Ever since I was a child, I have heard that there’s nobody in the world who is perfectly happy, or can remain so forever. These days, as I look around me, I am also realizing that there’s no household in the present times whose every member is perfectly healthy. Blame it on increasing impurities in our environment or food, blame it on our life style, or just blame it on life – but Illness is there in every home. And even if our medical science is advancing and progressing steadily, the diseases are never on the losing end as newer health problems are appearing every day.
However, as essential as it is for everyone to take good care of health, the busy lifestyle often forces us to make many compromises. Sometimes, even those in serious need of medical help keep on postponing because they can’t even spare time to find the specialist they need and then get an appointment.
Well, here’s something that sure can help such people adding speed and convenience to the process of finding a doctor and getting the required appointment. The initiative is called Practo. And it is a Doctor Search Engine!
Practo was started by Mr. Shashank ND and Mr. Abhinav Lal in 2008. It is funded by Morpheus and Sequoia. Practo is present in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, and also Singapore. However, people from other cities of India can also search for doctors in their cities. And as more and more doctors list themselves with Practo, this search is sure going to result better and better results.
People can search for doctors by visiting Practo’s website, and also using their Android app.
I checked out the website. It is neat, uncluttered and very simple to use. The most prominent feature of the Home Page is a search box. Using this, people can search for doctors with particular specialization. There are also options to search for doctors and clinics by their name.
I did a trial search. The search result page showed me a list of doctors with the specified specialization in the city I had chosen. On this page, there were also options to fine-tune the results even further by setting up filters like area, day, time and consultation fee.
The details of the doctors displayed on this page included their fee, availability days and timings and the their expertise and number of years of experience they have. Alongside the description of each doctor, there’s a blue button using which people can Request Appointment with that particular doctor.
Once a person clicks on the Request Appointment button, a chart opens up wherein the user can specify on what date and time the appointment is needed. In this chart, the user can only book appointment for the day and time slots that are still available. Once a user chooses the day and time, the next step is to input personal details like name, phone number etc. I suppose, this won’t be required if the person is already a registered member of Practo and logged in.
The entire service is absolutely free and no fee is charged by Practo from the patient. To the doctors, Practo makes available a ‘SaaS based practice management solution that bundles voice, data, coding, billing, inventory management, and Accounting.’ The doctors can avail of this solution on subscription basis.
So, whether you are a health professional in India, or a person seeking appointment with a doctor, Practo might prove to be of valuable help.
Check it out:
