The novel coronavirus pandemic has upended the world as we know it, taking an unprecedented toll on health and human life.The global healthcare ecosystem has quickly mobilized to mitigate the crisis – modifying care access points and modalities while producing financing mechanisms to sustain patient care amidst dire circumstances.
As part of the ‘Toolbox for Success’ series designed by the Department of Pharmacy, Brac University, a webinar on ‘Managing Healthcare during a Pandemic: A Healthcare Startup’ held on April 18, 2021. The speakers of the webinar were Ms. Sylvana Q. Sinha, Esq., Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Praava Health and Mr. Kutub Uddin Kamal, Communications Lead at Praava Health. The webinar was moderated by Ms. Namara Mariam Chowdhury and Ms. Marzia Alam, Lecturers at the Department of Pharmacy, Brac University respectively, and the overall technical part of the webinar was taken care of by Mr. Easin Uddin Syed, Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy and Mr. Shihab Ud Dowla, final year student of the department. The webinar was open to students, alumni and professionals from all disciplines and was live streamed on Facebook from the Department of Pharmacy, Brac University Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/BracU.Pharmacy) and Praava Healthcare Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/praavahealth/) simultaneously.
The speakers talked about the journey of Praava Health - a homegrown brick and click healthcare model that puts patients first, and how this startup sustained and served our community during the COVID-19 pandemic. They introduced the audience to the value-based concepts of the delivery of healthcare during a pandemic. Ms. Sinha discussed the first fully integrated HIS (Hospital Information System) of Praava Health, which collects data to help better understand the communities being served. She also spoke about EHR (Electronic Health Records) and the first Patient Portal app in Bangladesh that can be used from the phone on the go or from the comfort of one's home. The app helps the patients make appointments, download medical records, view lab results, communicate with doctors and medical professionals, etc. The webinar was very interactive and the participants also asked questions and shared their opinion. The questions asked by the attendees were insightful and reflected their enthusiasm.
Ms. Sylvana Q. Sinha, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Praava Health, is a Bangladeshi-American lawyer and entrepreneur. Ms. Sinha built Praava Health from scratch after experiencing the challenges facing the Bangladeshi health system first-hand. Praava's "brick-and-click" healthcare platform integrates digital health and in-clinic experiences convenient to where everyone lives, works, and clicks. Tripling growth every year since launching in 2018, Praava's tech-forward model is designed to be efficient, accessible, and scalable across emerging markets, where 85 percent of the world lives. In 2020, Praava was recognized by Fast Company as a World Changing Idea. Praava Health is a patient-driven company disrupting the standard for healthcare for Bangladesh's 170 million citizens. Ms. Sinha is Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a graduate of Columbia Law School, Harvard's Kennedy School, and Wellesley College.
Mr. Kutub Uddin Kamal is the Communications Lead at Praava Health. He is a communications specialist having worked as a writer, journalist, and editor for most of his career starting in 2007. During the span of his career, he has worked with news and media outlets in Bangladesh and abroad, including working with the BBC Media Action. At Praava, he plays multiple roles including managing PR, conducting training on a variety of topics, and working on patient experience. Mr. Kamal is an Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering graduate of North South University.