27th March 2020, Bangalore: When the whole world is fighting against a historic epidemic caused by COVID-19, Hiiih, a medical entrepreneurship and innovation-enabling platform, has launched an initiative to bring together startups that can collaborate and provide critical facilities to fight the disease.
Healthcare Innovations in Indian Healthcare (Hiiih) is an application-based platform designed solely to bring all the players of the Indian healthcare innovation ecosystem under one unique platform for the development of new healthcare solutions.
Medical startups are critical to fighting the epidemic, as they are nimble and have innovative ideas that can be deployed easily.
Dr. Jagdish Chaturvedi, Founder of Hiiih, noted ENT surgeon and standup comedian said, “This is an unprecedented situation in the history of humankind. We need to be able to think and act agile, and innovate as required. Hiiih was created to enable the Indian medical fraternity and the quick reaction time has showcased how this has been a useful platform for the medical industry. This platform is doing a small bit to help the society at this point of time and hopefully gives strength to all of us to fight this disease.”
There are 7 categories of startups that are working towards helping the situation with COVID-19
- Helpline and Support Services
- Ventilator development
- Diagnostic device development
- Disinfection/Sanitization
- Masks and PPE
- Drug Development
- Others
Fundraiser on Milaap: Hiiigh is also building a support system to those who are in quarantine to ensure they adhere to it properly and is crowd-funding the exercise through Milaap.
The initiative focuses on the most crucial need of effective quarantine that is being neglected by many. While people are being told to home quarantine, there is no implementation of the most critical part – How to home quarantine and what are the Do’s and Don’ts?. These high-risk individuals are most likely to spread of their quarantines are not followed correctly. HiiiH specialises in need and gap identification and is focussing on this crucial aspect to fight COVID19.