Digital Disease Management to Solve India’s Chronic Health Crisis: Redseer

• The chronic diseases market presents a USD 40 Bn TAM of the overall USD 167 Bn healthcare market
• The disease burden in India is led by chronic conditions which account for ~65% of the total deaths in the country, putting 400-450 million chronically ill people at a huge risk.

With one of the highest populations of patients suffering from chronic diseases, a digital ecosystem covering all the interaction touchpoints is the need of the hour. Emerging players within India’s HealthTech segment are solving India’s chronic disease crisis with digital disease management solutions. With these new HealthTech models, the chronic disease market presents a USD 40 billion TAM, according to homegrown strategy consulting firm Redseer Strategy Consultants.

In terms of prevalence, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are the three largest chronic conditions, with close to 242 million people suffering from hypertension, 75 million people suffering from diabetes, and 67 million people suffering from cardiovascular conditions. This is followed by other chronic conditions such as arthritis, asthma, and Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

According to the report, the key drivers of India’ chronic disease count include Indian genetics, lifestyle, rapid urbanization, and stress. The findings suggest that 60% of diabetic cases in India come from urban cities, and more than 35% of Indians suffer from mental health issues, leading to increasing stress levels in India that are above the global average. Further, over 80% of chronic diseases occur in the age groups 30 and above, and a significant portion of India’s population is over this age group.

Typically, a chronic patient’s healthcare journey includes consultations and follow-ups with doctors, regular vital monitoring, purchasing medicines, undergoing lab tests, making dietary changes, monitoring these changes and more. This complex process spans across multiple years, and could go on for a lifetime, leading to a painful experience for patients and their family. Moreover, chronically ill patients complain about the delay in guidance from the doctors and extremely high expenditure on treatments. These challenges are even more pronounced in India, given the below-par doctor to patient ratio and poor insurance coverage (almost zero coverage of out-patient care expenditure).

However, digital disease management players such as Phable, BeatO and Wellthy, offer a one stop solution where patients can manage the entire course of their healthcare journey in one platform, said the report. This means that patients can access consultation with doctors, constantly monitor and track their progress, get inputs from health coaches, purchase medicines / health products, and book lab tests (and have the tests done at the comfort of their homes), all in one platform.

Kushal Bhatnagar, Engagement Manager at Redseer, said, “Digital chronic disease management also enables doctors to provide timely & accurate advice to chronic patients, helping improve the quality of outcomes. Often, doctors struggle to keep track of patient information, and are unable to provide regular supervision. They also struggle to communicate when patients are confined to far strung locations. Through a digital ecosystem that brings everything under one roof, doctors will be able to improve patient adherence to their recommended treatments and the overall quality of outcomes.”

The chronic diseases market presents a USD 40 Billion TAM of the overall USD 167 billion healthcare market, while the urban chronic care OPD market size stands at USD 17 billion. The report concluded that digital chronic management players have a lot of headroom ahead, as they currently penetrate less than 1% of their serviceable addressable market.

About Redseer 

Redseer Strategy Consultants is a leading strategy consulting firm in the region. Founded in 2009, Redseer works with new-age consumer-focused businesses and offers growth advisory, digital strategy, and investments thesis. The company is a thought leader in the Internet economy space and is the most widely quoted consulting firm in the media. Redseer is headquartered in Bengaluru and has a formidable team of 200+ consultants in 5 offices across India and overseas.