When it comes to choosing a doctor we generally have to rely on friends and family or in some cases on a general physician for a specialist. At times this can be of only little help owing to the limited contacts we have. 
DocSuggest is a Hyderabad startup that is trying to bridge the gap between doctors and patients by providing listing and review of doctors so that users can take a more informed decision. DocSuggest’s EzAppointment solution allows patients to book appointments with hospitals and doctors directly through web or phone ( 040- 64546565). The service is currently available for Hyderabad only.
DocSuggest has another offering called EzMedicine where users can order for medicines and get it delivered to their preferred location. DocSuggest will verify their prescription at the time of delivery to make sure that they get the right medicines ruling out any possibilities of human error.
The site currently has about 75 doctors listed under various specialties. Being in a nascent stage, their aren’t much reviews available now.
Vertical listings and aggregation is a very lucrative space to be in and with high margin services’ listings the cut you make is ofcourse higher. The startup is directly competing with large local listing sites like Justdial and Asklaila etc., though a niche play might help it gain more trust and recall.
There are quite a few startups working on the healthcare front with different models, from live chat to Rate/Review local listings to providing customized search for medical diseases and conditions etc. (Check them here). There are surely more models that can be explored.
Hyderabadis, do give DocSuggest a try.
[Naman is a startup enthusiast and has worked with couple of Indian startups as Product Manager. He writes at The Inspire Blog]
There are a few websites already trying to bridge in the gap like http://www.justhealth.in [Primarily Delhi]/ http://www.healthizen.com [Mumbai]. I am not sure if they provide online appointments but I guess because they are already into Listings/Reviews etc. so it seems to be a logical step ahead.
Indian healthcare sector has def. caught a fancy of lots of startups.
Yes, Aristo. Thanks for your viewpoint!
Hello Naman,
This is Shantanu from docSuggest. Thanks for publishing the article on docSuggest. I would like to add a few facts regarding docSuggest.
The service is completely free of charge to patients.
We are very different from justdial or other local search engines. We provide a detailed description of doctors including professional background, educational qualifications, experience and any specific subject expertise they may have.
We also provide information on facilities provided by hospitals like tests, specialties they deal with, inhouse facilities and so forth. And as you’ve rightly mentioned, we help patient book real time appointment as per his choice of doctor and time.
The philosophy behind it is that when you are looking for a doctor, you need to know much more than just phone number and address. And that where we are different from local search engines like justdial.
Infact Justdial and sulekha.com are our promotional channels.
We conduct regular multi-specialty health camps and events within the city towards adding value to patients and healthcare service providers.
To add to your point on number of doctors we have tied up with, we have about 200 doctors in the pipeline in hyderabad, currently in implementation phase.
Thanks again for posting this article.
Regards,
Shantanu
docSuggest Healthcare Services
http://www.docSuggest.com
interesting
Please review again after 2 month with actual statistics.
Raxit Sheth
Whats the revenue model?
How many people do you target to actually make appointments using your portal? You must also have a mobile app at some point. I don’t know if there is a big enough market out there for your offering to make any significant impact. I hope I am wrong!
Thanks for your interest, Santosh
Direct Revenue channel is from Hospitals and Corporates.
I could give you a theoretical market sizing but would rather tell you that the response in 3rd month of our operations is encouraging.
We presently receive about 250 hits per week locally. That is without any major promotional campaign.
Large percentage of the calls coming from non-IT aware section who are local residents of Hyderabad.
In a duration of less than three months, we have already demonstrated the value add to our partner hospitals.
And yes, Mobile App is in the pipeline.
hey Santhanu, it looks like pretty interesting concept, presently i am working for one of the online sales project, in which we need a business partner who can help us in some help in some healthcare process.. could you share me contact details so that I can get in touch you….
nice service.
I was recently looking for this kind of site where I can look up doctors and book an appointment with them.
Though, it could be out of your control, one thing you could try to work with doctors is keeping up with appointments promptly. I recently booked an appointment at rainbow hospital with a specialist and had to wait 3 hrs. Can’t believe it’s the best children’s hospital in the city. Since you are a vertical based service offering, if you can work an extra mile with the doctors and hospital management staff who sign up with you and make sure that appointments are kept well, then you would get lot of word of mouth publicity.
All the best
regards
Venkat
Thanks Venkat.
As a matter of fact, the very premise of docSuggest is to ensure that the appointments are honored properly & on time. Seeing the prevalent practice of keeping a patient waiting for hours on end, we realized that a system where candid and real reviews of doctors/hospitals are available might help. When the service gets popular and healthcare sector takes notice of our users’ voice, it should translate in them honoring the appointment! We do work with the partner hospitals and their doctors to try & ensure that the wait time is minimized and active participation from user community is certainly going to help.
I sincerely request you to give docSuggest a try and share your experience with us so that others could benefit from it too and help us make your next appointment even better an experience.
I tried to look up for Paediatricians in Kondapur, where I live I found none and the nearest one is in Secunderabad. So I guess I’d have to wait till you sign up more.
I
Thats a nice concept. Local doctors listing with reviews and feature to book appointment is great.
Thanks Pradeep.
anything which you think will help us improve. Do let us know of your experience when you use docSuggest the next time.
We are working on a number of additional things to streamline our users’ experience in availing healthcare facilities. Feel free to suggest docSuggest
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