Challenges: Hospital Management System launch in India

We have been in the market for the last few weeks selling our product, MediOps. It is a Hospital Management system for small and medium sized hospitals. Everybody knows that this is a large addressable market space and is expected to grow many folds in the coming years. The IT adoption in these units is abysmal. Looking at these factors, it seems that selling such a product should be a cake walk, but that is not so. In this post, I thought to share the challenges we are encountering and over the next few months, I would share our strategies and the output of these strategies.

Makin Economic Sense of IT: The basic problem with the healthcare industry is the prevalent culture of the healthcare industry. Other than the large multi-specialty hospitals, most of the other healthcare providers don’t make business decisions based on productivity or process improvement, which dominates other industries. Instead, they make decisions based on how much money do they have to spend and what will it do for the providers personally (and immediately). The related problem is serious shortage of trained staff who can handle even a basic software system as these providers are not willing to take the cost of such staffs.

Lack of Govt. Regulations: I personally investigated the patient case history and patient registration data of multiple units and found that there is a strong need to standardize the medical records of patients. Every unit is trying to follow their unique way of recording patient related data without caring about the problems it has created for the patients. It is a patient’s responsibility to maintain their own records. If he/she does not maintain it, the other doctors/hospitals will treat the patient without having a proper case history. Most of the developed countries have achieved more 90% standardization in this. Even in the US, The HITECH Act, part of the 2009 economic stimulus package (ARRA) passed by the US Congress, aims at inducing more physicians to adopt EHR. Title IV of the act promises incentive payments to those who adopt and use "certified EHRs" and, eventually, reducing Medicare payments to those who do not use an EHR. Funding for EHR incentives is also added to the Medicaid system. Government of India must also enforce such an act in order to encourage every provider to adopt an EHR.

Global NIT meet in December 2009

We are planning to organize a Global NIT meet in December 2009 in Mumbai. An effort is on to make this dream possible. We met on 30th August 2009 and have planned to meet regularly. Please come and join us by joining the group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111670094437.

H1N1: The story of overreaction

The day since H1N1 has entered Indian shores, it is been the top news/breaking news on almost all the channels. Within 3 days of it claiming the first victim, all the schools in Pune and Mumbai were closed or decided to be closed. The multiplexes were closed. People were seen walking on the streets with masks. There has been numerous views on whether we should have closed the schools or closed the multiplexes etc etc. I thought to put my two penny views as well:

a) In the initial stages of the outbreak , the information dissemination is very low. People are not aware of the precautions to be taken. Schools are one of the places where kids interact and there was every chance that it could have spread pretty fast without the lack of proper knowledge. As of now, even though there is an overflow of info, most of the parents are aware of the precautions and problems, will be careful and hence the chances of it spreading uncontrolled (at least in schools) are very low.

b) We always fear the unknown and this was an unknown virus. That's the reason there was so much of panic the moment deaths were reported. Of course media played its role in over reporting but I am sure it forced everybody to be more careful. You will see that in coming days the deaths will reduce dramatically even though the number of people affected will keep on rising.

c) Entry of private sector hospitals into treating H1N1 was very important as we all know government health care infrastructure is not sufficient. Initial few days were really difficult owing to very few test and treatment centres.India is a populous country and we need many hospitals and many touch points to handle patients of suspected flu. The over reaction has helped government promptly asking Pvt Hospitals to be ready for this. This is an extremely good sign.

So even though every body over reacted (Government, Hospitals, People) but in the melee, things are looking much better now. We are in better condition to fight H1N1.

Cheers

Handling H1N1: Corporate Dilemma

With the rapid spread of H1N1 Flu in India, it will be a challenge for Corporates to keep a balance between continuing serving customers and keeping workforce healthy. What is the best way to handle it? In India, there are no guidelines issued by the Federal government and hence every institution is taking a call in their own way. Should the government issue a guideline? That is not so simple, experience of handling H1N1 outside India has been a mixed bag. Every country handled it in a different manner. Probably Delhi Chief Minister chose the most politically correct response- It is upto individual institution (in this case schools) to decide. All such public places were closed in Pune couple of days back while it is closed in Mumbai from tomorrow. Whether these decisions are right, only time will tell.

So what if your company operates out of Pune, which is the epicenter of the flu? You have to make sure that your workforce does not get impacted at all. We took this call yesterday night and from today, We have allowed our employees to work from Home so that we can serve our customers without interruption and also prevent people from getting affected. The second important aspect is the access to latest info on the disease as the Government is taking a lot of steps on daily basis. We have decided to send mails to everyone on latest advisory and updates every day. DO let me know if something else can also be done?


Cheers

Global NIT meet in Dec 2009

Fellow NITians,

NIT has produced talented engineers who are spread across the world.It is high time that we get together and channelize our combined strength to nation building as well as giving more prominence to NIT brand. We need to be together at one forum. We have started our effort to do so in Mumbai. Please come and join us at Facebook group:

Facebook Global NIT Forum

Cheers
Abhishek

Good Primer for Sales Professionals

James T. Healy has written a four-part series titled Selling in Non-objective Environment. It is definitely worth a read.

Abhishek

The Stanford Prison Experiment

I stumbled upon an interesting study conducted by Stanford University. This study was conducted in 1971 summer, quite a long while back and Standford had neatly shared the details on its website http://www.prisonexp.org/. The experiment had to be called off because of blurring of difference appearing between experiment and reality and first comment on morality by a PHD scholar. One of the interesting discussion points was:

In the encounter sessions, all the prisoners were happy the experiment was over, but most of the guards were upset that the study was terminated prematurely. Why do you think the guards reacted this way?

Abhishek

Startup Marketing

Dharmesh shah of OnStartups has written an informative article on marketing strategy for startups. It is a good read as it mentions some smart ways of marketing without spending money. You can read it here.

Cheers

What Happened to BJP?

The results of 2009 national elections must have been shocking for BJP. Nobody imagined such a bad performance by BJP. Starting from minuscule numbers in 1984, it went on to rule the country for 5 years and 13 days under Atal Bihar Vajpayee. It looked promising and many thought Indian democracy has matured with the rise of the second party at the national level. Five years of BJP rule were good for India and were expected to return to power sans the “India Shining” campaign in 2004. What happened to BJP?
My first memories of BJP as a party are of Mr. Vajpayee's masterful speeches where I used to go with my Dad. He was witty and used simple language. Later I used to read about many prominent personalities joining the party. It created a lot of promise riding on the image of Mr. Vajpayee. Congress at that point of time was suffering from lethargy. Its leaders looked tired, uninterested in India or too aristocratic. Slowly it started to loose its ground. Emergence of regional parties in northern India also contributed to congress’s fall. Finally it culminated in Congress losing a lot of ground and BJP coming to power.
But once BJP lost in the 2004 elections, it is on a downward swing. What happened to it? In my view, the reasons are as follows:
1) Most importantly, I feel, BJP never prepared the second rung of leaders. Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj etc were visible in media and were articulate but were never mass leaders. They were seen on television and appreciated by intellectuals but India lives in villages and these leaders never connected with the real voters.
2) BJP always tried to use the Hindutva as its main plank. But in a country, though driven by emotions, people don’t remember an emotion for long. It can work once but will not work always. That is where BJP lost the plot. Even in 2009 elections, it tried to rely on that, which proved to be counter-productive. This could have worked, had it been wisely mixed with economic issues and rural development.
3) Rahul Gandhi was the third most important reason. He is a Gandhi scion and India always had a fascination for Gandhi family. He is smart and understood the voters psyche pretty well. The emotional attachment can only be leveraged by connecting with masses. He did precisely that in UP and other places.
This is my two cents on BJP's defeat in 2009 elections. I still feel, it is one of the most organized and important pillars of our democracy and its strength will provide stability and supremacy to the largest democracy of the World.

Cheers

Indians create great opportunity for Wealth creation

The events of the last few days have been phenomenal. The election results have been unexpected for everyone to say the least. Even the Congress party have the right to be surprised, pleasantly though. The Indian public has voted for stability setting aside the instability of hung parliament and tantrums of the left parties blocking everything. This has created a great opportunity for common men for wealth creation.

Since last October, there has been sentiments of gloom and doom and everything was looking bad. Stock markets are just a reflection of the general economy and sentiments. But primarily it is driven by sentiments. From the high of 22000, it had gone down to intra-day low of 7500. People have lost huge amounts of money. Retail investors or FIIs or Indian MFs, everyone is loathe to invest. Economy wise, Manufacturing sector is seriously hit so is the export sector. IT sector is badly hit with exports decelerating in double digits. US economy is in serious dumps showing serious negative growth rates in last few months. Combined all this and you can realize how the two of the serious wealth creation avenues are hit. Property prices are down by 30-40%, stock market was down by more than 50%. The only other avenue was Fixed rate instruments which just cannot create serious wealth.


But the election verdict has changed all of that; first it changes the mood of gloom & doom. The reasons for that are - 1) Stability at the centre 2) Expectation of impetus to reforms 3) Disinvestment of PSU to generate funds for infrastructure & other much needed projects and thereby providing growth opportunity to other sectors.All of the above reasons will improve the sentiments dramatically. Today's market are just a sign of what is in store for us, 2099 points in a day for sensex. Add to that the fact that FIIs, MF money and retail money is waiting on the sidelines and is ready to get invested.

