Exclusive Interview:
by: The Startup Stories host Rakesh Gupta:
From clinical practice to building a healthcare-access ecosystem, Dr. Neeraj shares his entrepreneurial journey, the thinking behind Medify Smart, the future of affordable healthcare, and his vision for transforming the way India accesses healthcare.
The Interaction:
Q1. Dr. Neeraj, before Medify Smart, you were a doctor. What made you move from treating patients to building a healthcare company?
Dr. Neeraj: Being a doctor taught me that treating a patient is only one part of healthcare. I repeatedly saw people struggling because of distance, affordability, awareness and availability of services. I began asking myself a bigger question—what if we could build a system that addresses these barriers before a person reaches a hospital? That question eventually became Medify Smart.
Q2. What does “Medify Smart” actually mean to you?
Dr. Neeraj: For me, Medify Smart is not just a brand or a technology platform. It is a healthcare-access movement. We want to make healthcare smarter, more connected and more affordable by bringing doctors, technology, diagnostics, preventive care and healthcare services closer to people.
Q3. You are pursuing four major segments—rural, schools, corporates and families. Why these four?
Dr. Neeraj: Because healthcare happens across the entire life ecosystem. A person is part of a family, school or workplace and community. If we address healthcare only at the hospital level, we are addressing the problem too late. Our objective is to create a continuous healthcare relationship across these four environments.
Q4. Rural healthcare is particularly challenging. What is your approach?
Dr. Neeraj: We don't believe rural healthcare should mean a smaller version of urban healthcare. It needs its own model. Through eClinics, telemedicine, connected healthcare and local healthcare infrastructure, we can bring specialist access and essential services closer to communities without requiring every patient to travel long distances.
Q5. What role will technology and AI play in your vision?
Dr. Neeraj: Technology will be the great enabler. AI can help with screening, decision support, health monitoring, documentation and personalised healthcare journeys. But I strongly believe technology should support doctors, not replace the human relationship between a doctor and patient.
Q6. Your family healthcare subscription model is an interesting concept. Why subscriptions?
Dr. Neeraj: Healthcare traditionally becomes expensive because people interact with the system only when something goes wrong. A subscription changes that behaviour. It encourages regular consultations, preventive care and health monitoring. We want families to think, “We already have access to healthcare,” rather than “Where do we go when we become sick?”
Q7. How do you see the business opportunity over the next five years?
Dr. Neeraj: The opportunity is enormous because we are not addressing just one market. Rural healthcare, preventive healthcare, corporate health, school healthcare and family subscriptions are all expanding. Our ambition is to build a large recurring healthcare ecosystem, where the same infrastructure can serve multiple segments and create sustainable value.
Q8. What has been the most difficult part of building Medify Smart?
Dr. Neeraj: Convincing people that healthcare can be delivered differently. Building technology is one thing; building trust, distribution and operational capability is much harder. Healthcare is deeply personal, so every innovation has to earn people's confidence.
Q9. What has entrepreneurship taught you that medicine never could?
Dr. Neeraj: Medicine teaches you how to solve an individual problem. Entrepreneurship teaches you how to solve a problem at scale. It has taught me resilience, patience and the importance of building teams. You can have the best idea, but execution is what creates impact.
Q10. What is your biggest fear as a founder?
Dr. Neeraj: Becoming comfortable. The moment a founder believes everything is working perfectly, innovation stops. Healthcare is changing constantly, so we have to keep questioning ourselves—Can we make it more affordable? Can we reach another village? Can we detect a disease earlier? Can we serve one more family?
Q11. If you could change one thing about India's healthcare system, what would it be?
Dr. Neeraj: I would change the mindset from “treatment first” to “prevention first.” Healthcare should begin much earlier—with awareness, screening, monitoring and accessible primary care. Hospitals will always be essential, but a healthier India cannot be built only inside hospitals.
Q12. Finally, what does success look like for Medify Smart?
Dr. Neeraj: Success would be seeing a healthcare system where a family in a city, a student in a school, an employee in a company and a patient in a remote village can all access reliable healthcare through one connected ecosystem. If we can make healthcare more accessible to millions of people, that will be our real success.
THE FOUNDER'S CLOSING NOTE
> “I don't want Medify Smart to simply become another healthcare company. I want it to become a bridge between people and healthcare—a bridge that is affordable, accessible, technology-enabled and available when people actually need it.”
DR. NEERAJ
Founder & CEO, Medify Smart Health Innovations
Building the future of accessible healthcare—one community, one family and one connection at a time.