PlexusD

In a developing country like Bangladesh, we often hear how our healthcare system is a mess, prolonged, and due to which many lose out on their lives. 

We end up blaming the entire health system for being late. Where technology and life remain backdated, it is obvious to have a slow and lagging healthcare eco-system. An outbreak of any epidemics ends up taking lives of many because, by the time a solution approaches, it’s too late.

Looking into the depth of the pain and hassle of both parties, a health tech startup, called PlexusD, came into existence with its revolutionary healthcare intelligence application This gives access to the patients and assists doctors by analyzing and integrating patient’s healthcare data to make treatment decisions effectively and efficiently with the help of AI during the treatment period. 

Every hour almost 30 people die in Bangladesh die just because, they don’t have  access to healthcare. That’s almost 263,000 people per year. This, shouldn’t be the case. Every souls that have been lost, should have been able to live a happy, fulfilling and healthy life. Now, if a patient from Bangladesh wants to visit a doctor, He/she’ll have to spend 3-4 hours just waiting.

Thus, typically, people in Bangladesh, opt for short-term solutions when it comes to health related issues; which may seem okay now but it is detrimental for their health in the long run. This is the case, as there is no easy access to certified doctors in short notice. 

PlexusD’s services will enable both patients and doctors to save precious time and help the patients to gain proper guideline from outset  regarding all healthcare-related problems starting from making an appointment digitally to saving your medical records by providing cloud back-up, e-prescriptions, digital billings.

Shadow researches in public and private hospitals say that patients face problems regarding access to healthcare from the tertiary level. The hospitals do not keep the patients' record, so a patient has to incur the same cost if they lose the files. The reports do not come on time; the billings are not transparent.
PlexusD, as a healthcare Intelligence application will be able to solve the issue of the scenario stated above, which will, have a profound effect on the society as a whole. The patient will be easily able to find specialized doctors who are expert regarding the patient's problem. It will reduce the hassle the patients face during the initial treatment period and the time spent finding a doctor. The doctor will be able to access the health and the medical record presented in an organized manner, allowing the doctor to make effective and efficient treatment decisions regarding the patients. Furthermore, the AI part of PlexusD will aid the doctor in identifying and treating the patient's conditions. This will also reduce the Mortality rate resulting from medical and human error.
PlexusD aims to build healthier and more fulfilling society. This will continue to do so as it grows over time.

The platform follows an integrated industry system. When someone needs assistance regarding a particular medical problem, they can post it on the app or website. And out of the pool of expert doctors; the specialized ones will get a notification and assist immediately. For doctors, it is an opportunity to engage potential patients and bring them to their chambers. When the patients connect with the doctors through the app or website, they get to set an appointment with their desired doctor. Upon arrival at the doctor's chamber, the representative there collects the patients' medical data on the software, and it gets uploaded on the drive instantly. 

• Smart appointment & Real-Time estimation: Lets the patients set an appointment with doctors from anywhere and calculates the algorithm of the software's usage at individual clinics, and it gives a real-time queue of how long it will take for patients' serial to come.
• e-Prescription: The algorithm can track doctors' expertise and suggest the medicines that serve the patients' type of treatment. The software will only recommend the medications that the doctor has been prescribing over the last year. The system cross-checks the patient's entire medical data to verify whether the prescribed medicines are appropriate or not.
• Digital billing: Patients can keep track of all their medical bills on this platform alongside their monthly, bi-monthly, quarter yearly, and yearly medical expenditure.
• Online report: The reports will be delivered through our app/website, and even the doctors get a copy of the reports through the same process and can assess it online.
• Medicine reminder: The software keeps track of all the medicines that are being prescribed by the doctor. It also notifies about taking the medications timely as given on the prescription.
• Cloud back-up: All the medical data is stored in the cloud, and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
• Follow-up reminder: If diagnosed with a long term disease, the app helps to keep track of the regular visits to the doctor and reminds of coming follow-up date.

PlexusD uses  PHP(7.2) as Programming language and CI (Codeigniter) as framework. It also uses SQL database for its data and cloud linux hosting for its server. PlexusD also use 124 Bit Encryption to protect all the data. All the PlexusD application reside secure in a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), which acts as a private space within a shared cloud ecosystem. 

As a part of the product development process, out team conducted shadow researches in public and private hospitals. The results say that patients face problems regarding access to healthcare from the tertiary level. The hospitals do not keep the patients' record for more than 6 months so a patients has to incurr the same cost in case they lose the files. The reports do not come on time, the billings are not transparent.

