Tech4Life Enterprises

 

CEOCFO-Members Login

 

June 29, 2015 Issue

The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information

CEOCFO MOBILE  CONTACT  |   CEOCFO-SERVICES HOME

Mobile Telemedicine and Point of Care Solutions for the World

 

 

Dr. Shariq Khoja (MD. MS. PHD)

CEO

 

Tech4Life Enterprises

www.tech4lifeenterprises.com

 

Interview conducted by:

Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – June 29, 2015

 

CEOCFO: Dr. Khoja, what is the idea behind Tech4Life Enterprises?

Dr. Khoja: Tech4Life is a socially motivated organization. The company was developed to provide relevant, robust, and low cost health technology solutions for the developing world. Tech4Life designs highly innovative technologies which should work in the developing countries by fitting into their infrastructure and health systems. The technologies are specifically designed for the frontline health workers and the community based health providers to ensure the benefit reaches the communities.

 

CEOCFO: How have you decided what specifically to focus on first or how have you chosen the areas of focus?

Dr. Khoja: This basically comes from the experience of the team. I worked as the head of eHealth at the Aga Khan Development Network for six years, and then as advisor for the United Nations Foundation on Mobile Health for a couple of years. The other team members also have vast experience in global health. Therefore, we came from a background where we have worked with many governments, major organizations, and communities in the developing world, knowing what the gaps in health systems are, and how we can address those gaps by developing innovative solutions. At the same time while working in these countries, we studied the limitations in the existing technology solutions that are developed in the west and brought into the developing world. These solutions are not exactly relevant to the market in those countries, and so we kept that in mind to redesign and develop our own technologies which are being innovated, researched, and marketed through Tech4Life.

 

CEOCFO: What have you developed so far and what are you working on right now?

Dr. Khoja: Our focus is on telemedicine and point of care devices which could be used by the community based workers and primary health providers in our target markets. Therefore, our first product we have worked on is a telemedicine solution called MDConsults, available in the form of mobile applications that can be used in very low bandwidth environments. MDConsults helps the remote health providers connect to the hospitals and provide telemedicine consultations to the patients. Then we also developed a range of point of care devices, one of which is already in the market. It is a digital stethoscope that works as a plug-n-play solution and connects with mobile devices, as it also supports MDConsults in providing live consultations. Tech4Life has also developed other technologies for monitoring hemoglobin and blood glucose noninvasively. Those are still in the trials and validation phases, and as soon as they are completed these devices will also be brought to the same markets.

 

CEOCFO: What countries are you working with? Are there particular target markets for you? Are there countries that are a little more open?

Dr. Khoja: We are very open on that. Our initial focus was East Africa and South Asia and we then intended to grow and go to other countries in Asia, Africa and South America, and include them in our primary markets. We started to openly commercialize our telemedicine solution in January 2015, when we introduced it in East Africa and South Asia. However, in the last six month period we have grown at a viral pace. There is so much demand and so much traction that we now have our distributors in sixteen countries across Asia and Africa, a couple of countries in Europe, and are about to sign distributors in three countries in Latin America. Therefore, things are growing faster than our original plan.

 

CEOCFO: Is it difficult to keep up with the demand? How do you stay focused with so much opportunity?

Dr. Khoja: It is definitely very difficult to keep up with the demand. We have our marketing team that initially started to actively look for distributors in our target countries, but then many other distributors from other countries started approaching us. In response, we have set up another team who is evaluating the distributors and the companies who are coming to us and are willing to partner in other countries. However, we are not actively looking for partners in other countries, because we think that it would be extremely difficult for us to manage at this point in time. So as far as marketing is concerned, we have a two pronged approach right now. Go actively in our target countries, while wait for distributors to approach us in other countries. However, keeping up with the support that is required to the distributors in all countries is also a challenge. We have invested more in our training and support teams who are providing their complete support to our distributors in these countries, making sure that they are fully prepared before they go out into the market.

 

CEOCFO: There is a perception that in third world countries products do not always get to the right people and that there often corruption. How do you ensure that the people you are working with will do the right thing?

