Aayush Bhagat had just completed his 6th semester of a software engineering course at the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh in April 2020 when Covid-19 chased him back to his hometown Biratnagar.

The pandemic strained Nepal’s small health system to the limit, and seeing how hard it was for people to access even basic health services, Bhagat thought technology could make their life easier.

He wanted to build an app that would provide doctor consultation, make online outpatient registration and fix appointments with doctors, and remove much of the hassles patients were facing.

“Like everywhere else around the world, the Nepal government was not prepared to fight the pandemic,” Bhagat told the Post. “As medtech apps were already proving effective in many countries, including India, launching a similar mobile application in Nepal looked like the thing to do.”

Bhagat shared his idea with his friends. Rajat Agrawal, who was pursuing MBBS at Birat Medical College, and Ashish Jaju, director at Asian Thai Foods, decided to team up with Bhagat.

They put together the funds and recruited software engineers to develop the application. “It took around six months to create the Cura Health app,” said Bhagat. “There are currently eight software engineers in the team.”

With the software in hand, the trio went looking for hospitals who would collaborate with them. They went to Birat Nursing Home in Biratnagar where services had been disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak.

Like at most hospitals, Birat Nursing Home's outpatient department (OPD) had been forced to shut down. The hospitals were severely stressed. People were not able to meet doctors.

Bhagat and his friends not only succeeded in convincing the hospital to collaborate with them, but also found a new partner. Denis Karki, vice-chairman of Birat Medical College, liked the idea of Cura Health so much he decided to become a partner.

Cura Health was launched in Biratnagar on November 11, 2020. Piyush Agrawal recently joined the team as a co-founder.

More than 50 hospitals and clinics in Biratnagar, Kathmandu, Itahari and Pokhara, besides more than 300 doctors from across the country, are now associated with Cura Health.

“Doctors can choose to work with us individually or through hospitals and clinics,” said Bhagat.

Co-founder Rajat, who recently completed his MBBS, said he too would be providing medical services through the app.

“The app provides information related to the real-time availability of doctors,” said Bhagat. “An appointment can be made through the app.”

Cura Health also provides free and for pay telemedicine, audio-video consultation with a doctor and other services.

During the Covid restrictions, the app provided telemedicine services free of cost with the cooperation of the Morang Merchants' Association and Chamber of Industries Morang.

“Though we are no longer working together with those organisations, we have continued our free audio-video consultation services,” said Bhagat. “It does not generate revenue for us, but it fulfils the needs of patients and generates a point of interest for them on our platform.”

While some doctors have agreed to provide telemedicine services through the app for free, others demanded fees.

“We charge the hospitals instead of the patients,” said Bhagat. “The hospitals are charged for collaborating with Cura Health for OPD consultation on the basis of subscription or commission.”

Cura Health has also been providing lab test services for the past year. More than 20 A and B grade labs across the country have been associated with the app to provide the services.

The app provides information about the nearest available labs and the prices they charge for a specific test, and users can choose the best option for them.

Users can choose to have their samples collected at home or go to the labs. Payment can be made online or to the health technician who visits the patients to collect the samples.

We explain to the patients what is in the reports which we send to them through the app or to their email address. They can also obtain free consultation from doctors through telemedicine and get a prescription for medication.

By March next year, Cura Health plans to launch medicine delivery services.

The app has more than 25,000 downloads from the Google Play Store and App Store. Around 10,000 users from all over the country have obtained telemedicine, doctor consultation and lab test services using the app, according to Bhagat.

Lab tests are also carried out on a commission basis. Bhagat claims that the lab test fees on Cura Health do not exceed the fees charged by most labs.

“In fact, the fees can be cheaper as we provide the samples to the labs in bulk,” said Bhagat. “We do not charge the patients but the labs.”

According to Bhagat, one of their biggest challenges is convincing hospitals and patients to join their platform. “Low-cost labs providing low-quality services is another challenge.”

Some government policies, especially in the marketing field, have also created hindrances to the growth of start-ups like Cura Health.

“There are tax provisions which discourage start-ups like us,” said Bhagat.

“The government does not consider waiving or reducing taxes for advertisements issued by start-ups,” Bhagat says. “The annual tax for installing a hoarding board at a shop with the shopkeeper's permission is higher than the cost of the board.”

Cura Health app users have also complained whenever it fails to meet their needs.

“We are one of the highest rated medical apps in the country,” Bhagat said. “Our rating on the Google Play Store and App Store is 4.6 and 4.5 out of 5, respectively.”

The developers of Cura Health say they intend to make it a one-stop medical solution. “The past two years have been a great learning experience for us,” said Rajat. “So far, we have been able to satisfy both segments of our clients–doctors and patients.”

Cura Health was recently declared one of the 40 winners among the 340 nominations from 72 countries in this year’s World Summit Award, which selects and promotes local digital innovations that bring improvement to society.

Cura Health was nominated from Nepal under the Health & Well-Being category by ICT. It has also been selected among the top five finalists under the start-up category for this year’s ICT Awards which will be held on December 23 in Kathmandu.