In conversation with Carina Kohli, Founder, Humm Care talking about the way forwards for Health Care in India
- Please share insight about your company and how are you utilizing tech to bring about change within the Health care sector.
Starting with a focus in postpartum and childcare, through technology, HUMM aims to revolutionise holistic family healthcare for mothers, families and organisations through the family building spectrum. HUMM’s mission mirrors the need of the hour in terms of maternal and family healthcare in a post-pandemic world – providing mothers and families with personal, judgement-free and guided access to the health support and care they need through their journey. HUMM works with organisations to ensure that working parents and their families receive the healthcare they need, while feeling fully supported whilst navigating their parenthood and careers. Working mothers feel comforted and are cared for as they transition from their maternity leave back into the workplace, organisations build an inclusive and diverse work culture while increasing employee retention rates and meeting organisational goals.
- What motivated you to enter the HealthTech industry?
At the peak of the pandemic in March 2020, I interviewed 300+ parents and 30+ experts to understand the healthcare market in India. With new insights, I launched a content and community beta web app called Baby Space which users could access doctor-verified information and interact with other people experiencing similar healthcare concerns. Baby Space grew to a community of 15,000+, and the insights learned from engaging with parents in the community and conducting a survey and focus group discussions with 640+ parents, encouraged us to pivot and build HUMM. This has always been an underserved market and through covid we witnessed that the gap was glaring and there had to be a solution.
- How is your company incorporating Tech to maximize its visibility across its target consumers
- Mobile App (Humm Care on iOS and Playstore), back end structure, chat to amplify engagement between expert and user.
- Virtual consults, sessions, group sessions accessed through the Humm Care app.
- In app community for users to interact with each other and experts/doctors.
- Strategic partnerships and integration with hospitals, clinics and brands within in the healthtech space.
- As a HealthTech startup what have been your biggest learnings from the pandemic both from a consumer and a tech interface standpoint
The pandemic brought on a change in consumer behaviour and opened our minds to adapt to change. Consumers are now more interested in convenience and are more open try new alternatives. Consumers are also now open to digital healthcare, as a more cost-effective and convenient option wherever possible. There’s a new movement towards health, wellness and adopting healthier lifestyle choices. A new interest in femtech and women’s health in the startup ecosystem is booming too.
Technology played a significant role in accessibility to healthcare through the covid pandemic and has proved to be a reliable, cost effective and convenient alternative to accessing healthcare (depending on the circumstance). While telemedicine has existed in India well before the pandemic, during and post-pandemic technology has seen scale like never before – this is start of technology and innovation boom. Post pandemic, due to the sheer dependence on technology not just in healthcare but on several fronts – we have witnessed the untapped potential of technology.
- Post-pandemic, how do you feel that tech evolution and the role of cloud-based and AI services will help the Health industry
AI and ML will most definitely play a critical role in improving the quality of services, diagnosis and delivery of services, in-turn improving healthcare outcomes significantly. Although I do believe the human touch/intervention is extremely important in sensitive, and vulnerable circumstances in healthcare; innovation and the use AI and ML will improve and enhance end to end processes and delivery of service overall.
- How are you and your brand filling a void with its unique consumer-specific offerings
Humm Care offers personal curriculum based, affordable and high-quality healthcare for anyone in any stage through their family building journey. Through the Humm Care app mothers, families and organisations can subscribe to different health programs that focus in different stages including fertility, family planning, pregnancy, postpartum and postnatal care and parenthood.
HUMM (B2C) offers individuals and families healthcare programs that are doctor/expert built and curriculum based. Programs consist of unlimited 1:1 consultations or sessions with doctors/experts of choice, unlimited chat with in-house birth educators and doulas, doctor/expert built lessons, quizzes and handbooks, as well as tools and tracker to track well-being. Focus areas of Humm Care programs include: family planning, pregnancy, postpartum care, lactation, breastfeeding and lactation, nutrition and physiotherapy fitness, pelvic floor strengthening, mental health, postpartum depression, anxiety, psychosis, stress and guilt management, sexual intimacy, relationships, newborn and baby care, financial planning, single parenthood, fatherhood, work-life balance and working parents.
HUMM (B2B) offers organisations such as corporates, MNCs, and startups maternity, paternity and family health care and support benefits. HUMM works with organisations to ensure that working parents feel fully supported while navigating their parenthood and careers, mothers feel comforted and are cared for as they transition from their maternity leave back into the workplace, organisations build an inclusive and diverse work culture while increasing employee retention rates and meeting organisational goals. HUMM offers customised plans to organisations after a deep understanding of the employee demographics and the organisation’s goals.
The Philosophy and USP:
At Humm Care the belief is that healthcare is a human right and healthcare is for everyone. The consumer is at the centre of everything we build. Humm’s mission is 1) To improve affordability of, accessibility to and the quality of maternal health in India 2) To increase the number of women in the workforce in India 3) To increase transparency, accessibility and affordability to high-quality healthcare through the family building journey 4) To lower attrition rates of working parents by providing health benefits for employees and families.
Humm focuses on the importance of continuum of care and the first 1000 days of mother and baby through holistic health programs that prioritise one’s physical, emotional and mental health equally. Humm’s thesis is that healthcare should be integrative, guided and transparent and that a continuum of care is essential for long term health and wellbeing.
Humm’s unique and first to market (in India) offering is that Humm works with organisations and build customised programs curated to fit their employee demographic, organisational goals and needs. Humm works on building an inclusive and equitable work culture top-down and inherent at the organisation while ensuring an improvement in the female to male employee ratio as well as an increase in retention, trust and loyalty at the organisation. Humm provides assistance from inhouse doulas, birth educators and care companions to provide non-medical care and support one may need in addition to the medical assistance they would require through fertility, conception, pregnancy and postpartum – parenthood.
- As a young woman entrepreneur do you have any insights or advice for other young women leaders starting off within the tech/start-up sector?
- Pivot, pivot, pivot! Listen to your customers, learn and keep iterating. If something isn’t working, change it.
- Keep going! If you believe in what you’re building, if you see your users validate your product and love it – just keep going and don’t give up – you will get there!
- There is no one size fits all. What worked for another company may not work for your company, each journey is different.
