At a time when anything turns ‘viral’ within days in techie terms, a small effort of tree IITians is making it true in ‘medical terms’ as well. Curofy, a less than a year infant mobile application has become a major helping hands for rural doctors whenever they fall in ‘what to do in this disease’ distress.
“I came across with a problem of a recently-born child from rural parts of Karnataka with no eyelid. One local doctor from there had posted this on our exclusive community mobile application platform Curofy some four months ago. As I had come across one similar with one of my patients, I put the solution on the application. The doctor sitting there got it and treated the child to get it cured,” said Ophthalmologist, Dr. Ratnesh Kumar from Ranchi and one of the members on Curofy.
He added that Curofy was breaking the geographical barriers and doctors from across the country were helping each other in solving serious and complicated clinical cases. “I know at least two dozens of Ophthalmologists alone from city itself who are there on Curofy, sharing problems and getting help from there. It is helping a lot,” claimed Dr. Kumar. He said that it was extremely helpful for a doctor sitting in remote areas of the State to get solution of his confusions regarding any disease, many a times within minutes.
Co-founded by Pawan Gupta, Nipun Goyal and Mudit Vijayvergiya, Curofy claims of having 2,549 doctors registered from Jharkhand, with 860 patients from the State got helped from doctors of either within the State or from other parts of the country. Curofy raised the initial capitaof $1,50,000 following strong interest from many investors. Some highly respected angels like Rajul Garg (Sunstone Business School, Global logic, Pine labs), Alok Mittal (JobsAhead, Canaan), India Quotient, Spice labs, Dinesh Agarwal (Indiamart), Dr Shuchin Bajaj (Cygnus Hospitals), and Presha Paragash (Zostel, Sol Primero) have also invested in the company. In September 2015, Curofy raised a large pre-series A round from a Seattle based healthcare VC, Roundglass partners.
“Curofy was started to solve the seclusion of healthcare industry. We wanted to create a platform where doctors from all the aspects of medicine could come together and help each other. It is good to see that we have been successful to an extent and that senior doctors are ready to open up and share their expertise,” said Nipun Goel.
However, the mobile application has also raised a couple of pertinent questions. “It is difficult, many a times to believe that someone suggesting solution is expert or not. Then, the medicine he is suggesting may be fine for patients in USA, but may be banned in India, are the questions this platform needs to check properly,” questioned Dr Kumar.