You are trained as a doctor. What prompted you to become an entrepreneur?

One catalyst was that I lost my father to an unnecessary surgery in a very expensive, big hospital. Then you realize that the problem of health care being broken is not just for the poor and the underserved. It’s everywhere.

What part of this broken system are you trying to fix?

In India, 28% of the population did not have access to a doctor. In the rural areas, in the remote areas, clearly there is the challenge that doctors are not available, that facilities may not be available, and people may have less money. So doctors migrate and start practicing in larger hospitals in bigger cities. We said let’s see if we can create a better model—something that can meet clinical outcomes as well as being affordable.

What’s the solution your startup came up with?

What we have done is taken the examining room, the test lab, and the pharmacy and put them together into a single whole. This brings down the cost in terms of money and time. Our latest innovation, called HelloLyf, is 64 square feet and can be installed anywhere.

Can you explain how the concept works in practice?

There is no physical doctor, only a nurse who runs you through the whole system. I, the doctor, may be sitting in Bangalore and the patient is in Odisha, but today’s technology allows you to use rich video to carry out an examination. Our clinics are equipped with a digital stethoscope, a laryngoscope, a fetal Doppler. The quantity of medical data is huge, it’s vast. So we built a clinical decision-support system that basically ensures doctors are able to do better diagnoses. Drug interactions, dosages, contraindications are sorted out, and doctors can focus on the patient rather than trying to think through the data. Finally, the pharmacy is automated to dispense medications. For the equivalent of about $4, you get a doctor, your tests, and your medications.

And what kind of reception have your 240 clinics gotten?

In India and other poor countries, health care is only sought for the wage earner. The old, the women, and the children, they are neglected. Almost 50% of our patients are women, which means we have increased the equity in society.

—Interviewed by Pradipta Mukherjee

The 2020 Frost & Sullivan India ICT Best Practices Awards, now in its 18th consecutive year, honoured and recognized companies and individuals who have pushed the boundaries of excellence—rising above the competition and achieving landmarks to deliver business outcomes using Digital and Disruptive technologies in the Indian Market. The India ICT Best Practices Awards ceremony was held on June 24, 2020.

At Frost & Sullivan’s India ICT Best Practices Awards, companies are lauded for their exceptional growth and market strategies, product development abilities, competitive advancement skills, technology innovation, and dedicated customer focus. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure their performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify the frontrunner in the industry. Benchmarked against the highest standards in the industry, the award recipients indeed represent the best-in-class.

Dr Sabahat Azim, the Founder & CEO of Glocal Healthcare Systems Pvt Ltd, was declared as the ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2020’ by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship (www.schwabfound.org) - a sister organization of the World Economic Forum, for his commitment and dedication to make affordable healthcare to everyone across the world a reality. The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a leading global platform that accelerates outstanding models of social innovation. The Award was announced on 22nd Sept 2020 at the Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2020.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/ 2020/09/world-changers- announcing-the-social-innovators -of-the-year-2020/ https://www.schwabfound.org/ awardees/syed-azim-sabahat

The awardees were selected by Schwab Foundation board members in recognition of their innovative approach and potential for global impact. Some of these Board members include Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark (2011-2015), and social innovation expert Johanna Mair, Professor of Organization, Strategy and Leadership at the Hertie School of Governance in Germany, and H.M. Queen Mathilde of Belgium (Honorary Board Member).

Glocal's HellolyfCX Digital DIspensary won the most popular PUBLIC APPRECIATION AWARD 2020 at UNAIDS Health Innovation Exchange global event, HIEx2020. It received the maximum votes from innovators, experts, health policy visitors in the event. HellolyfCX is a portable digital clinic which is safe even in a pandemic like COVID19, protected by UV-C light disinfection, positive pressure and acrylic barrier between the nurse and the patient. It does not require a doctor. Doctors can see the patient remotely on video, conduct examination remotely through Internet of Things, all tests are done inside within 15 minutes using Point of Care diagnostics, and medicines are dispensed automatically from a machine.

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Management experts from across the country gathered at Hotel Hindusthan International on March 27 for the CMA Management Excellence Awards 2018, presented by LIC in association with The Telegraph and Sterling Reserve Music CDs. The ceremony honoured 10 individuals, across eight categories, who have made a mark in management.

Sabahat S. Azim (far right), MD and CEO of Glocal Healthcare Systems, received the innovation excellence award from Sidhartha Roy, past president, CMA, and Vibhor Tandon, executive committee member, CMA. “I am a naturalised Bengali, have been here for the past 12 years, and I’m a naturalised businessman. Our goal is to make healthcare technology feasible. I would credit this award to the team members of Glocal, and the 1,700 people across the rural areas who are working tirelessly to make healthcare accessible,” said Sabahat.

