Revolutionising Rural Healthcare: The Inspiring Journey of Sandeep and DigiSwasthya

In 2007, Sandeep’s life came to an unprecedented halt at the age of 12, when he started feeling pain, swelling and paralysis in his right hand. The reason was unidentified  and any medicine or home remedies did not work. He wandered from one hospital to another, but in vain.  Due to a lack of qualified doctors and under-equipped hospitals in Sant Kabir Nagar, a small district in Uttar Pradesh where he lived, he did not get the right treatment. Sandeep and his family got even more worried because they didn't have the right guidance about what needed to be done. After 6-months of helplessness and confusion, he finally got a biopsy done and was diagnosed with Ewing-Sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, where his entire right-humerus-bone had to be replaced. Doctors believed that Sandeep would have become immobilised if the diagnosis was delayed by a few days. 

In the next few months, Sandeep underwent intensive treatment under highly qualified doctors at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, which is one of India’s tier-1 cities and gradually started recovering slowly. This entire journey from being completely clueless about the cause of his ailment to being detected with Cancer and finally recovering, was nothing less than a miracle for him and his family.  Filled with gratitude and empathy, Sandeep was determined to give back to society and started working with multiple social purpose organisations in the health sector soon after. Over the next few years, Sandeep devoted himself to working for hundreds of cancer patients, survivors, and their families, mostly in villages, providing them guidance, emotional support, and financial help for their diagnostics, treatment, care and education.  In this process, he conceived an idea around how by leveraging technology, he can address the challenges that he had identified and make primary healthcare affordable and accessible in rural areas, where more than 70% of India’s 1.4 Billion population lives.

Educational Empowerment and Grassroots Vision: Sandeep's Transformative Journey to DigiSwasthya

At this juncture in life, Sandeep also decided to embark on a journey to grasp the mechanisms of development sector and management, with ISDM’s Post Graduate Program in Development Management. At Indian School of Development Management, he learnt the significance of collaboration, navigating group dynamics, including teamwork and organisational structures, as well as fundraising strategies tailored for social purpose organisations (SPOs), all of which laid a strong foundation for his future endeavours. Through this experience, he delved into the essential skills such as management, team leadership, and understanding the dynamics of SPOs. Little did he know that mastering these elements would later prove invaluable as he assumed the role of CEO and Founder.

While Sandeep’s work continued to create a positive impact on the lives of several patients, he realised that his ultimate calling was to go back to the grassroots  and address the challenges from where they initiated, i.e villages where there is lack of awareness of health issues and access to healthcare professionals. After numerous interviews with people living in these areas, discussions with senior administrators of India’s biggest hospitals, professors and government officials, and evaluating how other developing nations are tackling the problem, Sandeep founded ‘DigiSwasthya’ where Digi refers to Digital & Swasthya means Health. He invested most of his life’s savings to establish DigiSwasthya’s 1st E-Telemedicine Clinic in June 2020 in his home district, Sant Kabir Nagar. 

Building a Pioneer in Hybrid Healthcare Solution and Community Outreach

From creating a full stack primary healthcare platform, to creating a safe and hygienic physical space for patients to come, to hiring trained nursing staff, to tying up with doctors of prominent city hospitals, to onboarding a tele-medicine software and hardware, and getting prescriptions fulfilled from vicinity pharmacies, Sandeep created one of  state’s 1st hybrid medical consultation facility. 

Trailblazing Impact: A Tapestry of Achievements, Recognitions, and Humanitarian Outreach

DigiSwasthya collaborated with FAT to set up health camps for adolescent girls across Bihar, Patna, Delhi Lajpat, Jharkhand, collaborated with Dharma Bharti Mission to organise Health Camps in under-resourced schools of Mumbai and with Teach for India to facilitate teleconsultations for 130 students and organised 3 health camps in marginalised government school in New Delhi. It also joined hands with Smartgaon to conduct 70+ teleconsultations for the villagers in Palghar, Maharashtra.

DigiSwasthya has garnered numerous accolades and achievements since its inception. Incubated under prestigious institutions like Atal Incubation Centre (AIC-RMP) - NITI Aayog and IIHMR Startups, it has secured top honours at esteemed platforms such as Youth Co:Lab 2022, hosted by UNDP, NITI Aayog, and Atal Innovation Mission. Notably, it clinched the first prize in Telemedicine for Cancer Care at the Sarcoma Patient Advocacy Global Network (SPAGN) event in Dublin, Ireland, 2023, and has been recognized by The Social Hackathon Social Solutions India and as a SARTHI Champion by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, FICCI, and ADPC. Its impactful work has been acknowledged by leading media channels and it recently received the Great Place To Work® Certification™ for the second consecutive year. Additionally, a short film showcasing DigiSwasthya's endeavours was selected for screening at the prestigious Prakriti Documentary Film Festival, organised by CEC, UGC, Gov of India. These accomplishments underscore DigiSwasthya's commitment to revolutionising healthcare and making a meaningful difference in society. During the pandemic, celebrities like Faye D’Souza and Alia Bhatt also mentioned DigiSwasthya on their social media platforms to refer this to people who seek medical help and recently the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India also covered their commendable work in a video on their Twitter handle.

Sandeep's Vision for Accessible and Affordable Healthcare

With the creation of a  network of such standardised clinics across India, Sandeep and his motivated team is on a mission “to transform the country's primary healthcare system and make healthcare services affordable and accessible for rural communities by leveraging technology”.