In 2010, Satish Kannan and Enbasekar D., two undergraduate students from IIT Madras, took part in a national student innovation competition. They had previously worked together on building an unmanned aerial vehicle for aerial surveying―similar to the one Aamir Khan's character Rancho flew in the 2009 film 3 Idiots. But for the competition, they pivoted to health care, developing a compact ECG device.
The device could connect directly to a mobile phone, enabling patients to monitor their heart health conveniently. If irregularities were detected, the device would send an SMS alert. Their project won the competition, but more important, the project put the duo in touch with a lot of doctors, who advised them on the project.
While visiting the doctors, Satish and Enbasekar noticed patients enduring long waits just for brief consultations. “We discovered that many patients were making long, arduous trips to Chennai from remote parts of Tamil Nadu for follow-up appointments," said Enbasekar. "They would then spend hours waiting, only to have a quick consultation. This experience underscored the urgent need to improve health care access, inspiring us to tackle this issue. With mobile phones and software starting to evolve around that time, we began our startup journey.”
Enbasekar added that back when he was a student, he relied on laptops and Google Talk to share notes, exchange questions and even make plans with his peers. “This got us thinking―why doctors and patients did not use such tools? However, we realised that many doctors didn’t use laptops and were often too busy for email communication,” he said.
After graduating in 2012, the duo gained experience in health care: Satish joined Philips Healthcare, while Enbasekar worked in a research company developing tele-ophthalmology software. A year later, they quit and started their own venture. For the next couple of years, they did a lot of trial and error, and, in 2015, with the increasing popularity of smartphones and WhatsApp, launched their first product, DocsAap. “Our aim was to create a communication platform similar to WhatsApp, but specifically for doctor-patient interactions,” said Enbasekar.
Nearly a decade later, Satish and Enbasekar now lead MediBuddy, arguably India’s largest on-demand, full-stack digital health care platform. They have a network of over a lakh doctors across 22 specialities, 7,100+ hospitals and clinics, 6,000+ diagnostic centres, and 2,500+ pharmacies. Partnering with several leading corporations, MediBuddy enables patients to consult specialists, order medicines and book lab tests from the comfort of their homes. The firm addresses both “curative” and “preventive” health care needs. Curative services cater to patients who are unwell and require immediate medical assistance. Preventive care, on the other hand, helps healthy users maintain their well-being through fitness, diet, regular checkups and biomarker monitoring.
MediBuddy’s surgery care programme is another key offering, providing end-to-end support through a dedicated Care Buddy for surgery-related needs. Specialities served include proctology, ophthalmology, vascular medicine, ENT, orthopaedics, urology and gynaecology.
“We began with online consultations, but now we cover the full spectrum of health care. We have evolved into a comprehensive digital health care platform, delivering the full length and breadth of health care services," said Enbasekar. He spoke about numerous heart-warming success stories from across the country. “People in remote areas like Leh want equal health care access, but travelling hundreds of kilometres to cities like Jammu or Srinagar for tests is unrealistic, especially when ill. Attempts to partner with larger hospitals also failed, as they were unwilling to send staff to such remote areas. This left many without essential health tests, even for health insurance requirements,” said Enbasekar. “To address this, we began weekly mobile health camps running each Thursday in place of a permanent lab, allowing us to provide essential health care access to people who previously had none.”
Another example is the partnership with microfinance institutions and non-banking financial companies that support self-help groups. These groups, often run by women, work in dairy, handicraft and similar small businesses. “Through these partnerships, we can set up camps at local village panchayats, where these women can gather once every month or two to take care of basic health needs. However, since many of these women don’t have smartphones or email addresses, we courier their reports via post.” This is followed by an automated call with a doctor who would explain the findings and advise the next steps.
Enbasekar said India had a significant advantage in terms of innovation and creating new mechanisms to deliver health care. He gave the example of adopting telemedicine during the pandemic, which allowed doctors to assist a large number of patients remotely. He also spoke about the progress in areas like insurance penetration. “The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority and government initiatives such as Ayushman Bharat are pushing for more health care adoption and insurance coverage, which is crucial, especially when someone needs surgery or major treatment," he said.
Enbasekar, who loves playing football and tennis and enjoys watching sports, said he still found time for those hobbies despite a busy schedule. "I picked up these habits in college, where I first learned to balance intense academics, while still making time for sports or entertainment,” he said. “I am an avid football fan and support Arsenal. At our office, we have a small area with a fireside and space to play football, where people go and hang out."