Bridging the Healthcare Gap with Digital Innovation in Meghalaya

Dr. Elvee Marbaniang and Siddharth Das, founders of Runo Health barely knew each other before fate  brought them together. Dr. Elvee was going to pursue a Post Graduate medical course but after he met  Siddharth, he brushed the idea aside and both of them decided to start a business together.

Prior to this, Dr. Elvee served as a doctor in CMC, Vellore and Siddharth worked as a corporate  professional in Delhi but both of them left their respective jobs to give their business idea a chance. Their  first venture – Runo Fresh focused on providing fresh vegetables, meat, poultry products and other food  items at the doorstep during the first wave of Covid 19 which people could order through Instagram. While  they handled their startup pretty well, they saw there was also a need for doorstep delivery of medicines  and home care medical services during the hour of crisis, where people were too frightened to step out of  their houses to seek medical help. Hence, Runo Health Pvt. Ltd. was founded towards the latter part of  March 2020.

Runo Health provided medicines and health care services directly to the homes of people in need which  was seen as a blessing by many people. As the demand for their services grew, they decided that they  needed to partner with as many hospitals, pharmacies, individual doctors and nurses as possible. Currently,  Runo Health has 30 – 40 partners in Meghalaya. Dr. Elvee and Siddharth also saw that the labs in CHCs  and PHCs present in Rural Meghalaya are merely functional which made it difficult for people to travel to  Shillong to get themselves tested, given the inter-district travel restriction. Therefore, Runo Health  penetrated into Rural Meghalaya and introduced offline pick-up points where mobile testing stations were  set up in far off areas, away from city where people would have to travel only half way to get themselves  tested and their results would be delivered at the same pick-up spot.

Initially, Runo Health only functioned in Shillong and Jowai but later expanded to Guwahati by partnering  with more than 50 hospitals, pharmacies and other medical agencies. Runo Health also gives discounts on  medicines and provides free consultation to people who belong to the BPL (Below Poverty Line) category.  People would contact Runo Health through Whatsapp or Instagram and their requirements would be met  at the earliest.