National Doctors' Day: Here's to Doctors Who Entered the Field of Entrepreneurship Every year, 1 July is celebrated as National Doctors' Day in memory of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, a legendary doctor and the Chief Minister of West Bengal

By Paromita Gupta

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It is often said that doctors are next to God for they have the ability to heal and save the lives of people. While doctors have since long enjoyed a status of superiority and respect, the true test of their oath came four years ago. Lives were lost, saved, and changed.

However, clinics and hospitals are not the only ways doctors make a change in our daily lives. Several doctors have entered the field of entrepreneurship to expand their horizons and serve humanity more largely.

Every year, 1 July is celebrated as National Doctors' Day in memory of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, a legendary doctor and the Chief Minister of West Bengal. Let's take a look at Indian Docpreneurs who have made a change through innovation and entrepreneurship-

Indian healthcare space is incomplete without the mention of the Late Dr. Major S.K. Lal of Dr. Lal PathLabs; Dr. Mukesh Batra of Dr Batra's Healthcare; Dr. T.M.A. Pai of Manipal Hospitals Group; and Dr Prathap C. Reddy of Apollo Hospitals to name a few. The four are prominent for launching some of the biggest hospital or lab chains in the country.

Dr. B.L. Kapur, an obstetrician, and gynecologist, set up a Charitable Hospital in 1930 in Lahore and a Maternity Hospital in Ludhiana after the partition of India. In 1956, he set up a 200-bed hospital in Delhi which is now known as Dr. B. L. Kapur Memorial Hospital (or BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital).

Dr. Devi Shetty founded Narayana Health (formerly Narayana Hrudayalaya) in 2000. Renowned for his work in affordable cardiac care, Narayana Health was started with a vision to provide high-quality healthcare to the masses at an affordable cost. It operates 24 hospitals and 7 heart centers.

While the early generation focused on innovation from a hospital, clinic, or lab perspective, doctors-turned-entrepreneurs are now finding new problems to solve, something that may not be found in traditional settings.

It was during her time with several hospitals when Dr. Garima Sawhney realized that patients were not made aware of the details of their treatment or surgery, which eventually made them scared. To solve the same, she co-founded Pristyn Care with Harsimarbir Singh and Dr. Vaibhav Kapoor in 2018. The startup offers surgery care to patients through advanced medical technology and recovery measures. "We are building trust in elective surgeries under different specialties," she earlier shared.

Dr. Amit Kharat co-founded DeepTek AI with Ajit Kumar as a startup leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to develop an advanced decision support system for radiologists. Dr. Dhaval Shah co-founded Pharmeasy with his childhood friends to build the e-pharmacy startup which offers medicines, diagnostics, and telehealth online. He feels that the health care business is like a circle, where anyone can enter at any point.

Other areas in which docpreneurs are betting big include telemedicine and telehealth; health and wellness apps; and diagnostics.

Paromita Gupta

Entrepreneur Staff

Freelancer

Covering news and trends in AI and Metaverse segments. An avid book reader running her personal blog on the side. You may reach me at paromita@entrepreneurindia.com. 
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