Like most entrepreneurs, I use technology on a daily basis. It has become a central part of my business processes and procedures. To say it gives my company life is an understatement— it literally helps me save lives!
In many parts of the world, there are standard emergency numbers like 911, 999 or 112, all of which provide patrons with ambulances in the event of a medical emergency. However, a billion people – a sixth of humanity living in my native India – have no access to emergency medical service. That’s a shocking reality.
In India, where I run my emergency medical service (EMS), one can dial 100 to get the police and 101 to get the fire department; however, dialing 102 for an ambulance never works. The state-funded emergency medical system that was set up in the early 1970s has become defunct. I was determined to fix things.
In 2004, when Shaffi Mather, Manish S., Naresh Jain and I decided to set up this social enterprise, every medical professional we encountered told us it was impossible to run a 999 or 911 type of EMS in India. It was clear that while the task was daunting, it was by no means impossible. I knew from day one that technology was a key factor in creating a successful system.
With that in mind, we embarked on our first social enterprise. We were on a mission to set up a self-sustainable EMS in a market where insurance coverage is negligible, government support is nil and 60% of our potential users lived on less than US$4 a day.
I started out by looking for technology that could help us set up a fleet of networked ambulances. The key was to find the right technology that would help us track our ambulances at all times, locate a caller quickly and guide an ambulance to that caller. All of this had to be inexpensive, since my available budget was roughly US$76,300.
Thankfully, I had some lucky breaks. In 2004, I stumbled across a radio trunking service in Mumbai. They provided us with radio sets that put my control room in constant touch with the ambulances. We then developed a software platform for tracking the ambulances using devices that read GPS signals and relay them back to the control room. When I launched my service in May 2005, I had a very cost-effective system in place, and it met all of the requirements in Mumbai.
During the next two years, we transported 20,000+ people, 3,800 of them for free or at subsidized rates, and won numerous accolades for our reliable service. With a fleet of 20 ambulances and a working system, things were going great. The only problem: We wanted to go all-out and offer the service on a national scale. That required significantly better technology. The search was on for newer and cheaper solutions.
In August 2007, my search brought me to a sudden realization: We could use an online map, like Google Maps, to track the ambulances and give them the GPS data in lieu of a fee. We are also installing a diskless, fan-less PC that is rugged enough to work in the ambulance; this will soon be linked up by WiMax to give us a wider bandwidth for communication. Also, VoIP will eventually replace radio trunking and further bring down communication costs. This would prove helpful when it comes time to expand geographically and add more vehicles to the fleet.
All in all, it has been a tremendous ride. In the end, I have learned that technology does not need to be expensive or complex to do its job— in this case, saving lives. Simply being on the lookout for low-cost, efficient technology goes a long way in preventing your business from emergencies.