Practo collaborates with Academy of Family Physicians of India to develop digital healthcare technology

New Delhi: Practo, a digital healthcare platform has signed an MOU with Academy of Family Physicians India (AFPI), an independent academic discipline and the national association of family physicians, to work collaboratively towards greater understanding and adoption of digital healthcare technology. Practo will serve as AFPI's digital healthcare partner and together the two institutions will work on the areas of continuous learning and development in digital healthcare for all physicians associated with AFPI.

There are a host of activities lined up as part of this MOU. Together, the two institutions will focus on conducting workshops with participation from key members of the AFPI to help spread awareness and update association members on latest trends in technology that can help them provide better care to patients.

As part of the collaboration, AFPI members will not only dive deep into Practo's industry-leading technological expertise in the healthcare domain but will also understand the nuances of managing and securely storing all health data. Practo encrypts all data with 256-bit encryption (many banks use just 128-bit), uses HIPAA compliant data centres, and is one of the few healthcare companies to be ISO 27001 certified.

AFPI is actively transforming the healthcare delivery system in India through an enhanced level of community-based high-quality services. The academy currently has a membership base across India and a chapter in almost every state. The members include family medicine specialists, practising family physicians, general practitioners, medical officers who provide generalist medical care across all age groups, genders and organ system.

Dr Raman Kumar, President, Academy of Family Physicians India (AFPI) said, "Practice management in India today is becoming increasingly dependent on technology. Without the tools and services enabled by technology, it is very difficult for both patients and doctors to access quality care and manage relationships. As the domain leader in healthcare, Practo can help sharpen our technological capabilities to reach and serve patients much more efficiently."

With digital healthcare taking off in India in a big way, Practo is the only platform in the country to offer integrated healthcare. Digital healthcare encompasses everything from the digitisation of medical practice management, increasing reach and visibility of doctors manifold, ERP management for large hospitals to providing patients with a unified platform for medical access at the touch of a button - be it doctors, diagnostics and/ or medicine. With Practo's one-stop shop for all healthcare needs and all its offerings viz. searching and booking an appointment with a doctor at his/her clinic or hospital, Diagnostics and Medicine Delivery, in addition to its clinic and hospital management software like Ray and Insta - doctors have a host of technology-enabled tools and services at their disposal for managing their services more efficiently.

Commenting on the partnership, Dr Alexander Kuruvilla, Chief Healthcare Strategy Officer, Practo, said, "With doctor-patient ratios barely meeting the minimum, India has a severe shortage of skilled doctors. Our only hope of improving healthcare lies in increasing efficiency of the current force of doctors through digital tools. We are excited to partner with AFPI in their quest to grow the adoption of digital tools amongst doctors. Digital healthcare can enable them to offer a superior healthcare experience to their patients such as 24x7 instant booking, low wait times and digital health records. These tools also dramatically ease the clinic and hospital management so doctors can stay focused on treating and caring for their patients while technology takes over the rest. We look forward to working with Dr Raman and the AFPI team to empower our doctor community with the right tools and information to deliver digital healthcare in India."

Practo is a leading digital healthcare platform in Asia and this MOU is a part of Practo's strategy to solidify collaborative relationships with such bodies and associations and contribute towards the seamless adoption of digital healthcare in the country. This MOU is the first step of many such collaborations Practo plans to undertake this year to realise its vision of simplifying healthcare by making quality healthcare more accessible, affordable and convenient.

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