We always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Dr. Sameer Khan for an exclusive interview with us. Let’s learn more about his incredible journey, his background and his advice for our growing community.

Tell us a little bit about your start-up and your journey, please;

StratMed is India’s first transparent Group Purchase Organisation (GPO). StratMed uses network-powered insights and its proprietary tools to work on all cost levers across critical areas of clinical, operational and supply chain performance.

StratMed wants to bring a transformative shift in healthcare purchasing by:

• Setting in motion a Well-rounded Intelligent Spend Methodology which aims to help Hospitals improve their EBITDA by approx.. 30%
• Building a Large-Scale Supplier and Buyer Network to leverage economies of scale
• Leveraging its Proprietary Data Analytics Platform Integer to enable Business Decision Support and Process Automation
• Becoming the only Integrator of healthcare in Tier III and IV towns in India and building the largest database of COGS in healthcare.

Founded in 2019 by Dr Sameer Ahmed Khan, Nishant Gopinathan, and Dr Vicky Kothari, StratMed aggregates industry demand and helps hospitals and clinics connect with the right manufacturers and negotiate preferred prices.

The StratMed team has created one of the largest networks comprising of more than 50 hospitals and 300 pharma and medical device companies across 14 states and 29 cities in India. Today, StratMed is one of the largest data-driven healthcare performance improvement companies in India managing a total purchase value of Rs 1,000 crore.

Brief Profile –

Dr. Sameer Ahmed Khan (FOUNDER & CEO)- A healthcare leader with extensive experience of driving excellence across various formats of healthcare delivery. He has led organizations on a path of rapid growth and profitability.

Dr. Vicky Kothari (CO-FOUNDER) – A doctor by training with experience in handling Operations, Medical Technology, and Sourcing for large healthcare groups in India and abroad.

Nishant Gopinathan (CO-FOUNDER) – Business leader with more than two decades of success across Medical Device & Industrial solutions in India and South Asia. He has turned around business through strategic initiatives and process-driven transformations.

The Advisory Board of StratMed is represented by seasoned Healthcare Leaders like:

Daljit Singh – Commonwealth Scholar, Senior Management Programme, Manchester Business School, Former – Member, Board of Directors, ICI India.

Dr Rajen Ghadiok – Cardiac Anaesthetist by background with more than 25 years of clinical practice experience at leading hospital groups in India including Fortis, Gangaram, Apollo and St Stephens.

Dr Abdul Samad Ansari – practicing Intensivist in Mumbai, currently heading Critical Care for a large hospital group in Mumbai. Has played a very important role in establishing Critical Care as a core specialty in Indian Healthcare.

Dr (Col) Anil Dhall – practicing Cardiologist in Delhi NCR who has been associated with Max Heart & Vascular Institute, Artemis Health Institute, Delhi Heart & Lung Institute, Sarvodaya Hospitals and Venkateshwara Hospital. He has guided ICMR, AFMRC and other research activities.

Dr Anil Kopuri – currently part of the Neonatology practice at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London.

How did the idea for your business/startup come about?

Globally, Group Purchasing Organisations have brought to the table the advantage of bulk purchasing/procurement. Better pricing resulted in improved margins and helped hospitals become more profitable. India did not open its gates to GPOs despite skyrocketing healthcare costs due to sub-optimal consumption planning. Till recently, many smaller hospitals held the misperception that sourcing aggregation benefits require higher purchasing threshold and as a result, continued to operate in silos. With StratMed, many hospitals have started seeing the advantage of an integrated, collaborative and data-based approach.

What was your key driving force to become an entrepreneur?

Improving human life at sustainable cost

How did you come up with the name for your business/startup?

Strat – Strategy

Med – Medicine

StratMed is going beyond the traditional “Bulk Purchasing” Approach and is adopting a CQO (Cost – Quality – Outcome) Approach across three key intervention levers – Commercial (Price), Process and Consumption Optimisation. Thereby ensuring that Clinical Outcomes are not adversely impacted due to a reduction in the Cost of Care Delivery.