Dr. Khoja: I agree to some extent, especially when you are working with some governments and organizations who do not have the reputation of being very clean and taking the benefits to the community. We are careful in the way that we try to work with organizations which may be foundations, NGOs and other public and private organizations who have a reputation to work with major organizations around the world. We start with them, and try to make sure that the solutions they are buying from us reach the communities and health providers in these markets. The other organizations follow the trend and that’s when we really see the benefits going to the communities. As more people begin to gain awareness about the products and what they can do in the communities, a sense of obligation to transfer those benefits arises. We simply do not go out and work with organizations that have a reputation of being corrupt, rather by working with the right organizations, we make sure we take the benefits to the communities.

 

CEOCFO: How helpful is your history in the arena that you are working in? Does that get you a foot in the door or are they so hungry for services that they will listen to almost anyone?

Dr. Khoja: We are pretty new to the market. Yes, we know key people in some countries and that definitely helps. However, the key to success in these areas is the product itself. If your product is unique, you can really show the impact at the community level, and you can really help the government and major organizations achieve the health targets that they have committed to, then they do support your initiatives. I think another thing that definitely helps is your connections with other major global organizations. Therefore, we work closely with Grand Challenges Canada, World Vision, Aga Khan Foundation, International Development Research Center Canada, and the World Health Organization. I believe if you are working closely with them, you are more likely to find the right connections in those countries; the right people that you can identify who are more capable of carrying the products to the communities and to the right organizations in the countries.

 

CEOCFO: Is your non-invasive hemoglobin monitor currently available in the US?

Dr. Khoja: No, it is not available in the US. Right now, we are making it available in five countries; three in Asia and two in Africa, in partnership with World Vision. They are validating our device by using it for their own program to start with. Our plan is to make it available widely in Asian and African markets towards the end of 2015. Coming to Europe and North America depends a lot on when we get the regulatory approvals, which may take anywhere from a year to two years.

 

CEOCFO: What is next? If we talk a year from now what might be the situation at Tech4Life?

Dr. Khoja: Currently, Tech4Life is focusing on the telemedicine product as its first commercialization and we have already completed our trials and implementation of point of care devices on a small scale. In a year’s time we want to make sure that our two devices; the digital stethoscope and the noninvasive hemoglobin monitor, are fully in the market with all of the required regulatory approvals in our target countries. Once we have enough confidence from those markets we will be looking for scaling it to other markets in the west.

 

CEOCFO: What makes Tech4Life Enterprises an exceptional company?

Dr. Khoja: I think that what makes us exceptional is our focus. Rather than looking at the markets which have the highest paying capacity, we looked at the need, and target the volume based market in the developing world. We target frontline health providers, who are now considered as the backbone of health systems in the developing world, and use mobile technology, which is highly pervasive in these markets. Thus our knowledge of these health systems and our technology is the key for our success. We have designed our technology to be used by those health providers in the communities and taking the benefits directly to the communities in the developing world. We are very focused on that and we feel that that will take us to the success that we are looking for.



 

“Tech4Life designs highly innovative technologies which should work in the developing countries by fitting into their infrastructure and health systems. The technologies are specifically designed for the frontline health workers and the community based health providers to ensure the benefit reaches the communities.”
- Dr. Shariq Khoja (MD. MS. PHD)


 

Tech4Life Enterprises

www.tech4lifeenterprises.com

 

Contact:
Dr. Shariq Khoja

+1-416-605-7510

shariq.khoja@tech4lifeenterprises.com


 


 

 



 

 


disclaimers

Any reproduction or further distribution of this article without the express written consent of CEOCFOinterviews.com is prohibited.

 

 

Health Technology Solutions for the Developing World, Tech4Life Enterprises, CEO Interviews 2015, Dr. Shariq Khoja, MD. MS. PHD, Mobile Telemedicine and Point of Care Solutions for the World, research and design company specialized in medical devices and telemedicine software for the developing world, MDConsults, Recent CEO Interviews, Information and Communication Technology for the developing world, socially motivated organizations, low cost health technology solutions for the developing world, technologies designed for the frontline health workers and the community based health providers, telemedicine solutions, MDConsults, mobile applications that can be used in very low bandwidth environments, solutions that help health providers connect to the hospitals and provide telemedicine consultations to the patients, point of care devices, digital stethoscope that works as a plug-n-play solution and connects with mobile devices, technologies for monitoring hemoglobin and blood glucose noninvasively, Tech4Life Enterprises Press Releases, News, Tech Stock, Companies looking for venture capital, Angel Investors, private companies looking for investors, health tech companies seeking investors, telemedicine companies needing investment capital

 

ceocfointerviews.com does not purchase or make
recommendation on stocks based on the interviews published.