PlexusD as a healthcare Intelligence application will be able to solve the issue of the scenario stated above which will, in turn, have a profound effect on the society as a whole. The patient will be easily able to find specialized doctors who are expert regarding the patient's problem. It will reduce the hassle the patients face during the primary treatment period and the time spent finding a specialized doctor. Again, the doctor will be able to access the health and medical record presented in an organized manner, allowing the doctor to make effective and efficient treatment decisions regarding the patient's diseases. Furthermore, the AI part of PlexusD will aid the doctor in identifying and treating the patient's diseases. This will also reduce the Mortality rate resulting from the medical and human error.

PlexusD aims to build healthier and more fulfilling society. This will continue to do so as it grows over time.

While leading a review, amid a direct meeting session, Dr. A.K.M. Fazlul Bari indicated extraordinary intrigue and appreciated the possibility of the incorporated and interconnected framework of PlexusD. He recognized the torments of the patients while searching for the correct specialists and furthermore the young new specialists who are skilled but lack patients’ trust which is a hindrance towards their vocation.

Two sorts of individuals get affected due to these issues, from persistent viewpoint. A) People with no family specialists and B) People with no learning about which expert to go to when required.

With regards to Medical Practices, whichever clinics can't stand to have an advanced framework, suffers  the outcomes.

To get together with the issues, patients would call their relatives to get an appointment as they would not know the arrangements. Or, on the other hand they may go to the doctor's facility physically which is here and there troublesome in view of the overwhelming activity in terms of sudden appointment cancellation, hours of waiting, serial number mismanagement etc.

PlexusD,with the vision to initiate a change and redefine  the industry through a behavioral shift, has created a networking platform  that will connect the patients with the doctors, store their medical history, digitize prescriptions and diagnostic reports and provide access from anywhere, anytime. We  not only connect the patients with the right specialists at the right time, but also give them right access to information along with detailed data.

With the number of people with internet access on the rise, we can clearly hope for our solution to sustain as it helps patients and doctors deal with healthcare related problems online.

In the last 9 months of the first year (2019) after launching the services our gainings are:

• 15 Chambers and Hospitals are using our service.  

• Over 150 doctors are serving their patients every day by using our service.

• More than 7000 people already used our service so far.

In one year,

• We are aiming to reach 80 more chambers and Hospitals all over the country including all the main cities.

• More than 1000 doctors will serve their patients through PlexusD.

• 250,000 people will get access to healthcare and make their lives easier with PlexusD.

By the next five years,

• We will have more than 300 chambers and Hospitals from all over the country including all the main cities in our network.

• More than 10,000 doctors will have served their patients through PlexusD.

• 50,00,000 people will have used our platform.

PlexusD always put its TG in the center and adapts its solutions by considering their pain point and will keep modifying the solution as market need changesand develop the product accordingly in the next one year.

PlexusD is different because of its empathy and affection for the suffering community and thus it envisions initiating the change in the industry. Its main target is not to achieve huge financial numbers; rather creating an impact by making people’s lives easier. We work with the vision to initiate a change and redefine the industry through a behavioral shift.Digitizing a single hospital won’t do the job. Something that can change the whole scenario is connecting all the stakeholders in the healthcare industry. The current healthcare eco-system is failing to do that, however,the industry is improving gradually. Everyone thinks of a prescription software or appointment software, but they do not think of the other branches that are linked to this. PlexusD aims to cover all the branches, and that’s why we’re optimistic about changing the healthcare scenario.

In the past 2.5 years, we have built collaborative relationships. The huge amount of data we have gathered from our patients gives us a stronghold in the industry. And in the next five years, we aim to get affiliated with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and emerge as the country's leading healthcare intelligence company. With the acquired data by then, we plan to collaborate and contribute in making the health coverage policy aimed by the govt.

Financial: Lack of funding, Lack of resources to enter into the market with aggressive marketing strategies.

Legal: No solid policy from govt regarding healthcare data, digital healrhcare and data security.

Cultural:

1. Lack of communication: The current communication between the doctor and patient follows the traditional system where it is done via telecommunication and requires a lot of time and money. It includes hassle and mostly mismanagement.

2. No use of technology: Current health care system is not digitized at all. Patients have to come from rural areas just to take appointments from the doctors. All these happens because of lack of digitalization in the process.

