We maintain data privacy at topmost priority: Anupa Naik

Recently, Symple Wellness Platform acquired AllizHealth and rebranded it to ‘Vivant’, SWP’s operating brand. This combined platform provides comprehensive digital health across the care spectrum to empower individuals to engage with their health to get healthy, stay healthy or manage disease without compromising data privacy. Anupa Naik, Chief Executive Officer, Vivant speaks about the company’s vision and plans with Usha Sharma

Recently, Singapore based Health Tech startup Symple Wellness Platform acquired AllizHealth and rebranded it as Vivant. How soon will the integration happen?
We announced the acquisition of Allizhealth (AIH) in July 2018. The integration process is completed and all our products and services are live. The integrated platform has a comprehensive digital health offering with more than 6,500 partners, with strengths across the care spectrum to help people get healthy, stay healthy and manage disease. Our new age wellness programmes are offered through online web platform and mobile app, and complement these solutions with onsite services. Vivant leverages more than six years of innovation and trusted partnerships to effectively transform the health of people and communities. The acquisition has strengthened Vivant’s operations in Pune, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and we are serving a customer base close to 850,000.

Tell us about the specialist services Vivant is offering and how is it different from other wellness providers?
Our mission is to help individuals engage meaningfully and impactfully with their health. Our primary focus is on preventive health management. Sedentary lifestyle and poor habits increase predisposition to lifestyle diseases like diabetes, cardiac, cancers, musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). Also, individuals are unaware about underlying health risk and hence oblivious to fast approaching critical health risks. India is the diabetes capital of the world – WHO estimates that the income loss from potentially productive years of life lost due to chronic disease alone could rise to as much as $237 billion in India. Keeping these facts in mind, we have identified few priority focus segments – cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes, ortho care, child nutrition and women’s health care services. Our platform is designed to integrate with providers of care and ensure they are inter-connected for better outcomes and coordinated care. We provide curated healthcare solutions depending upon an individual’s medical history, current health status and other equally important parameters like stress, environment, occupational risks, etc. We use clinical, administrative, medical claims data along with other relevant data, to identify members unique gaps in care related to several key chronic conditions, as well as preventive care. With our health informatics and data analytics, we evolve our programme to best suit the client’s specific needs. This allows us to help reduce overall medical costs and to impact the health and productivity of the individual in a positive way. Our domain expertise along with our eminent panel of qualified doctors and experts, and network partners distinguish our offerings in India.

Why is the company’s focus largely on maternal health and what steps will be taken to reach tier II and tier III cities?
Maternal health/women’s health is one of our focus areas along with cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes and orthopaedic. With our digital platform we have the advantage of offering our products and services across the country. We offer a curated wellness network, spread across the country, providing our members with access to more 6,500 provider partners viz fitness centers, dieticians, ante natal experts, daycare providers, medical device companies, pharmacy partners, vaccination, diagnostics, doctor consultations and other OPD services. Our platform is integrated with vendors and service providers to ensure a seamless user experience as well as to help drive engagement for a holistic experience. Today, India is developing rapidly and there is great awareness in tier two and three cities about over all wellbeing but access is limited. With the use of electronic medium and point of care devices we will be able to reach a wider audience base and spread awareness. On the ground level, key associations with medical practitioners, providers of care and facilities will help in spreading the awareness of the company’s offerings. Our vision is to be a trusted advisor and curator of health well-being innovative solutions to support members with an integrated network, care management, and consumer engagement strategy.

At the cutting edge of technology, why will human interface remain necessary in the healthcare space and how will AI assist with it?
Parameters like medical records, hereditary ailments are all data driven – and this is where the power of AI comes into play. While AI in healthcare is here to stay and evolve, some things remain fundamental and people-to-people communication in healthcare will continue to be one of them. Though AI and ML are increasingly being used to diagnose or even suggest treatment protocols, there are few absolutes in medicine. There are very few scenarios which are cut black and white and will always need a human interface to understand the nuances and work with an expert, who are trained to talk us through the options and lay down the best path. Healthcare requires personalisation and you need to address the individual not just from the physical health but also the mental, emotional, social and financial health. To integrate all of this into a customer centric view point, it needs some element of human intervention. We use technology not as a product but the value proposition that it enables.

Data privacy is the biggest concern in the healthcare sector. How is Vivant ensuring data security?
At Vivant, we maintain data privacy at the topmost priority. Collection of medical history and protection of patients’ data is a very important aspect of healthcare. What is required is a standardised process of collecting and managing electronic health records, and a regulatory framework that defines the ambit of its use. The Vivant programme has been designed in full compliance with regulations pertaining to sensitive personal health information. We follow US based HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) guidelines on data privacy, which is a widely accepted standard in multiple geographies. HIPAA Privacy Rule, also known as the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, protects certain health information critical for individual identity. Vivant as a platform is hosted on secure and scalable infrastructure maintained at Microsoft Azure in Mumbai Data Center. The platform is itself tested and secured against various security attacks like OWASP etc. This further ensures the data being transferred is being secured via globally recognised industry standards, thereby ensuring data privacy and security.

u.sharma@expressindia.com