COVID-19 Provides a Boost to Singapore-based Startup Offering Digital Solutions to Healthcare Providers

We talked to Sumit Khemani of SmartFuture about connected healthcare ecosystem and he had the following to say about it.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Sumit Khemani: At the start of COVID, it was challenging because of lockdown. But some degree of normalcy has returned to our daily lives in Singapore in the last 4 months, and things are much better compared to many other countries.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded SmartFuture.

Sumit Khemani: I came to Singapore on a scholarship in 2001 for my junior college and university studies. After completing my Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University in 2008, I had an 8-month stint in investment banking before I joined a smaller company in IT manufacturing space for 7 years where I learnt the necessary skills needed to start my own company in 2015 with a vision to make remote monitoring tech a part of everyday healthcare. 

How does SmartFuture innovate? 

Sumit Khemani: We use wireless technologies and artificial intelligence to make white-label software and hardware solutions for healthcare providers so they can check vitals of their patients remotely and provide the needed intervention.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Sumit Khemani: Like most other health tech companies, our business has grown because of coronavirus. The healthcare industry has realized the importance of telehealth and remote monitoring of vitals, giving our business a boost.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Sumit Khemani: At the start, we could not cope with the sudden demand because our solution was not very scalable at the time. We had to refuse a lot of orders and focus on improving the solution before going back to customers. Lesson learnt was that B2B software solutions should, in general, be as modular as possible, allowing flexibility to integrate with as many existing systems in the market.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Sumit Khemani: By taking enough time off every day to spend time with family and having at least 6 hours of consistent sleep every day.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Sumit Khemani: All telemedicine companies are indirect competitors because they offer a similar solution to healthcare providers but in a different form. We plan to stay ahead in the game by partnering with healthcare and medical companies not just to get access to potential customers but more importantly, to improve our solution.

Your final thoughts?

Sumit Khemani: Telehealth has emerged as the most relevant health solution in a Covid-19 world. But it is being offered as a ‘gig economy’ business, but healthcare providers want their own telehealth platform and not join a 3rd party Uber-like one. Secondly, patients would rather see their own doctor than one selected for them. With our model, our vision is to empower 150,000 healthcare providers so they can reach 150 million patients remotely by 2025.

Your website? 

https://oursmartfuture.com/