact with. There are filters on the top bar of the website which helps in narrowing down the requests based on the blood type and emergency. The map pulls up that information and helps users who need the information. Healthkart.com: Started by Prashant Tandon, and Sameer Maheswari, graduates from Stanford and Harvard University respectively, Healthkart.com aims to become the country’s premier health network. Since 2011, the organization has grown to become the destination online for health supplements, health, fitness and wellness products, elderly care and diabetes products, and sexual care accessories.
Figure 4

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Based out of Gurgaon, the online pharmacy network provides customers with access to consumer health products and services. Recently it has also started selling prescribed medicines. "Healthcare in India is an underserved and underpenetrated market. There is a huge demand," says Tandon. He is a stickler of profitability and ranks it parallel to the growth. The company has raised more than $20 million from a set of venture capitalists and investors and looks to be a major game changer in the healthcare industry in India.
3. Conclusion
The successful business model of the above start-ups exemplifies the way the healthcare industry is moving forward. With internet at disposal on the mobile devices, and the impact of social media the manufacturers have launched to utilize this platform before it becomes too crowded. And that is what makes sense. Even technology giants like Siemens have started their Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics e-Commerce not only to set a benchmark in the field of laboratory diagnostics but also to optimize supply chain management.
The examples also makes the case that e-commerce has the ability to transact some healthcare business more efficiently and cost-effectively. With the Internet as a delivery platform, several models offer improvement over the status quo.
Today, the total size of the e-commerce space in healthcare is not very big, which puts the platform as a perfect stage to grow and expand given that the consumers are ready to accept the change in the way the pharma industry operate. Convenience, cost optimization and hassle free online transactions are the differentiators that have made such businesses acceptable to the end customers and hence the prosperity and huge scope.