“Care4parents focuses on bringing primary healthcare to the doorstep of the senior citizens staying alone, with the help of technology”

Dr. Aman Khera was brought up in a family of doctors. His family has been in the healthcare sector for almost 100 years now. His grandfather was a renowned surgeon of the un-divided Punjab in Lahore, and was one of the few doctors to have studied at Edinburgh, Scotland in 1925.

His father was also a renowned surgeon of Delhi-NCR and had a roaring practice for almost 45 years. His family has successfully set up various healthcare projects, primarily hospitals. The renowned Khera hospital in West Delhi was founded by Dr. Khera’s grandfather and father in the year 1978.

Dr. Aman Khera, co-founder and director of Pinkshastra Health Solutions Pvt. Ltd. has a rich experience of 22 years in various aspects of healthcare management. He completed his MBBS and then MS in General Surgery from Maulana Azad Medical College. In 1999, he received a fellowship from the Royal Society of Medicine at London, UK.

Passionate about managing operations and business development of hospitals and healthcare projects, Dr. Khera has also been associated with Pushpanjali Crosslay Hospital (now Max, Vaishali) as a senior consultant in business development.

His experience of working in hospitals propelled him to pursue digitalization and the use of technology in providing primary healthcare services to the needy. One thing Dr. Khera had realized was the plight of senior citizens who came to the hospitals alone. He observed that they had to go from one counter to another, stand in queues, fill long forms, etc. all alone, facing numerous difficulties in the process. There used to be a lot of feedback and complaints from senior citizens regarding the difficulty of getting the services. Many of them often reached out to Dr. Khera sharing they did not come to the hospital for the fear of such time-taking processes, long queues, etc. and thereby tend to overlook their health requirements.

He always thought of innovating systems and processes which would ease out the challenges faced by the elders. However, his efforts were mostly limited to the hospital with which he was attached.

On the other hand, Dr. Khera also used to interact with people who were settled abroad or in other cities, whose parents were staying alone. They were constantly worried about their parents’ health as they could never ensure that their parents were regularly taking their medications, or getting their basic parameters like BP, blood sugar regularly checked or not. Parents tend to reassure their children that they are fine but the children always have the apprehension for the same. They are also apprehensive about the possibility of any emergency travel for their parents which affects their jobs etc. Dr. Khera also shared his personal experience, “I remember my cousin based in the USA and a doctor himself, constantly worried about his 85 years old father, who was suffering from a heart and kidney disorder. He was regularly in touch with me about his health status. Many times I had to accompany his father to the hospital for his checkups. We all had such examples among our friends, families and faced such situations”.

We have a culture where elders have always been given respect and put on a higher pedestal. Seeing them in pain and suffering is something a lot of us do not want to endure. This was the inspiring thing about this project. How many people living around the world have the fear of who will take care of their loved ones in case something happens? He wanted to do something to help this cause.

The seniors citizens are the most vulnerable section of society. They often neglect their health due to lack of resources, fear of the unknown, physical inabilities and limitations, fear of struggle in hospitals, inability to keep all records physically, etc.  As a result, they are not able to keep control of their health parameters and in due course of time and land into situations of medical emergencies.

Dr. Khera discussed this issue with Shuchita Gupta, also a co-founder in this project, and decided to find solutions for the elderly whereby they get healthcare assistance at home, and the children were able to monitor the health status of their parents. Ms. Shuchita Gupta is from Yale school of management, FCA with 20+ years of experience working with start-ups like adda52.com, and Moglix.

Eldercare management in India is a highly underserviced field. As per the government of India, it is estimated that by 2025, about 12-13 % of the total population of the country will be above the age of 60 years. Eldercare Services, though available, are an unorganized sector. Although there are quite a few players, most are providing conventional services like home care or home visits. Dr. Khera’s initiative Care4Parents has a unique system of reaching far and wide, with the help of technology and telemedicine. Their in-house team of doctors keeps in touch with the seniors through video calls. They talk to them at least once a month or maybe more if required. At-Home vital monitoring kit reaches the members which help in reading and recording the vital parameters like pulse, BP, temperature, and ECG which is recorded and posted on the portal. Also, having tie-ups with a vast network of service providers, their team members can reach customers far and wide. Doorstep delivery of medicines and healthcare equipment through service providers, tie-up with hospitals in major cities, and metros also help in meeting the needs.

Care4parents focuses on bringing primary healthcare to the doorstep of the senior citizens staying alone, with the help of technology where remote monitoring of the health status through telemedicine, at-home vital monitoring kits, and storage of health records on the cloud making it accessible anywhere and everywhere.

The organisation aims to be a like-a-family member to the elderly living alone in India by providing a one-stop-shop for all their healthcare needs. Care4parents in-house doctor and customer care personnel help the elderly in fixing video consultations with doctors (their own or our partner hospitals), keeping all health records on the digital platform, maintain a health summary (to be shared with doc for OPD/ hospitalisation).

Care4parents provides for Monthly recording and analysis of Vital Parameters through its AT-HOME device, which includes Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, SpO2, temperature, and ECG. All the readings are available on the digital platform (actual readings along with the graph, making it easy to compare month after month).

Care4parents provides kids abroad, a certain peace of mind regarding their parents’ health while maintaining the medical history on the cloud, for access anytime, anywhere.

The team assists in physical hospital visits by hand holding the elders through the hospitalization process, paperwork, previous reports, etc. We have tie-ups with reputed hospitals like Max, Artemis, Paras, Global Health City Chennai, Manipal Hospitals, Shroff Eye Centre, Dr. Lal Path Labs, etc. to name a few.  These hospitals provide dedicated Relationship Managers who ensure that the elders are looked after well.

Apart from that, they also offer value-added services (on separate payment) such as Adult Home Care, Medicine Delivery, Physiotherapy at home, investigations like ultrasounds, x rays, CT Scan/MRI, blood tests (collection of samples from home), vaccination at home, specialist doctor consults like Cardiology, Nephrology, Surgery, Gastro through video calls, etc.

Dr. Khera believes that a strong team is indeed important for the brand to grow. It’s not just the team of the founders and co-founders but also the staff and the employees. “I am a strong believer in teamwork. If there is synchronisation between the members, the work happens smoothly and the brand grows.

Training is very vital for a team to be strong. I try to teach my team how to be sensitive to the needs of the customers. Since they are senior citizens, they have limitations and we have to be patient to understand their requirements. This helps in developing a good customer experience and hence a good brand.”

“India is a vast country and the population is huge and is growing. The Healthcare system in the country is trying to keep up the pace with the growth. But a lot more has to be done. The government is doing the right thing by involving technology in healthcare. The role of telemedicine, which was not very acceptable a few years ago, is now being promoted and with its help, healthcare can reach far and wide. People staying in remote areas are now able to reach out to specialist doctors and get consultations done without moving out. It indeed is a boon for the country, and a lot more has to happen”, says Dr. Aman Khera.