The PHR

DRIEFCASE is India's first PHR app to be approved by the National Health Association (NHA) for Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) roll-out.

The DRIEFCASE Health Locker app enables the user and their family to securely maintain and access their medical records anytime and anywhere. The app has a focus on personal health records management that provides ease of upload and ensures fast retrieval of patient’s data, to enable safe remote care.

To access and share their health records digitally, people need an ABHA account (previously called Health ID), which serves as a unique health account.

There are some premium versions of the app with additional features (more details below in the ‘features’ section.

DRIEFCASE also has a clinic management system for Doctors and Providers – DRIEFCASE Connect. This is a comprehensive practice management platform for individual doctors, polyclinics and small hospitals that helps improve productivity for Doctors.

History

DRiefcase was founded in 2016 by Sohit Kapoor and Harsh Parikh, both former investment bankers motivated by personal experiences with the healthcare system. Observing the inefficiencies and lack of digitisation in healthcare, they sought to replicate the digitisation seen in financial services. They believed that in India, where healthcare data is scattered across multiple providers, patients must be the central decision-makers and aggregators of their own healthcare data. This vision led to the creation of DRiefcase as a Personal Health Record (PHR) platform, to simplify the burden of health records management and reduce the information gap between patients and doctors by making access to medical history quick and easy.

At the time of its inception, digital health was still nascent in India, with national conversations about it only beginning in 2017. Despite the early challenges, DRiefcase has been self-funded by the founders and has gradually grown its capabilities and user base.

The company’s Minimum Viable Product (MVP) was a simple storage platform for photos of medical records, followed by a rapid data retrieval feature—a critical need in India, where doctors see hundreds of patients daily in brief consultations.

Today, the digital health landscape in India has evolved, with many records now being digital and citizens able to create a unique health ID, known as ABHA. This system links patient records to their ABHA accounts, though widespread adoption is still underway, with a governmental directive for all providers to connect within the next three years.

In February 2022, India’s National Health Authority approved the integration of DRiefcase with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission (ABDM), allowing DRiefcase to launch a faster check-in service for ABDM.

Today, DRiefcase is India′s only fully ABDM-integrated health-tech solution that allows users to easily securely store, access and share their medical records in the healthcare ecosystem.

Features

The primary use of the platform involves ABDM related functionalities, such as the creation of ABHA, management of consent and health records, as well as individuals scanning or capturing images of their health documents and then uploading them. Patients can then share their record with doctors.

Besides inputting their own information, patients will have access to data entered by their doctor, but this feature is only available if the clinic has purchased and is utilizing DRiefcase (or other ABDM complaint platform)

• Patients can upload

  • radiology reports

  • pathology reports

  • laboratory reports

  • Patients can take notes about their health in a journal

• Auto-tagging and indexing helps patients locate & retrieve any record easily

• Patients can create profiles of all family members with a single account

• If the clinic is using DRiefcase connect (the EHR by the same company), and therefore doctors have decided to share records with patients, the latter will get access to:

  • their diagnosis,

  • medication,

  • immunizations

  • procedure history.

  • their appointments (and get reminders)

  • patients would also be able to book new appointments.

  • video consultations

• At the beginning of December 2023, DRiefcase launched a new app feature, 'Call for Blood', whose aim is to address the critical need for timely blood donations during medical emergencies. Now, users seeking blood within a city can connect with willing donors through the app. Harsh Parikh, Co-Founder of DRiefcase says, "This is not just an app feature, it's a lifeline for those in need. Our goal is to save lives and ensure that vital resources are always at hand." To use the feature, the recipient needs to download the DRiefcase app, click the 'Call for Blood' icon listed under the main menu, and provide basic essential details, including the name, blood group, contact details, and location. Following the submission of this data, the recipient's request will be displayed within the app and a notification will be sent to DRiefcase users within the same geographical area.

One additional service (rather than a feature) offered by the company is the ‘Scan at Home’, to help people digitise their medical history: on request, their team can go to people's homes and scan all their records. Some of these services offered by DRiefcase are premium and are subject to a price of 1000₹(equivalent to 12 US dollars).

List of services, as available on the DRiefcase official website:

• Patients can ship or deliver by hand their medical records to DRiefcase. Patients can then pick them up or request for a delivery at their premise. This service is for free

• DRiefcase can collect the medical documents at the patient’s premises, scan and return them. This service costs 1000₹ and is available all over India.

• DRiefcase can scan and upload the medical documents at the patient’s premises. This service costs 1000₹ and is available in selected Indian cities.

• Once the patient’s records are uploaded, DRiefcase can send the patient a digital copy of their record on a flash drive or CD. This service costs 1000₹ and is available all over India.

In June 2024, the company, together with its partners, launched healthcare services such as pathology, health loans, insurance, and teleconsultations, with DRiefcase earning commissions on transactions. For instance, when booked through the platform, the company receives commission for the services.

Challenges and areas for improvement

Despite its many successes, DRiefcase faces several challenges. A significant one is the adoption and data flow of the ABHA ID system by healthcare providers, which relies heavily on the federal government’s management. Although Driefcase now receives 25,000 to 30,000 patient records daily from the 80,000 new users registering each day, these records are mostly PDFs and basic consultation summaries. For many other patients, data from hospitals is not yet flowing seamlessly.

Another area for improvement is the ability for patients to view an access log, allowing them to see who accessed their records and when—a feature currently lacking in DRiefcase.

Moreover, while the app has captured 50% of the market share, DRiefcase is still in the early stages of monetisation. The company has not yet fully calculated the Return on Investment (ROI) or the lifetime value of its users, as its healthcare services, such as pathology, health loans etc, were only launched recently.

Published outcomes - statistics

As of August 2024, DRiefcase has 16 million registered users.

Each day, 80,000 patients register for an ABHA ID through DRiefcase, aided by informative posters in hospitals and on-site interns stationed in 150 hospitals across India. The user acquisition cost remains notably low- a few cents per user.

To better understand these figures, it's helpful to consider them in the context of India’s broader statistics:

Currently, around 600 million Indians possess ABHA IDs, with 80% of these having been generated through government programmes, leaving many patients unaware of their existence. Approximately one-sixth of these users—about 80 to 100 million—have voluntarily created an ABHA ID. Each day, 250,000 people either register for or use their ABHA IDs.

Of these 250,000 daily users, 50% utilise DRiefcase, whether for registering or returning visits.

Screenshots

Bibliography

Business Standard, 2023. DRiefcase Launches a New App Feature - Call for Blood: Connecting Donors and Patients in Need. 2 December. Available at: https://www.business-standard.com/content/press-releases-ani/driefcase-launches-a-new-app-feature-call-for-blood-connecting-donors-and-patients-in-need-123120200591_1.html [Accessed 26 July 2024].

DRiefcase Health-Tech, n.d. FAQs. Available at: https://driefcase.doctor/Faq.aspx (Accessed 11 January 2024)

DRiefcase Health-Tech, n.d. Homepage. Available at: https://www.driefcase.com/ (Accessed 11 January 2024)