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YOLO Health’s ATM dispenses health data and medical advice instead of money. After all, health is wealth

When was the last time you entered a bank to withdraw money or request for a statement? Can’t remember, right? I am sure teenagers or the lot in their early 20s do not even know how!

Now take the same situation and apply it to hospitals. Yes, you read that right.

How about if you could walk into an ATM-like kiosk and have all your health-related issues addressed? I am not talking about futuristic sci-fi fantasy here. Now access to healthcare will be as easy as walking in to a bank ATM. This is the vision of three IITians from Mumbai, India.

Meet Dhilly Babu, Shreyans Gandhi and Arpit Mishra who want you to lead a healthy life because well…YOLO!

In India, we rush to the doctors only when something is terribly wrong with us. The concept of preventive healthcare is missing. The trio wants to change this. They passionately feel that most serious situations can be avoided only if we just kept a regular tab on our health.

Enter YOLO Health ATM, walk-in health screenings kiosks built by the IITians. So what can these Automatic Telehealth Machines do and why are they critical, especially to India?

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DIY health check-ups

Patients can walk into a Health ATM without an appointment and get a quick health check-up and instant health report — all at the convenience of their workplace, home or malls.

With automated step-by-step instructions and hand-holding from a trained paramedic (if required), one can measure, monitor and manage their vital health parameters covering Blood Pressure (BP), 12 lead ECG, Blood Glucose, Total Cholesterol, HDL, LDL, Triglyceride, Hemoglobin, Pulse Rate, Non-Contact Instant Temperature, Weight, Height, BMI, Fat percentage, Muscle percentage, Bone Density, Blood Oxygen Saturation – tying in with the startup’s preventive healthcare focus.

This is critical for patients with chronic ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and cholesterol. With growing lifestyle and chronic health conditions in India, preventive health screenings are of critical importance.

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Access to experts from reputed hospitals

At YOLO Health ATMs, one can also video-consult with doctors of their choice across specialities in any reputed hospital in the country. Patients can share their health history to get instant and real-time feedback from specialists.

All health records in one place

YOLO Health’s online service and soon to be launched mobile application will allow patients to monitor and manage their health history at their fingertips. Patients can upload reports online or scan from mobile app. Patients can also see trends of their vitals and compare their vitals so keep track of health.

From corporates to rural patients

YOLO Health is focussed on three specific areas:

Corporates

YOLO Health’s primary focus is corporate health and wellness space. Adoption of telehealth will be driven not by healthcare providers, but instead by employers, seeking to address two of healthcare’s biggest challenges: cost and access.

The startup is engaging with larger corporate houses in setting up employee health and wellness solutions including onsite health kiosks, wellness programmes, health awareness camps, etc.

What it is doing is helping corporates provide 24X7 access to quality healthcare to its employees with no appointments and waiting times.

Additionally, this comes at a lower cost and with more convenience than the traditional way. Hence, helping corporates reduce medical costs, improve employee well-being and productivity, reduce absenteeism and improve overall employee engagement.

It has already signed up and is live with two public sector companies and three private companies in Mumbai, names of which the founders don’t wish to reveal at the moment.

Hospitals

YOLO Health is also working with large private hospitals to help deliver healthcare through telemedicine.

The plan is to set up remote telemedicine centres and nodes across villages and remote locations to be connected with the central facility at a hospital.

So how do hospitals gain from this? The ATMs will help hospitals deliver healthcare to remote and rural populations, reach out to larger community, increase footfalls and reduce waiting times.

The diversity that is India: Rural Health

With lack of last-mile access to basic healthcare, poor doctor-patient ratio and non-functional primary healthcare centres, rural health is an important challenge and focus for YOLO Health.

Currently, it is working with State Governments and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Foundations of large private corporations to deliver primary healthcare to rural populations.

Who provides care? The startup is setting up a dedicated tele-consultation network comprising reputed hospitals across India. It has already signed up five large private hospitals across India as a part of its tele-consultation network.

The network will help provide instant access to reputed doctors across all specialties from the listed hospitals.

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Know the people behind the idea

Dhilly Babu is the Founder Director of YOLO Health. Before this, he was the Founder Director of Beas & Intellect Financial Technology, which got acquired by Miles Software Solutions.

He has also worked with CRISIL. He received his B. Tech and M.Tech from IIT Bombay.

Shreyans Gandhi is the Founder Director – Products. He has to his credit a Ph. D in Biomedical Engineering from IIT Bombay, and B. Tech and M.Tech in Electronics and Telecommunications from IIT Bombay.

Arpit Mishra is the Founder Director – Technology. He has earlier worked with Nomura. He holds a B. Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur.

Where is the moolah?

• The startup is licensing its Health ATMs to its clients for an annual licensing fee of INR 3 lakhs (approximately US$4,500).

• It takes a 25 per cent ‘technology fee’ per tele-consultation through its Health ATM for facilitating the same.

• YOLO Health charges a fee for providing various health checkups through its Health ATM. For example, a doctor consultation costs INR 250 (around US$ 3.80), a specialist doctor consultation about INR 350 (US$5), basic health screening is INR 100 (US$1.50), advanced health screening is INR 250 (US$4), diabetes check-up is INR 100 (US$1.50), heart screening is INR 250 (US$4), lipid profile is INR 350 (US$5) and so on.

Now, compare this to what one would pay on visits to hospitals or even smaller clinics. You never come back without shelling out a few thousand rupees for even basic tests. What YOLO Health charges is a mere fraction of what one would otherwise pay.

Accessibility and affordability still a challenge

Telehealth adoption in India is still at its nascent stage. Increase in smartphone usage, fast improving Internet connectivity and rising consumerism is driving adoption of telehealth in the country.

A critical barrier towards growth and adoption of telehealth technologies is the accessibility and affordability of the care delivered. Viable and scalable business model to deliver affordable healthcare across geography and demographics in India is a challenge.

Additionally, healthcare delivery is enabled by multiple stakeholders – patients, hospitals, doctors and insurance companies. Bringing all stakeholders under single platform with all their interest taken care is a bottleneck the startup is looking to solve.

Ambitious plans

Corporates: YOLO Health is targetting to sign up 100 corporates in the next 12 months for its employee health and wellness programme

Hospitals: It wants to partner with 20 hospitals in next 12 months for setting up dedicated telemedicine networks across the country.

Rural Health: The startup is targetting 50 health ATMs across three different states in India through closely working with respective state governments and CSR institutions.

Overseas market: YOLO Health is also actively exploring the Africa and Middle East markets for delivering its telehealth solutions. It has already signed up with few partners across these geographies.

Healthcare data analytics: In the world of Big Data, it also plans to venture into providing customised insights and analytics targetting end-consumers, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies.

YOLO Health plans to raise its first round of funding by March 2016. Here’s wishing the founders luck and good health.

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