What it means to be considered the World’s best in what you do
When I was invited to attend the World Summit Congress in Portugal, little did I realize the profound impact it will have on my psyche, leadership qualities and the way I perceive the World.
Let me take you back a few years. Over time, my interest in my clinical practice was dwindling and I was aching to do something. Something where I could impact a larger mass of people compared to the measly number of patients that walk into my door. What could I, a little known Doctor, in the third world, do? Neither did I have a pedigree to fall back on, nor a big name that I could launch something. Millions of people were struggling in India to get better healthcare, education and sustain themselves.
On a parallel, something profound was unravelling in India, where I live. During the period 2000 to 2015, about 800 million people signed up for a mobile phone connection, something that was a dream to them, but unheard of anywhere else in the World. Most of these people could not speak English, and their smart devices were simply a source of entertainment, or communication where they passed on jokes or videos to family and friends.
This was my I had a dream moment. Can I reach out to those millions, especially underprivileged women, to empower them to take care of their health and wellbeing? That is how I started. Armed with ideas and nothing else, I started to make local language health education videos, with those women in my sharp focus. I had to reach out to them in a language they understand. The message had to be simple enough so even the uneducated among them can understand. So I switched to animated videos, and began making them in several local languages.
Little did I realize that these videos would gain traction so quickly. They came in droves, and simply wanted more. I reached out to them in the form of a protagonist, Anjali, who is pregnant, and trying to understand her pregnancy, her motherhood and her health. Thus was born MedhealthTV, following the trails of Anjali as she took control of her body, her pregnancy and her wellbeing.
I made these videos in Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Arabic, Spanish and Mandarin. How can I reach out to the teeming millions who are untouched by modern healthcare? Technology was the only answer, where I could bypass every institution, and directly reach out to the women, empower them and enable them to take control of their health.
MedhealthTV was a roaring success in terms of the impact it had on people. My clinical practice did not make sense anymore. Here I could interact with people far away, who were struggling to get information, and make a real impact. The thousands of Thank you notes that I get daily was more satisfying than what my practice could deliver. It did not matter that I had not figured out a revenue model to sustain MedhealthTV. These women wanted more. They had questions about their pregnancies, about their babies, about their health, about everything and anything. They wanted to talk to someone.
With my limited technology background, and no funding, I am groping to setup a medium by which they can start a chat with a service provider. I am enabling bots to answer basic questions, and possibly add a human service provider to sustain this medium.
This has been a short, fascinating journey and is exciting because I do not know what is coming next.
The World Summit Congress recognized the impact that I had on millions. I met people like me, from every corner of the World, that were making an impact on people in their own way, in domains such as agriculture, healthcare, education. I salute the World Summit Congress to recognize and reward hundreds of people like me who are quietly working behind the scenes, unaffected by fame, power, or money to bring about social change. These are the real heros.
