MetroMedi, a Hyderabad-based omni channel pharmacy startup, has launched a telemedicine service for its customers tier 3 and 4 cities.
The app has been launched in regional languages Telugu and Kannada with a focus on tier-3, tier-4 cities in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The MetroMedi Doctor app allows patients to connect to specialists and doctors in metros or tier-1 cities at half the cost.
“In India, a person from the tier-3 and tier-4 cities need to travel at least on average 60kms to visit a specialist for consultation. This becomes a challenge if you are working on a daily wage, because one ends up losing the wage for that day. The current primary healthcare centres do not do a great job in these cities. They just treat every ailment with antibiotics which also leads to another problem of unnecessary use of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. Our mission is to make healthcare accessible and affordable,” Maruthi Medisetti, co-founder and CEO of MetroMedi said in a statement.
The idea is to convert pharmacies into health centres, where the pharmacist will enable these tele-consultation calls for the patients. MetroMedi partners with the pharmacy and installs a small kit that has basic amenities like a tablet, pulse check device, and internet connection.
It also partners with doctors and the doctors prescribe medicine through the app, the pharmacist receives this prescription via the app. The pharmacist will be able to deliver the medicine to the patient. “In this way, all the stake holders in the ecosystem win. We as a distributor would supply medicines to the pharmacy once a week. The revenue is split between Pharmacy, Doctor and MetroMedi,” Maruthi said.
It is currently on-boarding medical professionals with a minimum of 10 years’ experience. These professionals would be from multiple specialities such as ENT, general medicine, paediatricians, orthopaedics, gynaecologists, ophthalmologists and psychiatrists.
“We are taking great care in maintaining the privacy of the patient as well as the doctor. We don't store any recordings,” Maruthi added.