Medical-Technological Solution of Lybrate and the Resources Dilemma of India

To mark World Hypertension Day, Lybrate Report from the online doctor consultation platform, has released detailed increasing incidence of hypertension amongst the working population in metro cities. The Lybrate Report is based on data gathered from around 10,000 working professionals in Tier 1 cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

The Lybrate report reveals that 49% of the working population in Tier 1 cities of India suffer from hypertension. Work-related stress is a major cause for the increasing incidences of diseases. According to the Lybrate report, Mumbai (31%) has the highest number of working professionals suffering from hypertension followed by Delhi (27%), Bangalore (14%), Hyderabad (11%), Chennai (10%) and Kolkata (7%). Professions identified to be causing maximum stress to working professionals are Sales & Marketing (24%), Media & Public Relations (22%), BPOs (17%), Travel & Tourism (9%), Advertising & events (8%), says the Lybrate Report. The Lybrate Report also highlights that High-stress levels in individuals have a direct correlation with increased consumption of alcohol and cigarette smoking.

Lybrate is an online doctors’ consultation platform that has been expanding fast. Recently, it has announced collaborating with and as the digital partner by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to educate the over 2.5 lakh doctors under its fold on how best to incorporate technology in their practice for communicating with patients and multiply their presence for reaching out to more people.

“The lack of clear guidelines as well as the absence of technical know-how among the medical fraternity has resulted in a slower growth of m-health and e-health space in India. Given the size and vastness of our country, the scope of digital healthcare is immense and if implemented in the right way, it can help solve many problems faced by the sector. We are extremely happy to come along with Lybrate as our digital partner and hope that together we can work towards making healthcare accessible to the people of India,” said a joint statement by Padma Shri Awardee Dr A Marthanda Pillai, National President IMA and Padma Shri Awardee, Dr K K Aggarwal, Hon’ble Secretary General IMA.

“IMA is a prestigious body in the medical arena. It has been doing commendable things relating to people’s health involving its wide network of doctors. As Lybrate is also working to solve the fundamental problem of healthcare delivery in India that is inaccessibility of doctors, our goals are aligned with each other and support our objectives,” said Saurabh Arora, CEO, Lybrate.

So far, Lybrate has not made a large presence in smaller towns and rural areas. The reach of Lybrate is restricted to bigg cities andto the people who are more affluent than most. The reason for this is that people in these areas don’t have easy access to the Internet, fast computers and advanced smart phones. Worst, people in these areas don’t even have access to regular electric supply. There are towns and villages in India where electric supply doesn’t come for weeks, sometimes for a month. There is no way so far to provide regular supply in these areas, as India suffers from a severe energy crisis and has to constantly depend upon other nations for energy resources. Unless India finds a way to solve its energy supplies, these kinds of experiments will remain limited wonders for the chosen few who enjoy a regular supply of electricity. It is essential to focus on improving the basic infrastructure before we go in the direction of making these technological advances extensively accessible to rural areas and small towns.