Praava Health, Bangladesh’s fastest-growing healthcare brand, announced it has now provided quality, affordable healthcare to more than half a million patients.
The company — founded by Sylvana Q. Sinha in 2018 on the belief that all people deserve world-class, affordable healthcare grounded in dignity and empathy — is a best-in-class healthcare system offering full-service medical care through a proprietary “click-and-brick” model, it said in a press release.
“We are so proud to have earned the trust of hundreds of thousands of patients, and grateful to see them coming back to Praava for all of their healthcare needs, time after time,” said Sinha, Praava Health’s founder, chair, and CEO.
“It’s a privilege to help people obtain peace of mind when it comes to their health, and this has only been made possible by the dedication of our incredible doctors, nurses, technicians and staff, the quality of our services, including on-site pharmacy and internationally-accredited laboratory.”
“It is critical to build resiliency in our healthcare systems in emerging markets, where 85% of the world lives. Our goal is to see Praava’s model expand across Bangladesh and other emerging markets to help people access quality, affordable healthcare wherever they are, and invest in innovative models that integrate digital and in-person services, bolster primary care and lab capacity, and put patients first. We are pleased that our investments into patient-centric care and quality have helped us to achieve a high level of patient retention,” she further commented.
In just five years, Praava has received recognition from a variety of leading organizations and institutions worldwide, including by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer and Global Innovator and Fast Company as a World Changing Idea. Harvard University and Columbia University Business Schools each now use case studies on Praava’s business model to teach students about successful innovative businesses from around the world.
Praava’s work was also recently featured in the report, “Scaling Up Inclusive Healthcare in Low-and Middle-Income Countries,” sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CFAO Healthcare, Eli Lilly and Company, Leem, Proparco and Sanofi, which looks at a new generation of inclusive healthcare initiatives that have emerged to address the rising chronic disease burden and improve the diagnosis, treatment, and care for underserved populations, with sustainable models.
Praava boasts one of only six internationally accredited labs in Bangladesh with an ISO 15189-2012 certification, as received by the Bangladesh Accreditation Board.
Its seamless integration of technology allowed Praava to serve patients both during the pandemic and after, quadrupling its patient base throughout the peak of Covid-19, while consistently maintaining an NPS of 85-90, higher than NPS scores for most Fortune 500 companies.
Praava’s partners and clients include the World Health Organization, the World Bank, Unilever, Samsung, British American Tobacco and Coca-Cola, among 800 others.
Some of the company’s notable investors include Ret. US Army General David Petreaus and Dr. Omar Ishrak, former Chair of Intel, along with several prominent healthcare entrepreneurs, and its Global Advisory Council boasts more than two dozen top international experts in business, healthcare, and technology.
While Bangladesh is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, its healthcare system is challenged to keep up with increasing demand for quality medical care.
On average throughout the country, doctors spend 48 seconds with their patients and more than 20% of drugs in the market are counterfeit.
According to a recent report by WHO and Unicef, in Bangladesh only 38% of health care facilities have basic hygiene services.
As in many emerging markets, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are on the rise, with the WHO estimating that they are responsible for 77% of these deaths in low- and middle-income countries.
As a result, thousands of Bangladeshis daily, and billions of dollars annually, leave the country to access quality healthcare abroad. Praava was founded to create local solutions to this problem.
“Emerging markets like Bangladesh have made great strides in the development of a global middle class, critical to their moving to greater, self-sustainable economic health. But as middle class economies emerge, demands on the healthcare infrastructure only increase. Praava fills that gap; in the next five years and beyond, we’re looking forward to doing more for the people of Bangladesh, and bringing our healthcare model to other emerging markets in need of quality care,” Sinha added.
