What are the challenges for onboarding doctors who are not very tech savvy? How does CLIRNET simplify the process of onboarding doctors?
Adopting digital tools in healthcare is excellent for scaling up improved patient care, but can sometimes be a problem. In India, and perhaps even globally, doctors are accustomed to a practice that matches their practice and patient demographics. For example, there is a huge disparity in terms of tech-understanding between doctors practicing in a metropolitan area and Tier-II Town. Challenges range from device compatibility to the use of OTP or, in some cases, just typing information over the phone.
As a core philosophy, we have always prioritized service delivery over technology that helps it serve 250,000+ doctors not only in cities but also in Tier II and rural populations. The purpose of all our workflows is to provide service to the doctor regardless of their technique preparation. If a rural doctor wants to discuss a complex patient case with a peer and has little or no internet connectivity, we have a fully equipped call center with a health ambassador to help them complete the interaction. Another example would be WhatsApp support which has become crucial to help doctors.
With AI-powered Tech Infra, we have a dedicated 50+ member multi-communications team whose job is not just that of onboard doctors but to ensure that critical services are made available and run successfully. We have also kept the sign-up process very simple; Form design is straightforward and crucial. Help and adaptive guidance are provided at each step. Product tours are offered to complete the onboarding process.
Our extensive work as a digital partner and therapy with more than 750 doctor associations across the country also gives doctors tremendous comfort to participate in the sharing of knowledge without having to worry about the dangerous anonymity that technology platforms sometimes provide.
How does the organization work to verify the credentials of on-board doctors? What are the challenges and how is the company working to meet those challenges?
We have an in-depth clinical content platform with over 20,000+ pieces of clinical content and 500+ live. CME Sessions every month, it’s important for us to verify the credentials of all our users. User Verification is a rigorous, multi-step process for ensuring the integrity and authenticity of doctors’ medical credentials. To date, the content platform is open only to doctors who are registered with the National Medical Council (NMC) (formerly the Medical Council of India (MCI)). Verification of NMC credentials is important for our verification process.
The NMC database has improved over time but still faces some inconsistencies. In addition, we have found many cases where doctors have not updated their records with the NMC. We have a dedicated team of omnichannel verification experts who not only work with these doctors to collect and verify their data but also help them update their credentials on the NMC database.
What are the protocols for testing the content available on the platform? How is content filtered and made available?
Our team of scientific contacts identifies and selects the right content from the thousands of monthly live discussions on real-life experimental drugs taking place on the platform. This ensures that both our MedWiki and clinical video services publish timely and relevant content, avoiding duplication and minimizing unnecessary rejection in the publishing process. Our expert team of medical authors, scientific reviewers, and doctorates shortlist and prepare draft material for publication based on medical guidelines, evaluation, contextual research, and editorial quality. Our speaking physicians also add their suggestions on the most relevant questions during each session for consideration by the editorial team. Draft material is examined for plagiarism by preparing artwork related to the creative designing team to effectively communicate the findings of the material. The draft is then sent to an internal and external review board that evaluates the content based on our proprietary V3IN framework governed by consistency, evidence and quality. Our external expert reviewers determine validity, importance, and suggest post-correction for content that undergoes repeated changes before being published.
Doctors have to spend a lot of time searching because they are some of the busiest professionals or they do not have time to find space for digital content. They want the right content in the right packaging at the right time which is only possible through AI-powered need detection methods. Types of content can range from treatment protocols to case studies and packaging to text to video and other multi-media mechanisms. We’ve created a proprietary Doctor-centric Content Intelligence System (IntelligentJetting) that integrates medical usage data across regions to create personality and evaluate content needs with powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) based data models. This ensures high consistency and timely availability of content for doctors and is probably the cause of 65+ percent of quarterly active users.
What new technology does the company want to implement in the next three years to improve the reach and accessibility of the platform?
Our mission is to empower doctors with digital tools and services that will help them provide affordable, accessible and equitable healthcare to patients across India, including remote areas. In that context, instead of thinking about new technologies in isolation, we always think about the interaction between services and technology. To improve accessibility and ensure that the benefits of the platform are enjoyed by the entire healthcare ecosystem, we will launch a specialized platform for medical associations and organizations where they can implement their vision of disseminating medical knowledge and further their community building. Integrated
To enhance the platform’s accessibility from primary to tertiary care facilities, CLIRNET’s digital discussion and reference will streamline effective communication between different levels of healthcare and timely referrals to ensure high quality care to patients at all levels. Strong integration of referrals will lead to timely treatment of patients which will reduce mortality and increase the quality of care while ensuring utilization of optimal resources at different levels of healthcare delivery.
In addition, based on our core strengths of generating user-oriented medical knowledge and doctor engagement, we will now launch a suite of leading tech-based products to help connect physicians and patients directly. Named DocTube, it will allow doctors to build trust and ownership with their patients based on their medical expertise and patient care. Following the digital transformation, our focus will be on developing technologies tailored to the needs of the patient. It will be crucial to humanize the whole experience for good healthcare outcomes. Therefore, we will combine components both online and offline to stimulate the full doctor-patient journey with human experience.
Is the company planning to expand to other markets outside India? What are the opportunities and how does the company plan to achieve those goals?
Our model of collaboration and engagement of physicians is highly measurable and can provide enormous benefits to physicians and patients in many emerging nations and regions. This is the first opportunity to engage doctors in South-East Asian, Middle-Eastern and African countries. Although each nation has its own unique healthcare challenges, each faces certain common barriers such as high patient-doctor ratio, non-availability of clinical user-generated content, lack of patient awareness, and lack of optimal use of existing resources. In that regard, we have started working with medical institutes in these countries to create an effective model of collaboration with Indian doctors. We have already executed cross-country programs with reputable organizations like SAARC Psychiatric Federation, UNESCO, UNICEF and BAMOS where more than 10,000 doctors have participated. It can also be used to significantly promote medical health tourism in India as the expertise of Indian doctors is highly regarded in many regions like South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
