Elbit Medical upbeat on its BPO foray plans

Set to ink pacts with hospitals & healthcare firms abroad

Anticipating a boom in business process outsourcing (BPO) in the healthcare segment, city-based Elbit Medical Diagnostics Limited is slated to enter into definitive agreements with a couple of hospital and healthcare companies abroad for rendering BPO services.

The eight-year-old diagnostics company, which has state-of-the-art medical diagnostics equipment at its three centres in Hyderabad and Bangalore, also plans to embark on an ambitious expansion programme after consolidating its BPO operations.

Elbit's future plans include setting up of diagnostic centres in 20 cities in India. Investment in each centre is expected to be in the region of Rs 15 crore.

VVS Kashyap, managing director of Elbit Medical Diagnostics, told Business Standard that the company was expected to register a turnover of over Rs 20 crore during the current financial year as compared to Rs 14 crore last fiscal.

"We expect the healthcare BPO industry to be far more lucrative than BPO in the IT sector. We are in the process of finalising a few agreements with foreign health sector players. We are also keenly looking at kicking off tele-radiology services akin to tele-medicine in the country. This new venture coupled with our domestic expansion would propel the company into a higher orbit of growth and exceed our expectations of growth in the coming years," he said.

Stating that information and image processing would be the biggest opportunity in the healthcare BPO segment, he said that Elbit had the latest diagnostics equipment in the country like US FDA-approved 3 tesla MRI, Lxi Hi-speed CT at Elbit.

With a qualified staff strength of about 200 now, the company plans to ramp up the headcount to 300 during the current financial year to carry out BPO services.

"With the increase in business, we will also set up a separate facility exclusively for BPO operations," Kashyap said.

"The promoter group led by MP Chary, the founder-managing director of Dr Reddy's, had foreseen this opportunity two years ago and acquired the most modern equipment. Both the 3 tesla MRI and CT scan cost us Rs 12 crore and Rs 1.5 crore respectively. The company over the last eight years has invested around Rs 50 crore in acquiring the most modern equipment in various diagnostics wings, which would pitchfork the company into the big league of global medical diagnostics companies," the Elbit MD said.

According to C Joga Rao, medical director of Elbit, the lab has deployed state-of-the-art equipment and some like CT spiral technology and 3 tesla MR, with comprehensive features, were unique to Elbit in the country. The high-speed sub-second spiral CT enables extremely fast imaging and whole abdominal study.

Even virtual colonoscopy, virtual bronchoscopy and angioscopy are possible on the CT system. The 3 tesla MR assures microscopic examination at tissue level as well as diagnosis of psychiatric illnesses. Elbit was also the first to digitise X-rays and introduce a very high resolution computerized sonography system logiq 7 in Andhra Pradesh, he said.

Umanath, CEO of Elbit, said that Elbit was following all the good laboratory practices (GLP) and was certified by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) recently.

"We offer all the tests offered by any corporate hospital and the costs are comparable to any corporate hospital."

She also stressed the need for making accreditation mandatory for diagnostic labs like those of NABL and GLP so as to ensure uniform and authentic results for disease management in the country.

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Diagnosing growth

• The company expects to register a turnover of Rs 20 crore during the current financial year
• The eight-year-old diagnostics company plans to set up diagnostics centres in 20 cities across the country at a cost of Rs15 crore each
• The company over the last eight years invested around Rs 50 crore in acquiring the most modern equipment in various diagnostics wings