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Honouring public healthcare champions is a tradition at Healthcare Sabha. This year too, Express Public Health Awards were given to some very deserving projects across the country to acknowledge their efforts towards India’s public healthcare system.

The awards nite began with a Welcome Address by Viveka Roychowdhury who welcomed the delegates and explained the vision and mission of Express Public Health Awards. She introduced the esteemed jury and thanked them for their contribution in helping choose the most deserving winners.

Most Effective Health Technology Systems by a State Government

Government of Odisha for providing three main aspects of primary healthcare in a brick and mortar dispensary within 45 minutes and offering consultancy with empanelled certified doctors through video conferencing.

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NHM Rajasthan entered into a technology partnership with Kolkata based Glocal Healthcare Systems to cater to primary healthcare needs.

The 15th WONCA World Rural Health Conference held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi honoured NHM Rajasthan with the State Excellence Award in Innovative Healthcare Technology.

NHM Rajasthan entered into a technology partnership with Kolkata based Glocal Healthcare Systems to cater to primary healthcare needs (Specialist Service) through its 49 CHCs, 30 DHS, 17 HDHS and 4 satellite hospitals using Glocal’s proprietary telemedicine solution – Hellolyf (the virtual OPD) and LitmusDx (clinical decision support systems).

The award was handed over to Naveen Jain, MD NHM, Govt. of Rajasthan by Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President, Gov. of India and Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India.

Glocal Healthcare, is operating ten super speciality hospitals in tier II & II cities of Bengal, UP, Bihar and Odisha; has developed its own software Litmus DX which is being used for dispensing online healthcare in the brand name of Glocal Digital Dispensary to a sizeable population in the country. Glocal has been operating such digital dispensaries in other states like Odisha, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar & West Bengal.

NHM Rajasthan has implemented effective primary healthcare delivery system in 100 nodes, using Glocal Healthcare telemedicine solutions. So far about 33000 patients have benefitted from these centres, in the last eight months and over the next 36 months, this pace is slated to go on to cover more than half a million patients per year, providing access to general physicians, specialists and super specialists for their primary healthcare need.

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Recognises pathfinders, innovators and game changers from the private healthcare industry for their vital contributions to healthcare in India.

The inaugural edition of Healthcare Senate 2016, the National Private Healthcare Business Summit, hosted by Express Healthcare, also sought to celebrate the spirit of excellence and leadership in healthcare delivery in the private sector.

Held on September 22, Healthcare Senate Citations, supported by Boston Scientific, were received by four visionaries who have chosen areas of practice with huge challenges, of serving the underserved and difficult to access corners of our country.

The winners of the Healthcare Citations were Dr Nomal Chandra Borah, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Guwahati Neurological Research Centre (GNRC); Dr Neelam Kler, Chief of Neonatology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi; Dr RD Ravindran, Chairman and Director Quality, Aravind Eye Care System and Dr Sabahat Azim, Founder, CEO and MD of Glocal Healthcare Systems.

Express Healthcare Excellence Awards, hosted on September 24, the last day of Healthcare Senate 2016 also recognised the pathfinders, innovators and game changers from the private healthcare industry for their vital contributions to healthcare in India. The eight winners across four categories were:

Express Healthcare Excellence Award for Innovative Marketing Practices: It went to Narayana Health (Registered as Narayana Hrudayalaya) for creating patient education videos and awareness materials across all the specialities which NH specialises in and effectively utilising the Internet to reach out to a large audience.

Express Healthcare Excellence Award for Inspirational Workplace: Lotus Hospitals for Women and Children, Hyderabad bagged the award for their initiatives to build a result-oriented organisation capable of making rapid decisions and create a highly competent workforce that can support it at every level

Express Healthcare Excellence Award for Corporate Social Responsibility: There were two winners in this category.
Six Sigma Star Healthcare (P) won it for their endeavour to provide free medical treatment to needy people, stuck up in high altitudes.
Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi bagged the award for their CSR project ‘A Healthy Start’ which attempts to improve access to sanitation and clean drinking water as well as spread hygiene awareness among underprivileged school children.

Express Healthcare Excellence Award for Patient Care: This crucial category had four winners. They were:
PD Hinduja Hospital & Medical Research Centre, Mumbai for their initiatives to provide quality healthcare for all.
Aster Medcity, Kochi, for their innovative robotic system which has reduced waiting time, eliminated dispensing errors and simplified inventory management.
Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi for their successful initiatives to reduce the numbers of errors and improve overall safety of high-alert medications.
Satguru Partap Singh Hospitals, Ludhiana for development of dedicated tracheostomy care nurses to decrease complications and ICU readmission rate of tracheostomised patients.

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