Puneet Gupta
COO
By building a state-of-art diagnostic lab network across the country and an army of trained and skilled phlebotomists, Puneet with his strong determination has served patients to far-fetched locations. With a vision to bring excellence and innovation in the diagnostic field, he has also been working on establishing Redcliffe as a tech-supported organization that believes in creating differentiated customer experience. Here's Puneet's exclusive interview with CEO Insights where he shares his career journey and growth plans for the diagnostic sector.
Tell us why have you chosen the diagnostic domain to build your career and why would you continue to be in this field for the long run?
Diagnostic is a service industry where we are directly connected to the patients meeting their demands and needs of diagnostics from the ground level. This industry has the highest scope to innovate and automate by using new-age technology and this makes it different from the rest servicing areas of the medical industry. Any clinical expert who is taking care of the patient has to depend on test reports. Thus, anything and everything in healthcare is starting from diagnostics. Again, it is a complex industry where we have to deal with the human specimen and 70 percent of the treatment is based on the test report. Therefore, we have to be very careful and correct in the process which is challenging and exciting both. This has motivated me to venture into this vertical where I can contribute to solving a patient’s as well as clinician’s problems.
You have been in this industry for a decade now. What keeps you motivated and excited in maintaining your expertise in the
diagnostic domain?
The diagnostic industry has come a long way during the last decade by evolving extensively through innovation, cutting-edge technology, and newer tests. All these facets have given the scope to pinpoint the disease or the illness a patient is suffering from along with guiding them about the treatment they need. Experiencing these changes that are helping society to stay healthy with the right diagnosis and right treatment makes me excited, focused, and motivated to bring development to the healthcare sector. Innovation in the space is increasing efficiency at every level and that gives me an adrenaline rush inside to achieve something new every day. I believe health is the most important facet to be taken care of in any country and I feel extremely happy to be a part of making India healthy.
Tell us how the company is positioned in the diagnostic industry and what makes Redcliffe Labs unique from other players in the market?
Redcliffe is a unique platform and a concept where we are solving major problems of the diagnostic sector. Earlier people used to visit a hospital or a clinician or a nearby collection centre for health checkups or diagnostic tests. Making a difference where we are now taking the diagnostic centres to the homes of our patients. Our trained phlebotomists visit all our patients’ homes to collect the samples for testing.
Anotherfactor is that we are traditionally a genetic company providing highend genetic services. With time we understood that transformation is crucial. A few clinicians suggested us to venture into routine diagnostics underone prescription. So, we learned to cater tests for a single prescription of a clinician. Also, people are aware of our brand and know that highend routine tests are provided at Redcliffe. Since our inception, we have transformed from a mere genetic company to a glucose genetic and from illness to wellness by catering at least 3500 tests.
Again, every patient is unique to us and we have a very strong technical team that is manned by our MD pathologist at every lab. We have skilled technical staff who are following ISO guidelines in every lab and building-level one in every operation. My team has the experience of working at the ground level, mitigating diverse obstacles, and managing critical situations with hard work and dedication. We know our troubleshooter for specific problems and we have faith in each other that we would sail through in any circumstances.
We also have adopted digital
The diagnostic industry has come a long way during the last decade by evolving extensively through innovation, cutting-edge technology, and newer tests. All these facets have given the scope to pinpoint the disease or the illness a patient is suffering from along with guiding them about the treatment they need. Experiencing these changes that are helping society to stay healthy with the right diagnosis and right treatment makes me excited, focused, and motivated to bring development to the healthcare sector. Innovation in the space is increasing efficiency at every level and that gives me an adrenaline rush inside to achieve something new every day. I believe health is the most important facet to be taken care of in any country and I feel extremely happy to be a part of making India healthy.
Redcliffe is a unique platform and a concept where we are solving major problems of the diagnostic sector
Tell us how the company is positioned in the diagnostic industry and what makes Redcliffe Labs unique from other players in the market?
Redcliffe is a unique platform and a concept where we are solving major problems of the diagnostic sector. Earlier people used to visit a hospital or a clinician or a nearby collection centre for health checkups or diagnostic tests. Making a difference where we are now taking the diagnostic centres to the homes of our patients. Our trained phlebotomists visit all our patients’ homes to collect the samples for testing.