All of this is going to provide a serious opportunity to wealth creation. Invest in Domestic stories like Infrastructure, Banking & Capital goods sector and in next one year, one can make serious money.

Kudos to us Indians. Well Done!!!!!

Cheers

Binary Mantra Systems Launches its first Healthcare Product

My Company, Binary Mantra Systems(BMS) launched eClinic today – a software developed for small and medium sized hospitals & clinics. The product enables outpatient management including the facility to schedule patient’s appointments with Doctors, capture prescriptions and to record patient case history. The second module of the software automates hospital’s medical store to electronically manage requisitions, issues and inventory of medicines. Designed and customized exclusively for the Indian market, the product is available in two deployment versions – one with 2 user licence and the other with unlimited user licenses. eClinic marks Binary Mantra Systems’ foray into health care. The company has plans to launch more specialized versions of this software over a period of one year. The upcoming modules include specialty wise patient examination, Pathology Module and ICU management. The company has plans to enter into Indian education segment and their first product is expected to be launched by the end of this year. This product is targeted towards school students.

Binary Mantra Systems In News

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About Binary Mantra Systems
Binary Mantra Systems (BMS) is a Pune based IT products and services company specializing in Healthcare, BPM and Mobility Solutions. The founder members are IT professionals and extensive experience. IT was established in August 2008.
The company is working for Indian and US customers. BMS has started to make inroads into US market as well. They have acquired couple of US customers this quarter. For more information on BMS, visit www.binarymantrasystems.com.

Cheers

Our First Product Launch

It is an exciting time for me as first time in my professional life, I am directly involved with a product launch. Obviously we had done proper market research and developed the product as per our study and feedback from the experts but the excitement and nervousness is immense. At the time of founding Binary Mantra Systems (BMS), we had dreamt of building a product company. The start of BMS also marked the start of economic slowdown across the world. Accordingly we had to make adjustments in our goals & vision. Last eight months have been pretty difficult in terms of cash flow trying to develop products and finding income streams. It is an ideal scenario for any company to fund the product development through internal cash flow. But that is ideal!!!!
Last few days, we have been brainstorming on different ways of marketing our first product. We talked to a few PR and advertising agencies. The options available are limitless. Each one has exciting proposition and we get tempted by the possibility of using each one of them. However, every time, we have to remember the fact that we are a startup and have limited budget. Nevertheless, we have decided onto some options and will implement it in next few weeks. I will talk about them a little later as they happen and see the result.

Cheers

Taliban : Don't we learn from history

Taliban is moving closer to Pakistani capital day-by-day. They are now in Haripur, just 40 minutes away from the Pakistani capital. Obviously the intentions are very clear, they want to get control of the capital and thereby the country. That's what they did in Afghanistan and it took massive effort on part of the US and NATO forces to push them out in 2004. Since then, they have regrouped with the support of sympathizers in North Western Frontier Provinces of Pakistan and are battle ready once again. If they are able to get control of the country, it will be the biggest threat to the World, no doubts. It is scary. The most unfortunate part is that Pakistan will be paying the heaviest price for their adventurism. History is replete with examples where organizations/individuals have turned against the very institutions who nurtured them at one point in time.

During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, CIA and ISI provided support to Afghans to fight against the Soviets. ISI and CIA have worked together on many such adventurous projects. However in this case, Pakistan had a commercial interest too. Its trade with central Asia was seriously hampered and it wanted somebody to make it possible. CIA funded with the help of ISI to buy arms for the Talibans. These mercenaries were trained in camps by people like Osama. Taliban grew stronger and stronger and finally captured Kabul.

These Taliban fighters came primarily from the refugee camps of NWFP, after they were forced to flee their country. The breeding ground for these aggressive and fearless groups is Madrassas. It is a thought process which uses a very narrow interpretation of Koran to spread its terror. After they were ousted from Afghanistan, they took shelter in Pakistan, used the last 3-4 years to regroup, and drew support from many other organizations like LeT etc and now they are at the doorsteps of Pakistani capital.

What happens next is going to decide the World politics and state of terrorism but surely this is a lesson for every country. Never give birth to a wrong thought process or rogue element, ultimately it will turn against you.

