Innovating Diabetes and Eye Care

Medfort Hospitals has planned a slew of 20 green field eyecare and diabetic hospitals across India, says M Neelam Kachhap


Stand alone diabetes and eye care centres are creating new wave in the Indian healthcare industry. While, diabetes clinics and eye clinics have been around for a long time, care for these modalities in a stand alone hospital set-up is just beginning to surface. The testimony of this growing popularity is the investor interest in such ventures. One such promising venture is Medfort Hospitals.

The brain child of the serial entrepreneur Dr GSK Velu, Chairman, Medfort Hospitals aims to make its networks of diabetes and ophthalmology day care centres known worldwide for innovations and clinical expertise. Dr Velu says, “Medfort has seized the opportunity provided by the lacuna in synergised, high quality vision care and diabetes care to emerge as the largest day care chain in the country.”

Medfort Hospitals, in a short span of time has managed to spread its wings all over India. Recently, the company announced the acquisition of the Hyderabad based Maxivision Eye Hospitals (Maxivision) in an all-cash deal creating a new brand called Maxivision Eyecare which would comprise of all the eyecare activities of Medfort Group and Maxivision Lasik Suites across India. This has provided the company the momentum nessesary to establish itself as a pan-India brand. In fact, its first international centre will be commissioning soon in Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Hospital in UAE in a partnership model.

Earlier this year, the company announced a joint venture with RAK Hospital, UAE for setting up of a centre for excellence for eye care. This is Medfort's first international venture in association with LVPEI. The partnership with RAK Hospital and LVPEI will enable the company to create a world class centre of excellence in RAK, with multiple spokes in the region. The centre will aim to provide the most cost-effective, high-quality, and comprehensive eye care facilities to the entire population of the UAE by creating presence in all the Emirates of the UAE within one year.

"This collaboration comes in line with our vision to provide high quality cost-effective eye care diagnosis and treatment, covering all areas of eye care, viz. cataract surgery, refractive surgery including Lasik corrections, glaucoma, vitreo retinal surgeries, and other advanced treatment techniques necessary for eye care,” says Dr Valu.

With this the company enhanced its portfolio with 12 network hospiatls, having presence in six locations, namely, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Vizag, Vijayawada and UAE.

The Genesis

Medfort Hospitals was conceived by Dr Velu, a first generation entrepreneur of over 22 years of experience in healthcare segment who changed the topography of medical technology and diagnostics industry by starting companies like Trivitron Healthcare, Metropolis, Alliance Medicorp and Hexel Consultancy Services. His idea of starting Medfort, was to have consolidated diabetes and eye care under one roof in a business model which is less capital intensive, easy to manage and gives quick return on investments.

While the concept of stand-alone centres for diabetes management and eyecare is not new with most tertiary hospitals and some speciality hospitals having a play in this segment. There has not been a nationwide brand for both these specialities under one roof. "The idea is similar to Metropolis which was conceived in late 1990’s and we felt the need for more consolidated eye care play bringing in likeminded ophthalmologists under one umbrella and also use the cross referrals and synergies to create a multicity diabetic network," explains Dr velu.

However, like all business Medfort also had its teething problems. One huge task that the entrepreneur had was to convince investors to put their money in an idea like this. “Like in any venture convincing the private equity firms for an idea like this was difficult. To convince people that this idea is sustainable and profitable was tough. But the journey has picked up pace and is running much faster than anticipated because of the unfulfilled need in the market segment," lauds Dr Velu.

Business Model

The business model of Medfort hospital is similer to the day care model but with a twist. Unlike day-care business which strives to address various speciality under one roof Medfort has choosen to look at only eyecare and diabetes. “Multispecialty tertiary care hospital chains in India are not able to provide adequate attention to the needs of both doctors and patients of eye care and diabetes. Patients require expert advice and wholesome (not just symptomatic) treatment in a day care model without the risk of secondary infection; while the doctors require an enabling environment without the pressure to generate higher benchmarked revenue targets. With this partnership, our vision to make available superior professional healthcare solution for life debilitating conditions has received a boost,” says Dr Velu.

This model is also beneficial to the doctors as it provides a fitting environment for them to practice. "The idea is to empower diabetic and endocrine physicians and ophthalmologists across India and bringing them under one corporate umbrella for standardised treatment protocols by deploying the latest state-of-the-art equipments and technologies and infrastructure to ensure quality and compassionate care which results in best clinical outcome in both diabetic care and ophthalmology verticals," he further adds.

Eying Opportunity

So, what led Medfort Hospital to freeze in on such a business model? Well, it choose a business model that was going to fill a gap in service delivery and specialties which had close synergies. “Both diabetes and eye disorders are lifestyle disorders which need lifelong attention with constant and periodic care. There are lots of cross referrals between ophthalmologists and endocrinologists and diabetologists with cross referrals being as high as 80 to 90 percent,” says Dr Velu. Thus it was inevitable to marry both these specialties and get one common centre which would address both these market.

Apart from this there are more commonalities in both these specialties. “Every diabetic patient needs an eye check up every six months and all eye care surgeries will need diabetic status checked before surgery for better treatment planning and clinical outcome. The first complication which arises for a diabetic patient is an eye illness which ultimately results in diabetic retinopathy,” adds Dr Velu.

Further management and prognosis of the two specialities is also related. Moreover patient education and caregiver education also more effective when given for both these modalities simultaneously. “Both disorders needs focus on prevention, early diagnosis and lifelong check-ups and interventions to improve quality of life ensuring diabetic wellness and eye care wellness, etc. Hence, these two verticals are closely related and can be treated and managed together in a day care setup,” Dr Velu states.

Value Preposition

Medfort hospitals is committed to provide superior healthcare service by offering compassionate patient care and clinical excellence. It strives to reach out to patients and their families through it`s state-of-the-art infrastructure and talented pool of doctors on board. “Medfort believes that every patient is important and has unique needs,” explains Dr Velu. Medfort Hospitals stands for growth and dynamism and strive to bring a revolution in healthcare through its unique approach for patients.

The hospitals are technology driven and through its network it is trying to create an edge for its services in the market. “We are far better than other service provider in the market. Today healthcare is driven by technology. It is added advantage to the patient in terms of accuracy in diagnosis and treatment. We have world’s current technology in our hand. This shows our commitment towards technology and innovation,” reminds Dr Velu.

Thus, Medfort is a value proposition in more ways than one. It provides cost effective treatments to patients, builds better business deals for insurance companies, ensures best patient outcomes, provides 15-20 per cent cheaper package rates compared to full scale corporate hospitals along with superior outcomes as patients are carefully screened and recovery at home reduces chances of infection.

Exploring Further

Although in its first year of operations the company has manly grown by way of acquisition, it does plan to go the green field way also. “ The company started off by acquisitions in Delhi NCR and Hyderabad and a green field centre in Chennai but in days to come the growth form will be a combination of both organic and inorganic expansions,” confirms Dr Velu.

As for their future plans the company wants to be known as the best in class eye care network and diabetic care network in the emerging markets of South/ South East Asia, Middle East and Africa. In addition. For their immidiate expansion the company plans to create over 20 green field eyecare and diabetic hospitals across India taking the number of hospitals to over 35 by April 2012. “By expanding organically and inorganically we plan to move from current five city operation to 20 city operations within the next 12 months and have a network of 50 hospitals by End 2012,” signs off Dr Velu.

mneelam.kachhap@expressindia.com