Mumbai, May 3: Check4health.com, a vertical healthcare site was launched on Wednesday by Data2Information, a company promoted by four Calcutta-based entrepreneurs. Check4Health is the company's first Internet offering, and promoters say there are more on the anvil. The company has received in excess of $1million from Smifs Venture Fund, who has provided the angel funding for the site. Check4Health which aims to be the `one stop shop' for all healthcare information also told The Financial Express that they were in talks with market research major, ORG-Marg for a potential alliance.The alliance could entail an equity participation at a future date by ORG Marg. According to Kumar Dasgupta, CEO, Data2Information, "the talks are in the preliminary stages but we don't rule out an equity participation by ORG Marg" he clarified. ORG Marg has currently been commissioned by the portal to conduct a dipstick survey on consumer health information needs in various metros. Check4Health is primarily a health infomediary which provides qualitative information for consumers. The company has created a proprietary database which includes a listing of all health service providers in 6 Indian cities- Calcutta, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.
These providers range from doctors and hospitals to nursing homes, diagnostic clinics, blood banks, oxygen supplies, pharmacies and ambulance services among others. The site also has a health tools section which offers interactive tools to judge the status of an individual's health based on various parameters - A target heart rate calculator, BodyMass Index Calculator, Pregnancy Calculators and Depression Calculator are some of the product offerings.
As far as the site's revenue model goes, Jayanta Banerjee, chief marketing officer, a business graduate from IIM Bangalore says " we have multiple revenue streams, on of them is a fee-based model whereby we charge consumers for a range of services right from completing the administrative processes between them and the service provider to providing value-added services on the site itself." The portal hopes to enable consumers to cut short the administrative work linked to all sorts of medical facilities whether it is filling forms or settling bills or even supplying results of pathological tests, by being a key facilitator in the process. Additionally, the company also plans to link up with manufacturers or distributors of a range of healthcare products to serve as an online facilitator for sales.
Two of the promoters, Dasgupta and Banerjee have both held positions in global consulting major Ernst and Young while Subir Nag, COO, Data2Information is from Ind Global Financial Trust and the fourth partner Dr AK Chatterjee, Chief Medical Advisor for the portal was former director of the Institute of Naval Medicine. The promoter group holds the majority stake in the venture.
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