IPL Season 2: Story So far

The IPL season 2 started with usual aplomb and fanfare and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the splendor of the opening ceremony. Consider that SA cricket had just 3 weeks to organize all this, it is been real good. Lalit Modi and SA cricket have done a good job. The matches so far have thrown up some unexpected results and some old war horses have been match winners. Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Vetori and Warne turning out to be match winners is pleasant but not expected by the most. It shows that love and passion for cricket and the proven skills are never out of vogue in any form of cricket. However, two most talking points of the IPL season 2 have been:

1) Weather: Weather has been a real spoil sport so far turning the matches into very much "Unlike 20-20". This form of cricket is known for blistering pace and hard hitting with usually high scoring matches. For once, it has been more sedate. The matches are being shortened, there are multiple interruptions, D/L baba creating grossly unfair propositions for other team, it is all happening. I think, even Lalit Modi would not have expected this. Hopefully, Rain Gods will be kinder henceforth and matches will be usual 20-20 slam bang ones.

2) Strategy Break: The strategy break has been a talking point since IPL season 2 started. It is mandated to be taken after 10 overs (or midway) in both the sessions. The duration is of 7.5 minutes. In the rain curtailed match yesterday, it was taken even after the match was reduced to 12 overs. This particular instance has raised the hackles of purists of the game and even some experts. Obviously there are some who support this and others who oppose it. I also thought to join the bandwagon and give my point of opinion. Well, in my view strategy break should always be an on-demand break. Every team should be given a 3 minute strategy break every session based on when they deem it necessary. Obviously, a change of strategy or strategy re-thinking is required when things are not going as per the plan. The captain/coach should decide the time to take the break. The coach's role is important and typically the captain is so involved in the actions around him that he needs a fresh approach or input to take corrective actions. That's why I feel it has be a on-demand break rather than a pre-determined one.

Cheers

Satyam Saga: Well done

The world economy is going through one of the worst phases in its history probably as bad as the great depression, 1929. Governments around the world are scratching their heads and coming up with various plans to put the economy back on track. General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Chrysler and many others, the blue chips are in dumps. News of quick bankruptcy of General Motors and the US government's every effort to revive the sinking corporate giants have become part of daily lives. Other countries are also not far behind be it China, India or European countries. Amidst all the gloom, yesterday Tech Mahindra's win of Satyam marks an end to one of the most professionally run effort of a government aided by 3 most sincere and honest professionals to resurrect the hopes of a symbol of Indian success. Satyam was and will remain one of the names which symbolizes the "India arrived" story.

So when Mr. Raju's tryst with money and lust came to light, everyone was shocked. How come!!!!!! Every Indian wished it should not have happened, how can such a respected and appreciated entrepreneur can do something like this? The reputation of not only IT industry but that of India was at stake. I don’t know about others, but I have received sleazy comments by some foreign nationals equating every Indian IT company to Satyam. There was a big risk of losing the transparency and fairness associated with corporate governance of Indian companies. But the way, everybody involved, has managed the process of taking Satyam to this stage is commendable. The government appointed board, the appointment of new auditors, appointment of interim CEO Mr. Murthy, swift action on PwC involved artists and transparent bidding process for Satyam are signs of a very professional and smart handling of this dangerous situation. Now hopefully,Tech Mahindra will ensure that this sorry episode is erased from the Indian corporate map forever.

Kudos to everyone involved.

Cheers

What is Hospice/Palliative Care

The word ‘Hospice’ is derived from the Latin word hospes, which means ‘to host a guest or stranger’. Hospice refers to a medical centre or hospital which provides the Hospice or Palliative care. It can be a specialized Hospice centre or a division of a hospital. In this document, I will refer to them as a Hospice. Hospice and Palliative care are generally used interchangeably though they refer to different concepts. Hospice care refers to the treatment and care provided to achieve relief of pain and other symptoms of terminally ill patients and to offer patients and their families the best possible quality of life. Palliative care differs from Hospice care in only one aspect. It does not only cater to patients who are terminally ill. The core focus of these units is Care rather than Cure and the treatment here involves treatment not only at the hospital but also at home (called Home Care). In addition to that, diversionary therapy is also used as an aid.
Palliative Care
• Focus is on pain and symptom management
• Patient does not have to be terminal
• May still be seeking aggressive treatment
Hospice Care
• Focus is on pain and symptoms management
• Patient has a terminal diagnosis with life expectancy of less than six months
• Not seeking curative treatment

Hospice and Palliative care:My Introduction

I was unaware of Hospice and Palliative care till the time, my company was contracted to develop the software for the Hospice Unit of CIPLA in Pune, India. Once I started to get involved to understand the requirements, I started to realize the importance of work. It is a great service to the people who need such help to make them live a better life which is not possible without the help of Hospices. But unfortunately, it is a great pity that people have misconceptions about putting their loved ones use this service. I thought to contribute to this cause in whatever capacity possible.