Diagnostics are an essential part of treatment today as doctors and health practitioners have increasingly started to depend on them for better diagnosis and treatment. Diagnostic tools help them pinpoint the root cause of illnesses and diseases, thus making it easier and more accurate to treat. The global diagnostics for coronavirus alone have been valued at $73,538.02 million in 2020 and is expected to be $15579.56 million by 2026. Driven by this pandemic situation, it dominates the diagnostic market on a global level. “70% of decisions that medical experts take on patient treatment depend on diagnostics tests, but at the same time, the diagnostics industry in India accounts for only 5% of the total health system costs,” says Mr. Dheeraj Jain, Founder, Redcliffe Life Diagnostics.
Redcliffe Life Diagnostics paves a way for the future of diagnostics by using state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure for all medical testing purposing, including COVID-19 testing services, fertility tests genome testing, conclusive diagnosis, fetus screening, digital tracking, and much more. Through this process, this leading and trusted diagnostics center strives to create comprehensive healthcare packages for full body testing that are affordable and accurate. By keeping in mind patient safety and wellbeing, these packages range from simple routine checkup testing to in-depth genetic testing and sequencing. Redcliffe Life Diagnostics focuses on reproductive health testing, rare diseases, and Cancer Genetic Diagnostics.
Apart from pathology services, routine testing, hormone testing, and COVID-19 tests, the center deals with genome testing and research that has the potential to advance the diagnosis of conditions caused by changes in the DNA and specify what treatments may be most effective. As an added benefit, it may also red-flag treatments likely to cause adverse reactions. Redcliffe Life Diagnostics realized that the genomic era is now a reality and that genomic research in the present scenario is undergoing rapid advancements. It is used to test genome alterations for harmful changes anywhere in the gene, specifically in cancer diagnosis where there are genetic mutations in the genetic code of cells. With genome testing, there is a more accurate level of diagnosis and removes a sense of uncertainty. it reduces the risk of cancer by making certain lifestyle changes if a patient has a positive result and can be easily corrected before it is too late. Through this, progressive cases can be treated systematically and can help the patient make informed medical and lifestyle decisions.
Being one of the leading diagnostics centers, Redcliffe Life Diagnostics was massively impacted during the pandemic, in terms of functioning and revenue. Although diagnostics played a major role during these unprecedented times, the industry has been on a sharp decline since mid-March in walk-ins. Especially during the lockdown, the logistics to move samples around, stopping of OPD services and elective surgeries at hospitals and clinics, corporates working from home, etc., the B2B business was equally affected. But, Mr. Dheeraj sees a silver lining: “The market has been growing over the past five years. There have been various trends at the testing level, market level, and consumer level. Routine blood tests are still the mainstay of the overall industry, though there is a definitive trend towards higher molecular and genetic testing. The recent pandemic has probably opened up both awareness of tests using RT-PCR technology and also expanded the availability and capacity across the country,” he opines.
As a person who is highly influenced by the industrialist Ratan Tata, Mr. Dheeraj follows his view on business principles and customer-centric approach as something to be admired. In a similar way, he aims to achieve it through Redcliffe Life, by spending a few months understanding the diagnostics ecosystem before starting the company in 2018. Mr. Dheeraj went to several startup events in Bengaluru and Chennai and kept relentlessly hunting for the maiden investment opportunity. He finally started receiving them in November with 20 deals from across the country. Ever since the inception of the startup, they have helped patients with genomic-based tests, the COVID RT-PCR, as well as routine diagnostics. Currently, Redcliffe Life Diagnostics comprises 6 labs and is planning to add 5-6 labs every month for the next 12 months. With Milind Soman as their brand ambassador, the center is going very strong on digital media space and some offline marketing as well by reaching out to KOLs / Clinicians / Hospitals to recommend specialized investigations for better treatment and monitoring.
What started as just a diagnostic center that majorly offered mother & child care high-end specialized testing gradually moving into oncological genomics. It was in January 2021 when Redcliffe started creating footprints in the Routine Diagnostics market offering routine preventive health checkups and putting up routine satellite labs at various locations. Today, the diagnostic center employs over 150 people and plans to be a 1000+ team and increase their presence from 5 cities to 60 cities by 2022.
Today, Redcliffe Life Diagnostics provides Covid 19 insurance care to all stakeholders for free, providing oxygen cylinders and concentrators along with financial support to families of Redcliffe employees. The company also provides education for girl children. “We have taken up the cause of girl child education and have pledged for supporting at least 10 girl children who complete primary and secondary education through an education trust – ‘Kesari Devi Charitable Trust’ in Varanasi run by prof of IIT-BHU Prof. Ajit Narayan Tripathi & Prof. Vibha Tripathi,” says Mr. Dheeraj.
By keeping genome testing in mind, Redcliffe Life Diagnostics strives to help patients monitor their disease and help reduce the intensity of the situation through innovative approaches towards medical experiences.