According to the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill 2019, India has a doctor-population ratio of 1:1456 as compared with the WHO standards of 1:1000. Also, at present 57.3% of personnel currently practising allopathic medicine who does not have a medical qualification. As a result, healthcare in India, even those covered by health insurance, continues to be chaotic.
With a vision to democratising healthcare through technology making it easy and available for everyone, Bangalore-based Clinikk has been utilising artificial intelligence and machine learning to fulfil its dream of assuring safeguard the interests of its customers as well as pass on the maximum value and help them navigate the healthcare maze.
Founded by Bhavjot Kaur and Dr.Suraj Baliga in 2016, Clinikk started as a post-discharge care continuity platform and later evolved into a subscription-based primary healthcare platform. To date, the company has served over 3 lakh individuals and is available in all major Indian cities. It has partnered with leading businesses such as Uber, Ola, and Swiggy to provide 360-degree healthcare coverage to their blue-collar staff and families. In December 2018, Clinikk has raised over USD 1 million in seed funding from an array of private and institutional investors.
Flagship Product
Clinikk combines comprehensive primary care with financial risk protection using technology in a small ticket sized subscription product. Currently, it is available in 11 vernacular languages. With critical elements like a native-language based family doctor, low-cost pocket-sized health insurance options, and medical assistance, the company is striving hard to fill the major void of quality primary healthcare and financial protection.
Talking about challenges, the company has faced several challenges in the payments ecosystem, mostly, when it comes to small ticket sized recurring payments. Currently, this method is very inefficient and the Aadhaar based ENACH being withdrawn as per the Supreme Court verdict on Aadhaar which affected the neo middle class the most.
Use of AI and ML
The company collects and records every interaction the patient has with the Clinikk platform. Currently, the focus is on building a decision support system that leverages machine learning. More particularly, it is a reinforcement learning model which powers a dynamic decision tree that helps in optimal history collection by the health assistant and optimal diagnosis by the doctor by suggesting protocol-based treatment. This will take into consideration the complete patient context and the past history while also taking into account the disease profile in the locality/region along with the outcome-based efficacy of a particular treatment for other patients with similar issues. Also, an aggregate data analysis is performed for epidemiology in order to determine treatment efficacy and for side effect analysis.
Tech Stack
In the technology domain, Clinikk’s microservices are built using Golang and Node.js which are scalable to support the future growth path. The applications are mainly deployed on cloud and the company relies heavily on Kubernetes for automatic deployment, management, and application scaling.
Talent Crunch
Although talent acquisition is an industry-wide challenge, Kaur and Baliga seek those candidates who have the ability to fit with the culture of the company, who are mission-driven and also believe in going beyond the call of duty to deliver excellence.
Future Roadmap
Over the next 24 months, Clinikk aims to reach 1 million families and over 6 million individuals to expand its range of offerings to include health management plans, prevention, screening and management of non-communicable diseases, and a complete healthcare support product useful throughout the life cycle of a person.
