This Bangalore Based Digital Platform Aims To Improve Indian Women Healthcare Access Without Judgement

With an aim to improve healthcare access to Indian women in India, a new digital platform called 'Proactive for her' claims to solve the problem. In a country like India, finding a gynaecologist who is empathetic, non-judgemental and won't ask if you're 'married or not' — the secret code for sexual activity — can often be a tedious task. However, founder Achitha Jacob has taken note of the cultural barriers that tend to exist when it comes to women health issues.

Jacob, who has completed her education from Harvard University, worked in a Fortune 500 healthcare company before starting this platform. She realised that Indian women were not fully addressing their health concerns. "When it comes to their health, it's not just a clinical problem that we're solving, it's also a cultural problem," she told The Indian Express.

Bangalore-based 'Proactive for her' wants to be a "full-stack, digital health platform for women," where all health services are accessible under one roof, be it skin-related issues caused by PCOS or sexual health problems such as vaginismus, where finding an empathetic doctor is very crucial.

"We have four business verticals. We do consultations which we call clinics. We do blood tests or diagnostics and mid-to-long-term programmes where women interact with a team of doctors for a particular health goal. Lastly, we also do health coaching, which is a more one-on-one value proposition," she explained.

Holistic Approach

She clarifies that their goal is not to be just another health aggregator where women are just trying to find a doctor. It is instead to take a holistic approach to women's health online. The difference, she believes, lies with the company's "healthcare protocols, processes, and team".

"There are many websites and aggregators that doctors use nowadays. But these companies don't take full responsibility for your clinical outcomes. All of our clinicians are in-house and on the company payroll, which means we guarantee the customer journey, and the clinical experience when you come to Proactive," she highlighted.

The difference is that if a patient has a bad experience with a gynaecologist on Proactive, the platform is ready to take responsibility. The company also has a set of internal processes that they expect their internal healthcare team to follow with patients.

She also admits that while they are going after "internet-savvy women" initially, they hope to target more women in the future, especially those not in Metros or Tier I cities. "We did this for Nestle at one of their factories, where we conducted a programme for their blue-collar factory workers. But this was like one of our first few large-scale attempts to go beyond digitally native women," she explained.

Talking about the doctors who work at 'Proactive for her', the company has slightly different agreements with each one. While the doctors also continue their private practice, they don't affiliate themselves with any other corporate brands or corporate hospitals.

Full-Stack Solution

But given that this aims to be a full-stack solution, Proactive has also tied up with multiple accredited labs across India to ensure that patients can get their testing done post consultation.

"There's a lot of standardised packages that you see virtually. But often, these are not customised to a patient's clinical history and healthcare priorities. So for our diagnostic product, all of our patients who choose to get tested via Proactive, get a free consultation with our pathologists' team as well," Jacob stated.

The company then also gives a special wise report, making it easier for patients to understand the test results. According to Jacob, the aim is to empower the consumer to understand their clinical information fully. It has tied up with a technology vendor to generate the smart reports, which the pathologists finally sign off at the company.

'Proactive for her' in total has ten clinicians on board and has a twin strategy of direct-to-consumers and reaching out to corporations. It also offers memberships to clients, which gives them a minimum of 10 per cent discount.

"The membership for most of our repeat users is a great value proposition. It also lets you avail health coaching sessions for the rest of the year. Our memberships program is also incredibly popular with our b2b clients," Jacob added.

The 'clinics' look at the issue of sexual health, which remains a taboo topic in a country like India, menstrual health, PCOS and skin and hair care. Jacob says the idea is to reach out to women's issues beyond just pregnancy and fertility, which often tends to be an area where most gynaecologists focus in India.

Even with PCOS, women are either suggested to go straight to the pill or a drug if there is insulin resistance. In worst cases, there is fat-shaming and they are said to lose body weight and exercise more. Jacob is hoping to change that rigid approach. "In most of the doctor-patient interactions, the patient's own medical goals and lifestyle preferences are rarely taken into account. The patient needs to be in the driver's seat concerning their treatment choices," she said.

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