HEALING FROM HOME

Treat At Home Co-Founder Ajmal Saleem is on a mission to bring quality healthcare to every doorstep.

MEET THE LEADER

Ajmal Saleem co-founded Treat at Home, a digital healthtech platform, aiming to bring quality and cost-effective medical services to patients’ doorstep. He is currently heading as the CEO and pursuing final year medicine degree. “Pivoting is very important. As my favourite quote goes, “the problem we are solving is the most important, not the solution itself”, I keep myself open to change and hustle further”, shares Ajmal, flagging off our session with his favourite tagline.

THE ESSENCE

We kick-start the session with a little introspection. We requesting Ajmal to capture the core of his personal and spark for our readers. His life mantra, so to speak. The Idea Leader obliges…  

“First off, when we started, I had two options. Join college or pursue Treat at Home but, I chose both. We get across all these stories where entrepreneurs quit their university and pursued their start-up ideas. It’s cool but not everyone can do that. In India, we have this culture from parents wanting us to finish a degree and so on. But that doesn’t mean, we have to set the spark aside. We can keep on reading stuff, analyse the market and develop a prototype if possible. The right moment can come anytime and so first is, pursuing our passion wherever we’re at life. 

THE GENESIS 

Big ideas are born out of big moments. So what is the big concept or philosophy that defines Ajmal journey? How did it all begin? The idea champion reflects…

“Positive impact about healthcare started very early in my life. It’d be worth mentioning the one time, when I was close to 10 and wanted to work alongside the receptionist at my dad’s hospital. I saw patients walking-in, taking a slip and waiting worried for at least 30 mins. But after consulting with the doctor, they walked away with happy faces. Same with seeing trauma cases brought in, dressings and resuscitation. Healthcare gave me this unique satisfaction of solving huge hurdles in people’s lives and helping them get back to normalcy.

And then, one fine day, my Co-founder Dr. Saleem popped the question that changed my life: “When everything is delivered at home, why not healthcare?”, we started looking out for reasons. There were home healthcare pioneers, but the impact was not huge like in other sectors. Our brainstorming session kept us going till we reached a point, ‘the employment model’ of these traditional companies was a barrier and Treat at Home was born with an aggregator model to make healthcare truly accessible and affordable to all.

THE BUILD-UP

We coax Ajmal Saleem to hand-hold us over the evolutionary curve, and the man who lets his ideas lead shares… 
“Treat at Home journey began in 2018 and from inception till mid 2019, we completely studied the market and launched the beta version of our app. Mainly, we focused on the supply side till Jan 2020, the pandemic. After witnessing huge demand for medical services due to the ongoing situation, we started operations in the state of Tamil Nadu. The initial idea was an exclusive app-based platform, but we realized that people needed interaction particularly in health. So, we pivoted to add a call-based booking system with executives speaking the regional language. From May 2020 till now, Treat at Home scaled to an active network of 550+ healthcare professionals and completed 2000+ medical services at home.

THE FORWARD GOAL 

So what is the big goal or problem he is solving, in a nutshell? And what does the future hold?
“The demand for home healthcare in India is growing at 19% year-on-year. Various factors contribute to it, like increasing elderly population, nuclear families, transportation difficulties and many more. 

Let’s imagine an elderly person, living in a 10-storey apartment. He’s waiting for his son to come from the office and take him for his monthly general check-up. What’s next? He should take the lift down, travel to a hospital, wait at the queue to consult with the doctor. They end up spending half their day and his son finally drives him home to gets back to his work.

And this is not just a single person. There are 1000s, waiting at their homes for someone to take them to a hospital. Even it could be an unresponsive old man and his wife doesn’t know what to do. How convenient would it be if a nearby doctor can visit them with a push of a button?

But until now, this demand has not been addressed because of the huge technological gap between patients and healthcare providers. See, there could be a doctor willing to visit patients at home, living right across the street, but there is no platform where we can find or reach him. The same applies to other services like nursing, caretaker, and physiotherapy.

To address this, we have created Treat at Home, a digital healthcare platform where patients can discover verified professionals in their region and schedule medical services with them on-demand.

A SHORT WORD ABOUT VOH

We wish Ajmal the best for his endeavor, and prepare to sign off. Our last request is a few words from the dynamic visionary, capturing his views on the role Voice of Healthcare plays for the healthcare ecosystem. How can, for instance, tribute profiles such as Idea Leaders add direction, inspiration and positive energy to the healthcare community? The man complies generously… 

“A few years back, leaders in health sector did not have adequate exposure for their innovative solutions and it was a niche with scientific journals and breakthroughs being the focal point. Today, with continuous effort from healthcare dedicated forums like VOH and contributions like the Idea Leaders, aspiring journeys of entrepreneurs and brands that revolutionise our sector are voiced out. This significantly impacts the community as a whole and inspires everyone stepping with a dream in healthcare.”

*This story has been published by VOH team.*