Heal: New Healthcare served the Old Fashioned Way

Most of our posts have been detailing the healthcare sector to be one of the most lucrative, and recommending new players to enter the market since many factors conjoin to make a favorable time to invest.

Shoddy extant architecture and the decentralization of the healthcare system, from the reactive to the proactive has engineered much of the disruption in healthcare. The time is ripe for technologically motivated players (many of those in the on-demand world qualify) to enter and remedy much of these problems plaguing healthcare.

In that vein, we decided to showcase Heal, a start-up that has been making waves in the world of on-demand healthcare.

Heal was founded on October the 1^st, 2014 and is experiencing steady growth and demand since its inception. For those who imagined the futuristic world of healthcare to exclude old-fashioned doctor’s calls, think again. Heal operates on a model that is similar

To put it succinctly, Heal will allow you to call licensed pediatricians and doctors for a sum of $99, which can be paid for conventionally, or through select insurance plans on their grid. Currently, Heal’s total equity funding stands at $59.15 million, done in 5 rounds from over 18 investors like the Tull Investment group and Breyer Capital. There is faith in Heal’s idea, and operational model.

With their promise of ‘on-demand house calls from 8 am to 8 pm’, Heal provides immediate solutions to the problems of conventional healthcare experiences. Elderly patients, or those which have mobility issues, those who prefer the comforts of home as compared to the clogged hospital line – and those who need instant monitoring and access to healthcare are all looking towards Heal for a solution. Heal also operates on holidays and makes scheduling efficient.

Heal also tries solving the doctor-to-student ratio problem, where family doctors generally see about 40 patients a day, causing them to spread themselves thin and see a dip in their caregiving quality. Instead, with Heal’s app, doctors see about a dozen patients a day and can impart quality healthcare to each patient they visit. They also make the same amount of money despite this reduced volume.

The environment at home also gives the doctor a good handle on the patient’s condition in terms of diagnosis, and the doctor can give better solutions as far as recovery is concerned.

Heal treats its doctors as full-time employees, while taking on freelancers – although the idea is that not many doctors might want to go door-to-door, CEO Nick Desai says there’s a waitlist of doctors for registering on their app, which clearly indicates a healthy demand from the doctoral side of affairs.

The way heal works is pretty much like other on-demand platforms. With the help of a mobile app, Heal allows you to summon a doctor for a wide-ranging spectrum of ailments: from rashes, to burning fevers, to ear infections and sports injuries. Regular check-ups, monitoring, testing and other such services are also provided by them – this includes flu-shots, and family health counselling.

Heal is looking to target markets that are plagued with poor healthcare delivery. They have already made inroads in LA, Orange County, San Diego etc and are looking at Texas and other markets. They also plan to make childcare and other avenues an option, provided the demand and supply can be adequately matched. Their tie-ups with insurance companies have increased revenue, but there are several other competitors in the market (like Pager) who carve out their own share of the revenue.

Improved Business Analytics and looking to scope out potential solutions that pervade the healthcare industry should be priorities for Heal in this case, if it wishes to stay ahead of the curve. Breyer, an investor, has already remarked about the integration of AI and other technology for Heal to solve many of its scheduling, on-boarding and other problems in order to equip it with a competitive edge.