TrackMyBeat: Amalgamating Healthcare & Technology

Date:   Monday , February 13, 2017

Julie Bishop once wrote, \'Synergy and serendipity often play a big part in medical and scientific advances\'. The synergy in this particular case is the combination of medicine and technology which has given rise to a new concept, Internet of Medical Things. Yesterday\'s medical marvels are today\'s accomplishment and today\'s mysteries are one step away from unravelling themselves due to the innumerable technical advancements in healthcare sector. Despite the possibilities, it is still a challenge to deliver quality and timely healthcare, especially in India. Scale and scarce resources make it challenging to change the perception of those living in difficult to access reaches around the country and provide them with appropriate timely medical response. On closely understanding this situation, Ananda Sen Gupta, Founder of TrackMyBeat, set out to create a solution, using mobile and cloud technologies, which tracks the health of its users by recording their daily activities and allows doctors insight into the causes of health anomalies by providing detailed study of the lifestyle of persons concerned, especially in rural India.

Healthcare at Your Fingertips

India faces a grave situation wherein there is only one doctor per 1700 citizens. Furthermore, most of these doctors are congregated in the bigger cities. Thus, it has become imperative to come up with a better solution for preventive healthcare by the closer monitoring of health parameters. TrackMyBeat, since its inception in 2012, is abiding by its name and diligently tracks the health habits of its users. The brainchild of Ananda and Dr. Vishwakirti Sharma, this company came into existence during the Telecom boom.

TrackMyBeat chooses the data-driven approach of a simple wellness management system, which includes the cyclical process of a Plan, Monitor, Alert and Correlate. Unlike the conventional approaches of many healthcare offerings, TrackMyBeat understands that the service cannot end with the purchase of a mobile application. TrackMyBeat provides hardware which comprises of Bluetooth enabled diagnostic devices which connect directly to smart phones. The TrackMyBeat app on the phones, records the data captured by the hardware, and acts as a tracker for the patient as well as the doctor. The software enables the regular monitoring or health parameters, sends reminders for medications and appointments, analyses future steps, recommends timely medical interventions, and secures medical records.

Being cloud-based software, the app enables the doctors to analyse reports of the patients without needing to be in physical proximity. Using the advances in Artificial Intelligences, the app enables the program to look at the data and react to it. As soon as the data is received, the app will analyse its singularity, and as per the situation, alert the service professionals and the doctors associated who will duly provide the required service to the patient concerned.

Despite the technology now available and the synergies in the sector, the quest to improve the health sector has been anything but easy for TrackMyBeat. The challenge lies in scalability where reaching out to concerned stakeholders is a difficult task but the company is slowly gaining momentum. Another issue is the acceptance of the TrackMyBeat solution by medical professionals. This is partially due to the huge disparity in the doctor to patient ratio which leads to a constant pressure on doctors, who have very little time to spare for understanding and learning new services. This Gurgaon based start-up has worked with NGO\'s and US doctors and envisions expanding into rural India to increase the effectiveness of the healthcare sector.