In cancer, timely detection is important. In fact, if cancer is detected early, then it’s said that 80 per cent of patients can be cured. Karkinos Healthcare Pvt Ltd had launched its app with the mission to detect cancer early. Though the company was founded in July 2020, the cancer cure app was recently launched in Kolkata. Common forms of cancer can be treated easily through Karkinos and at low cost. Apart from supporting early detection risk assessment for six cancer types, Karkinos app also provides services like booking consultations with doctors and tests, along with reports.
Karkinos Healthcare, a technology-driven, oncology focused, managed healthcare platform was recently launched in Kolkata. With the mission to ensure that no person is deprived of quality care either by lack of access or affordability, Karkinos is backed by the best of organizations such as the Tata Group, Reliance Industries, Mayo Clinic (US), Rakuten Medical Inc. In fact, Karkinos Healthcare has Ratan Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Ronnie Screwvala, Vijay Shekar Sharma, and Bhavish Agarwal amongst its set of investors. Karkinos Healthcare has also collaborated with Tata Memorial Hospital, Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust (UK) along with several research collaborations with leading academic institutions in the United States to ensure we are at the frontier of oncology treatment and care.
Expanding footprint
The unique feature of the app is risk assessment, which is backed by technology, medicine, research, and provides the citizen an accurate assessment of their cancer risk. Bridging the gap between the citizen and the hospital, the Karkinos app reduces pocket costs along with doctor consultations. The basic premise of the app is that ‘early detection of cancer saves lives’.
The focus is to detect the disease at an initial phase before the arrival of prominent symptoms. This is done by strategically implementing a population-level risk assessment and screening for all eligible populations, categorizing them into elevated risk and screened positive, respectively. The survival rates in cancer patients who are detected at early stages are high.
“In West Bengal, we are trying to reach out to the entire population for risk assessment and screening through various mediums including massive community outreach through NGO’s and like-minded organizations, and various digital channels”, said Dr Jawade Akhter, Director East, Karkinos Healthcare. Currently, the company has partnered with some of the renowned establishments in Bengal such as Parkview Hospital, Narayan Memorial and many more are coming up shortly.
What makes Karkinos stand out?
Key features that Karkinos app provides:
– Take risk assessment for six cancer types: Breast cancer, cervical cancer, oral cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer.
– Book a consultation for a general practitioner and oncologist from the app itself.
– Easily book the HPV test for females
– Users are able to see the payment done by them for any services they book through the app. That can be GP consultation, onco-consultation, risk assessment, or HPV test booking
– Users can also upload their health records at one place in the app for easy access to all the reports and no need to carry many papers or documents for the same.
– Tele-consultation from the app itself, reports and booking lots of services such as lab tests, chemotherapy, radiology and expert opinion shall be available shortly
With today’s technology, it is easier to get primary and preventive care without having to visit the doctor’s chamber. This is done through the Karkinos app-based community risk assessment form, available in Google Play Store and Apple Store, where a series of clinically validated questions covering six common cancers are self-administered to assess if a person is at elevated risk. Those at elevated risk are navigated by Karkinos Command Center to the nearest Karkinos center for consultation and further investigation, as required.
Karkinos mission is to decentralize cancer care by establishing a distributed network of cancer care in partnership with private and government health faculties. We want to break the barrier of access to cancer care by offering the care in a distributed fashion in small towns and districts, closer to the patients, convenient to the family. The availability of the care closer to home will encourage the patients to visit the doctors at the first signs of any symptoms, seeking the help faster, earlier.
Looking for care delivery centres in Kolkata
The pilot programmes were implemented in Kerala during the COVID pandemic of 2021 with several health facilities, and Karkinos authorities plan to start the operations in West Bengal. According to R Venkataraman, CEO and founder, Karkinos Healthcare, the burden of cancer is very high in Bengal and the historic out-migration of patients to metro cities for treatment is a huge socio-economic burden for the people of the state.
To build the distributed cancer care network in Bengal, Karkinos is inviting care delivery centers, who will provide the necessary end-to-end care to the patient. It includes multidisciplinary care from general physician care, gynecology, oral care, oncology, etc. along with pathology, imaging, as well as treatment such as surgical care, chemotherapy, radiation, and targeted therapy. “Karkinos has onboarded several partners across the state and many are in advanced stages of discussion. Once the citizen has been screened positive or at risk for any of the six cancers, a report is sent to them and if screened positive or at risk, then the citizen is referred to our nearest partner hospital for further screening and diagnostic tests, along with doctor consultation,” said Venkataraman.
“We intend to cover the entire population of West Bengal to detect cancer early. This in turn will avoid the unnecessary financial and human resource expenditure. We strive to improve the cancer care delivery in the state and make a significant impact in the lives of people of West Bengal,” said Venkataraman.
He also added that the app is being developed to connect to a host of cancer care services, world-renowned oncology experts, second-opinion, forum and information on latest advancements in prevention, diagnosis, treatment in cancer along with the research.