It is able to do so by leveraging its large-scale demand aggregator model and Direct Rate Contract Negotiations with the Manufacturers and bringing Clinical Expertise to the table for improved Brand Standardisation and Brand Mix Planning. Unique to StratMed is its data-driven analytics approach for monitoring purchase trends and enabling better price-parity. This is done at multiple levels – Category-based, Product-based, SKU-based, Region-based and most importantly Payor-based.

What service(s) or product(s) do you offer/manufacture?

To Healthcare Providers –

Price Optimisation

• Measure and Capture Existing Hospital Rates and Margins
• Consolidate Brand & Vendor Mix
• Validate against Industry Best Practices

Process Optimisation

• Assess Current Utilisation
• Measure and Capture Existing Hospital Supply Chain Process
• Identify Focus Area & Seal Leakage
• Digitised Requirement Fulfilment

Consumption Optimisation

• Measure and Average Consumption
• Standardise and Set Package Limits
• Clinical Procedural / Treatment Pathway & Protocol Mapping
• Correlate and Compare findings of Stage 1 and Stage 2 with Industry Consumption Patterns
• Build Packages as per Patient / Payor Type

Product Optimisation

• SKU Standardisation through formulary designing to Improve cost efficiancy
• Brand and Vendor Consolidation.
• Cost & Brand Benchmarking with Member Hospital Network

Data Optimisation

• Integer Implementation and Integration with existing HIS
• Digitised Procurement ManagementSmart Contracts, PO and Indenting, Supplier Efficiency Monitoring and Setting Reorder Levels.
• Tech-enabled- Dashboard

To Pharma, Medical Device Companies/Distributors/Stockists –

Reach

• New Markets And Customers At Zero Resource Cost.

Add – Wallet Share

• Establish Category Leadership And Earn A Larger Wallet Share

Discover – Be on the A-List

• Greater Visibility And Reduced Cycle Time For “Hospital Supplier Discovery”.

Insights – Sales Forecasting based on Consumption Patterns

• Realistic Sales Forecasting Opportunity Based On Hospital Consumption Patterns.

Understand and Manage Better: Provider and Patient Usage Patterns

• Understand Consumption Patterns, Evaluate Portfolio Opportunities, Enhance Channel Effectiveness And Manage Better

Spend lesser- Sell higher.

• Simplified Customer Acquisition Process, Faster Contract Closures And Reduced Sales Management Burden.

Various Initiatives/endeavors  & Future milestones/events coming up

• SAAS modules for supply chain and purchase for smaller hospitals
• B2B e commerce for individual Practitioners
• White labelling of devices and consumables
• Kitchen & CSSD services
• Data Monetization of data-based products
• International expansion in MENA and SE ASIA

Why should people choose your product/services?

• Hospitals expect a typical project IRR of 15-18%. For this return, cash flow must be positive before 3rd year of operation and EBITDA in the range of 23-25% in 4th to 5th year of operations. However, in reality only few assets are able to achieve and sustain the desired financial performance.
• Revenue side and cost side pressure straining hospital margins
• Increasing payer bargaining power leads to increase in revenue pressure on providers
• Price control on drugs and medical devices are reducing the margin for hospitals
• Manpower and material constitute 70% to 80% of the total operating expenditure, a comprehensive efficiency-improvement exercise would entail optimization across man and material

StratMed is well-positioned to offer its partners better Cost Savings than Industry Benchmarks. StratMed ensures that the outlook for healthcare providers moves from cost focus to value focus.

We aspire to create a healthcare ecosystem where cost savings and improved performance result in better care. Our proprietary RDFP approach helps us achieve our goal by addressing all cost levers involved in the supply chain function of healthcare delivery. There exists an untapped potential everywhere and we assist our members to discover and realize it.

• Reduce : Healthcare cost (entire care continuum)
• Drive : Supply chain Transparency, Visibility & Predictability
• Facilitate : Product Standardization & Benchmarking
• Propel : Healthcare Process & System Transformation

Did pandemic (COVID 19) affect your business? if yes how?

Amid pandemic, StratMed has set up a covid task force which coordinates with hospitals daily to understand their requirement and assist them with securing supplies.

Have you considered any alliance/partnership/funding?

We received seed funding from HNIs. We are looking for growth capital funding to expand into new territories, acquire new customers, and further enhance our proprietary healthcare spend analytics platform

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