Even as more super-specialty hospitals spring up across Indian cities, a number of entrepreneurs in the booming healthcare sector are taking a contrarian approach and recreating the old model of the family physician.
Responding to demands from middle and upper-middle classes for a family doctor who knows his patients and their medical history intimately, these new ventures are creating chains of neighbourhood clinics that offer the intimacy of personal care alongside the benefits of digitised patient records and online referrals to specialists when needed.
"I was sick and tired of going to hospitals, needless tests and procedures," says TRanganathan, a former professor at IITBombay, who moved to Bangalore with his family seven years ago. His quest for a local physician ended this year when he found Modern Family Doctor, a startup that has set up a chain of clinics in India's technology capital.
"A good family doctor is affordable, knows your medical history and does not scare you by prescribing needless tests," says the 79-year-old, who now works as a management consultant.
In the past year, nearly half-a-dozen such startups have come up across Indian cities aiming to re-establish a bond between patients and a physician.
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