Predicting healthcare outcomes using Artificial Intelligence

Kiran Kalakuntla, Founder and CEO- eKincare

eKincare is the brainchild of Kiran K Kalakuntla, having an outstanding track record of designing, developing and bringing complex technologies to market including world’s first 3D Smartphone.

As the Founder & CEO of eKincare, Kiran brings a novel concept that promises a healthier future for everyone at the click of a button. He successfully brought complex and innovative wireless platforms/devices to market. His expertise includes strong technical and business acumen to translate customer trends into successful wireless solutions, commercialize technologies and execute on innovative strategies. His demonstrated leadership and the ability to lead, influence, persuade diverse cross functional groups, including senior management, vendors and partners motivates him.

Kiran got this idea after he felt there is a need for NRIs,(Non resident Indians) to monitor the health of their families in India. Typically, parents stay back in India and there is no way their children in the US can understand the health reports as most of them are techies, he says.

Besides easy digitization of one’s medical records, eKincare not only spots one’s future health risks based on strong data analysis of past health history but also facilitates a timely prevention plan by lining up services of best healthcare providers. With a decade of successful marketing career in North America to his credit, Kiran hit upon the idea of starting eKincare during his stay in the US when he found it difficult to get access to any information on his parent’s health that were in India.

Started in October 2014, Kiran’s startup bagged funding from well-known venture capital firms and in a relatively short span been able to expand the registered user base, through his sheer business acumen. Kiran lives in Hyderabad in a joint family and enjoys travelling and spending time with his near and dear ones. He also delivers talks and shares the learning in various starts up forums and colleges to encourage the budding entrepreneurs.

After pursuing his Masters in Engineering Management from Duke University, US, Kiran joined Alltel (Verizon) as Product Engineer where he designed the strategy and technology road map of the company. As Product Development Engineer he was responsible for getting out the product in the market and making sure it was bug free. He then gathered sizeable experience in Product Marketing at AT & T defining a good market strategy in terms of all Ps of marketing.

From consumer research, user experience research to defining the 360 degree of products, Kiran’s decade long work experience fetched him several career highpoints such as launch of first Samsung galaxy smart phone in the world, launch of first 3D smart phone, launch of 4G device for North America, launch of the world’s first customizable smart phone, among others.

Here are some more insights shared with the team ABT

Tell us about eKincare and its business model.
eKincare is patent pending predictive, preventive and personalized healthcare solution. It leverages data from your medical records and uses Artificial Intelligence to help drive better healthcare outcomes. We are a B2B platform for providers and aggregators.

What is your guiding philosophy when it comes to doing business?
My guiding principle is to strive be “the best” at anything you do.

Who inspires you the most? Why.
Just like several of our new age tech entrepreneurs, my role model is Steve Jobs. I have a great respect for his leadership in building products that are the best in what they do.

How did you manage to fund your startup?
I invested Rs 10 lakh (US$15000) to start the company. And the funds were never a problem. Even before the product was launched, we got $600,000 seed funding from Bitkemy ventures, Adroi-tent and other HNIs

What’s your revenue model?
It is absolutely free. We already have 2.5 lakh users. Our revenue comes from our tie-ups diagnostic centres and our institutional tie-ups. But you should not think that eKincare will earn at the expense of our user. In fact, we will get diagnostic centres offer discounted rates to us. We have already tied up with over 2000 diagnostic centres across India

Tell us about some of the challenges you face and how do you overcome them.
The Biggest challenge for any startup is attracting the right talent and building a team around a shared vision. We are always trying to do more with less, which includes ability to pay large salaries. We’ve been happy to create a niche position in healthtech space, which excited several of them to reach out to us directly for contributing which means even happy to take a pay cut.

If you were to recall any proud moment /milestone what would that be?
Proudest moment was when eKincare was awarded amongst 100 most innovative digital healthcare companies in the world by the Journal of mHealth and eKincare was the only health tech company from India.

Where do you see yourself 3 years from now?
We see ourselves doubling down on our tech and analytics and build a really strong intelligence engine that can predict and recommend that right next healthcare intervention. In the process help improve the life of individuals and help them save money on healthcare costs. What can be better than “do well and to get paid for it”.The post Predicting healthcare outcomes using Artificial Intelligence appeared first on Top Asia Business News, Trends, Insights & Analysis.