A KEEN EYE FOR DISRUPTION 

‘Serialpreneur’ Vikas Chauhan has been upending the status-quo with his foresightful ideas and endeavours in patient-centric healthcare and health-commerce for a while now. And, despite the spectacular milestones he has crossed, the best may be yet to come. 

MEET THE LEADER 

Vikas Chauhan is the COO & Co-founder at HexaHealth, a patient centric platform for Hospitalization requirements. At HexaHealth, he is responsible for building the Hospital partner network, Doctor network and backend operations. A man of multiple merits, Vikas was Co-founder at TATA 1mg - India's most loved health app - prior to HexaHealth. Vikas was also responsible for launching India's first ePharmacy and scaling it to multiple cities, building the supply chain and entire customer service vertical. Indeed, this idea-first leader is also credited with identifying the need for transparency in the Lab landscape, and for launching India’s first and only marketplace for discovery of diagnostics services.

Prior to TATA 1mg, Vikas founded FreshnDaily.com, India's first online grocery platform, which he launched in 2010 from his college hostel dorm. Vikas Chauhan is a B.E. in Electronics and Communication and has done his MBA in Marketing from SIMSR (Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research).

SOLVING BIGGER PROBLEMS 

We initiate this much awaited session by probing about the one big idea that defines Vikas  and his approach to life. His life mantra, so to speak. The idea leader obliges with a vivid response…

“Being true to oneself. I always knew what I don't want to do and it took time to figure out what I would love to do everyday for the rest of my life. From thinking of myself as a marketing person and operations person, I discovered I like being more of a problem solver. I apply the same principle to all aspects of my life including business. Doing what is right for the consumer, persistently. It’s not limited to consumers touch points but should be the core philosophy driving every decision from product, tech, operations and so on.”

THE ART OF THE START 

What triggered this philosophy of making things progressively better by ‘solving problems’, we wonder. Was there a life-altering experience or turning-point that  caused or inspired it? Vikas doesn’t take long to respond…

“I got a lot of opportunities during my MBA placements to explore roles with top brands. Although the roles offered were really good, they didn’t provide me the ground to remain motivated and grow in the long term. I was willing to take the risk of not having a job and not sit for placements. One fine day I was struck with a problem statement which really provided me the challenge I needed for myself. I started India’s first e-grocery portal from the college hostel. It marked the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey and I never looked back.” 

NEXT PEAK: CRACKING THE ‘IPD RIDDLE’  

So what is the overarching goal that Vikas has in his cross-hairs? What is the big milestone he wants to cross, fuelled by his ‘problem solving’ mantra? The true-blue entrepreneur slakes our curiosity…

“I have spent over a decade in Healthcare and seen the challenges faced by the consumers in their interaction with the healthcare ecosystem. One problem that I would love to solve is how to improve the broken consumer experience in their IPD / hospitalization journey. 

Today the patient is largely clueless about the IPD journey, adding to that the hassles of logistics at the hospital and cost burden leads to a large trust deficit between the care provider and patient.  

Want to build a platform that uses technology to simplify the in-patient journey. A platform that can educate patients on all aspects of the IPD area. Helping in the discovery of the right hospital, right surgeon and cost friendly quality care. I believe with the use of technology, we can bring down the information asymmetry, improve patient awareness which will lead to better outcomes.”

A WORD ABOUT VOH 

Vikas Chauhan is a man with an acute sense of the people’s pulse, and, evidently, a well honed instinct for spotting the next big gap that needs addressing. As we wish him all success for his upcoming journeys, we request Mr. Chauhan to share a word about Voice of Healthcare, and how tribute profiles such as Idea Leaders are important to add direction, inspiration and positive energy to the healthcare community. The idea veteran warms our hearts by generously complying…

“Healthcare is an integrated offering and for a better patient outcome, the journey needs to be silo-less : Connecting diverse entities such as OPD, Diagnostics, IPD and others seamlessly. VOH brings stakeholders together from different entities on a single platform and enables that change with the free flow of ideas and the synergy of disparate minds. In this way, the platform helps create an inclusive thought process and an integrated narrative, thereby expediting stakeholder participation which is essential for building the ‘next ecosystem’. 

*This story is published by VOH team*