You are on page 1of 3

eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India

 Healthpoint Services(HPS) was cofounded by Amit Jain, Dr. Allen Hammond & Dr. Chris
Dickey in June 2009 with an objective to make available modern healthcare to the rural
population of India. Apart from the medical healthcare provided by them, they also offered
clean drinking water by using a water operator.
 By 2011, HPS spread throughout the villages of Punjab building waterpoints in close
proximity to the eHealthpoints(eHP). By 2010, HPS raised $2million and was in process of
raising another $5million. The raised money would be spent on construction of new
waterpoints.
 Hammond says that they were building modern & capital-intensive facilities in rural areas.
They were using telemedicine and advanced diagnostics as the key elements of their
service. These were the basis for a high growth and self-sustaining nature of their idea.
 Dr. Allen Hammond studied engineering & applied mathematics at Stanford and Harvard.
After his PhD in 1969 at Harvard, he moved into scientific publishing world. He later on
discovered that he had his interests in combining science and technology with start-up
business activities that had a vision for social welfare. This led Hammond to the World
Resource Institute. There he was involved with a variety of new projects, initiatives focused
on encouraging sustainable development.
 In early 2000’s, he identified various problems faced by the poor. One of them he found to
be the most common was availability of basic medication to the poor. In pursuit of a
solution to this problem, he encountered “ franchise pharmacy model”. Regarding this,
Hammond worked along with Dr. Chris Dickey, who was interested in developing market-
based solutions to public health problems. With this idea, Hammond left WRI in 2008 &
joined Ashoka; an incubator to his idea. Its principal advisor Todd Park and Hammond
explored telemedicine medicines to implement in the country. As a part of his ongoing
engagement with social enterprise, Hammond attended the Santa Clara Social Benefit
Incubator in 2008, where he met Amit Jain.
 Amit Jain was born in 1973 in Saharanpur, UP. He always had a peculiar interest in helping
the rural people in the country. Hence, he pursued Resource Management at IIFM, Bhopal.
After his Master’s degree there, he joined Aditya Birla Group to handle resource
management and supply chain functions. He then worked with HLL Lifecare’s health related
products. He grew as the head of marketing there and created social marketing programs
and distribution channels for those products. He also worked with about 15000 rural
healthcare providers by training them in selling those products to the end users.
 In 2006, he thought of initiating the idea of providing clean drinking water to the rural
people du e to the incite given by Dr. Anji Reddy of Dr. Reddy Labs.
 He, in association with Naandi Foundation took charge and implemented the Water
program. Fortunately, it was a big success. By 2009, the water business was self-sustaining
and profitable with 550 units operating.
 This awarded him with the prestigious Ashoka Changemaker Award for water in 2008 and
was also invited to attend the Santa Clara Social Benefit Incubator where he met Dr. Allen
Hammond.
 According to a survey, it was found that the public expenditure on health was among the
lowest in the world. The private sector played a crucial role in healthcare, providing almost
80% of the healthcare spending. The rural population were highly dependent on RMPs who
were trusted, long time members of the community and usually the only source of
healthcare in most villages. The RMPs provided house calls, 24/7 accessibility and flexible
financing including unconventional payments.
 HPS’s headquartered at Delhi was led by Amit Jain. Almost 90% of HPS’s employees were
locally recruited and lived in nearby villages. The team surveyed the sites and communities
where they wished to install their services to establish needs and understand perceptions.
It conducted detailed interviews with every household to establish a community health
profile, guide community engagement efforts, degree screening and other intervention
strategies.
 Water operations were the key driver of HPS’s business. The operators had a little
experience with plumbing and electrical work and were paid $75 a month. The shiny steel
body of the reverse osmosis equipment lured the people into drinking the water signalling
the trust developed between the people and the water being dispensed there.
 The medical facilities were taken care of with absolute care as well. The doctors had
postgraduate degrees and were physicians as well as specialists.
 Each eHP had two village health promoters who focussed on social marketing, education,
awareness collect feedback etc.
 The pharmacy at the medical facility stock 400 commonly used medicines. All those
medicines were procured from authentic stores and pharmacy chains. Hence, there was no
discrepancy to happen in that area. Similarly, the technician there held a diploma in lab
technology and could carry out a battery of diagnostic tests, ranging from blood tests to
complex ones.
 Jain and Hammond were confident about their approach into this kind of business i.e
venturing into rural market with offers in medical services and especially dispensing clean
drinking water. HPS was trying to raise $2million to expand its business and refine its
existing assets. Raising additional money would help it in building more water and
healthpoints.
 Now, both of them have several requests about installing those services in other areas as
well. Other areas like Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa were also interested in HPS
expanding into their countries.

You might also like