3. Lack of integrated system: The diagnostic tests, historical data and billings of the patients are done manually which is very time consuming, costly and faulty as well.

Financial: Acquiring the market with 360 degree marketing and increase the revenue along with seed funding.

Legal: PlexusD follows policies that are based on HIPAA (Health Insurance Profitability and Accountability Act of 1996), which makes sure that the users can only access the data. The doctors get access to the data only when one sets an appointment and that too for a period of 24 hours. 

Board of Directors: 3

Full-time employees: 7

Part-time employees: 3

Interns: 6

• The founder and CEO of PlexusD,Nazim Mahmud has been on another venture named Docomedi (a healthcare content based website) which makes PlexusD his second venture. He was the CEO of Docomedi and has two years of experience from that venture. Nazim has experience in HCD (Human Centered Design) product design. He has done his Fellowship under the supervision of IDEO.org and Levi Strauss Foundation. What he is doing is an undergrad at North South University on MIS and Marketing.
• Co-founder and CMO, Rizvee Sheikh has been with Nazim in Docomedi.com as Head of Marketing and Head of Logistics respectively. He also has a clear understanding of the Social Media Marketing tools as he completed an Advanced Course on Facebook Marketing under the supervision of Geeky Social And. and is a certified Facebook Marketing expert.
• Another c0-founder and Tech Head behind PlexusD, Sarwar Jahan has experience of working in various startup companies like Robodoc (robodocbd.com), ShikhteChai (shikhtechai.com), Eduber, etc. He was the co-founder and Lead Developer of a tech company named “App Nap,” and he also has experience of leading teams consisting of both front and back-end engineers

Key Resources: PlexusD website, Intelligence App, Financial assistance through funding, Skilled tech manpower.

Key Activities: Continuous app and platform Development.

Type of Intervention: Service through an app and website.

Segments: Patients, doctors, different stakeholder of the healhcare eco-system.

Value Proposition: Healthcare intelligence platform,Digitization of the eco-sytem,Automated patient management sytem

Partners: Chambers, Doctors,ICT Ministry,Health Ministry , Telecommunications Industry

Channels:  Website,Mobile App, Social Media, Direct marketing, B2B sales

Cost Structure: Initial Server Build-up, installation and maintenance cost, promotion cost

Surplus: Expansion of business operation in the other regions

Revenue: Patient Service Charge,Subscription Fee (Doctors, Chambers, Hospitals), Advertisement

Statistics suggest that each month almost 60000 people journey to Dhaka for better healthcare and it seems that it will continue to increase. The increasing demand for healthcare is being driven primarily by four factors: an aging population, the explosion of so-called lifestyle diseases, rising public expectations, and an absence of value consciousness among healthcare consumers.  Again, Historical data indicates that health expenditures correlate strongly with rising wealth levels. The 7.1% GDP growth rate of Bangladesh seems to show that the healthcare demand would see a steady and sustainable growth. 

The revenue model of the organization

• Service Charge: PlexusD charges only BDT 30 only as the novice fee (applicable for patients) whenever a patient visits a hospital or doctor who use PlexusD’s HIA (Healthcare Intelligence Application) to provide service.

• Subscription fees: The hospital/chambers pay a monthly subscription fee of BDT 1000  for the premium package that would bring them extra features and benefits, For example, Patient’s health insights, Healthcare Data Analysis etc.

• Advertisements: Healthcare providers are able to post blogs and banners. PlexusD permits its clients to post audits on their experiences which are expanding their credibility too.

PlexusD will use the  funds to support operations and product development. The seed capital that PlexusD will receive from Tiger IT Challange will be considered as early-stage funding which will allow additional operational flexibility over medium to long term growth. We plan to invest 10% of the money in the Research & Development sector to ensure human centered design of our solutions. This will help PlexusD in customer acquisition as well as market building. As the venture goes big, we will require more man power thus 5-8% of the fund will be used to build a strong HR team. As well as promotion is the most important thing that the venture needs now and thus 20% of the fund will be invested in marketing strategy implementation. We plan to save some of the money for risk management and the rest to system maintenance.

What we want from here, is to meet new people, build connections, work together on the topics that matter the most to me like the lagging healthcare of Bangladesh, pitch in ideas with the other participants to come up with a solution, collaborate between different cultures and help to build the society with nurture and excellence.