R-ADAG plans healthcare KPO

Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group is to foray into emerging sectors of healthcare informatics and knowledge process outsourcing, a $22.8 billion industry in India.

The group is planning to set up a separate entity, Reliance Health, for its KPO foray and is also looking at tie-ups in the domestic market.

"Reliance Health will provide healthcare solutions to Indians at affordable prices. In a country where healthcare is fast becoming a booming industry, the company will offer services that are comparable with the best around the world," a source close to the development said in Mumbai on Monday.

The company intends to offer affordable and accessible healthcare solutions, which would be rolled out through partnerships with government and private businesses, they said.

Reliance Health also plans to venture into insurance administration, healthcare delivery and integrated health, health informatics and information management, apart from consumer health.

Managed healthcare administration, healthcare delivery and integrated health, health informatics and KPO and consumer health are the areas that the company is looking at.

Under managed care administration, Reliance Health will manage a range of healthcare services from wellness, inpatient, outpatient, pharmacy, chronic disease, alternative medicine/therapies and cosmetic care.

This is being planned through a network of owned and affiliated healthcare delivery systems. The company will also offer health insurance products.

Under healthcare delivery and integrated health, the company would provide services in traditional settings like hospitals, clinics, domiciliary care and day care among other, and would partner with frontline organisations.

The company has also finalised its first partner, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, a tertiary care facility in Mumbai. Reliance Health, under Healthcare Informatics and KPO, seeks to automate workflow and improve productivity, reduces administrative burden, improve patient care and clinical outcomes, supports the delivery of integrated care, and empowers the consumer of healthcare services.

For this, the company will utilise the telecom and data infrastructure of Reliance Communications. Under consumer health, it will focus on technologies that are beginning to transform traditional healthcare model.

The company will utilise telecom infrastructure and technology that is for the foray.

KPO, which is a part of business process outsourcing, conducts advanced researches in data mining, analytical interpretation, technical skills and decision making.

Key functions of KPO companies involve patent research, R&D in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, database creation and analytical services such as equity research and competitive intelligence among others. On the contrary, BPO focuses on executing standardised routine processes.