Foreword
The last 2 years have been tough for all at a business, professional and personal level. But, the
positive factor is that India has been able to tackle the menace of COVID-19 very well. The
vaccination drive that was started by the Government last January has been successful with the adult
population receiving at least 1 dose while over 68% are fully vaccinated. However, quite a few who
do not believe in the vaccines and their efficacy, refrain from taking them.
At GOQii, we were keen to understand what the citizens of India think about the vaccines and whether
their mental wellbeing and stress levels have improved or worsened over the last 1 year.
In 2020, when we did a survey, there was skepticism around vaccines. But, in 2021 that skepticism
had considerably reduced. Our recent survey in January 2022 shows that 87.4% respondents have taken
the second dose of the vaccine and 7.2% have taken a booster dose. In December 2020, exactly a year
back, 61% of Indians were feeling positive about being administered a vaccine.
The COVID-19 Pandemic forced people to take their health more seriously. What changed in the process
is that the traditional way of delivering health took a back seat, while digital health took over.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to understand themselves, their body and their health and
ask the right questions to stay healthy. It has changed the course of healthcare to a more
technology-driven approach. Adopting technology along with prevention, diagnosis and treatment will
help us get close to the goal of digital health.
GOQii has been at the forefront of bringing digital healthcare to the forefront to help individuals
take care of their health. For instance, the year 2020 saw GOQii innovating with its wearables by
launching wearables with an Integrated Pulse Oximeter to measure SpO2 (Blood Oxygen), Blood
Pressure, Heart Rate and 24x7 Body Temperature to assist in early detection & management of
COVID-19. The use of wearables enables healthcare consumers to analyze their biomarkers, receive
digital coaching services and benefit from their insurance plans. It also enables the medical
community to use biomarker analysis in remote prognosis and treatment.
In 2021, GOQii focused on areas such as remote patient monitoring tools that help in earlier
diagnosis and is a more convenient way of treatment. Chronic diseases have increased the burden on
healthcare systems across the globe. India is no different in this respect.. The treatment of
patients with chronic diseases is a significant challenge and we realized that Digital Therapeutics
will be the way forward, where companies such as GOQii that operate in the preventive space to
provide Digital Therapeutics solutions across therapy areas like NAFLD, GERD, Diabetes, Obesity,
Gastrointestinal Disorders, Mental health, Stroke management, Cardiac Care, DVT, Long Covid Care and
Cancer Therapy. All these programs are delivered in partnership with the Healthcare Providers via
doctors and are monitored closely for patient engagement and clinical outcomes.
GOQii is already working in this space with few pharma companies in Diabetes Care. GOQii brings to
the partnership its preventive healthcare platform that consists of a care team of doctors and
healthcare experts. GOQii gains an upper edge in digital therapeutics as our smart wearable devices
also have a CDSCO (Indian FDA) registration as a medical device and all data generated by GOQii
devices is acceptable for clinical needs. Furthermore, GOQii data collection is subjected to HIPAA,
GDPR and other relevant data protection regulation, as well as ISO 27799 - the foremost standard for
information security management in health.
Another area that GOQii has been aggressively focusing on in 2021 is in outcome-based insurance.
Health insurance has become more vital today than before. By activating and collecting the right
data – from IoTs such as activity trackers (wearables) – they’re able to better understand consumer
needs and offer customized advice, coverage, and tailored pricing. Usage-based insurance policies,
for instance, tap into customer data in order to charge users according to their specific needs and
behaviors, putting the consumer in charge of their own fees. Based on how healthy a person is,
insurance companies can offer differential pricing and a plan to every user which can further be
customized based on improvement in health.
With greater emphasis on preventive healthcare, we at GOQii strongly believe that preventive
healthcare is the only viable, long term, mass market solution.
- Vishal Gondal
CEO, GOQii