Anotherfactor is that we are traditionally a genetic company providing highend genetic services. With time we understood that transformation is crucial. A few clinicians suggested us to venture into routine diagnostics underone prescription. So, we learned to cater tests for a single prescription of a clinician. Also, people are aware of our brand and know that highend routine tests are provided at Redcliffe. Since our inception, we have transformed from a mere genetic company to a glucose genetic and from illness to wellness by catering at least 3500 tests.
Again, every patient is unique to us and we have a very strong technical team that is manned by our MD pathologist at every lab. We have skilled technical staff who are following ISO guidelines in every lab and building-level one in every operation. My team has the experience of working at the ground level, mitigating diverse obstacles, and managing critical situations with hard work and dedication. We know our troubleshooter for specific problems and we have faith in each other that we would sail through in any circumstances.
We also have adopted digital
transformation during the critical days of COVID time which was immediate and we were among the first players to reach out to the patients digitally through various platforms to deliver their test reports on time. All these factors make us unique among others in the industry.
Brief us about the lessons that you have acquired during your professional journey so far.
My career found its start in 2005 and during the initial days I took on-ground training in marketing and managing pharmaceutical products. I never had a desk job but I traveled to various places to connect and stay in touch with people which helped me to learn, evolve and improve. I was keen to understand and learn varied areas of healthcare activities and once I wanted to know how human test samples are carried to a lab and under what temperature. To learn that once traveled with a rider on his bike to follow how he carries the sample maintaining the temperature This urge to know, to meet the daily obstacles at the ground level has made me learn how to face and address various hurdles in my professional life.
The advent of COVID-19 has transformed our lives lately. Tell us how you and your team have managed to address the criticalities during this time?
COVID-19 has been an eye-opener for many and especially for us. During this time when we saw patients or people getting scared to travel to labs or diagnostics centre, we decided to take labs nearer to people. Thus, we opened a good number of labs instead of offering a centralized process that other players followed. We also actively carried out the process of collecting samples from home by training a fleet of phlebotomists along with delivering the reports digitally at the earliest. These two strategies we adopted instantly during the critical time of COVID-19. Even during post covid, many people avoided visiting the diagnostic centres, and thus we solved that problem of taking the diagnostic centres to homes. We are an omnichannel organization where every sample is processed in our lab. We are also set to open more labs in every capital and then go down to tier-II and tier-III cities which will be accessible for quality diagnostics.
What suggestions or advice would you give to the budding entrepreneurs who are willing to join the diagnostic industry?
I would tell them that changes are here to arrive in the space and there would be immense opportunities for them to explore in the coming years. Since we are offering services to the healthcare industry, we should always be empathetic to the patients who are trusting in us and giving the body specimen. Their well-being is in our hands and therefore they should be cautious when it comes to the quality of the services they are offering. They should not compromise delivering the best of their capabilities in any circumstances.
Brief us about the lessons that you have acquired during your professional journey so far.
My career found its start in 2005 and during the initial days I took on-ground training in marketing and managing pharmaceutical products. I never had a desk job but I traveled to various places to connect and stay in touch with people which helped me to learn, evolve and improve. I was keen to understand and learn varied areas of healthcare activities and once I wanted to know how human test samples are carried to a lab and under what temperature. To learn that once traveled with a rider on his bike to follow how he carries the sample maintaining the temperature This urge to know, to meet the daily obstacles at the ground level has made me learn how to face and address various hurdles in my professional life.
The advent of COVID-19 has transformed our lives lately. Tell us how you and your team have managed to address the criticalities during this time?
COVID-19 has been an eye-opener for many and especially for us. During this time when we saw patients or people getting scared to travel to labs or diagnostics centre, we decided to take labs nearer to people. Thus, we opened a good number of labs instead of offering a centralized process that other players followed. We also actively carried out the process of collecting samples from home by training a fleet of phlebotomists along with delivering the reports digitally at the earliest. These two strategies we adopted instantly during the critical time of COVID-19. Even during post covid, many people avoided visiting the diagnostic centres, and thus we solved that problem of taking the diagnostic centres to homes. We are an omnichannel organization where every sample is processed in our lab. We are also set to open more labs in every capital and then go down to tier-II and tier-III cities which will be accessible for quality diagnostics.
What suggestions or advice would you give to the budding entrepreneurs who are willing to join the diagnostic industry?
I would tell them that changes are here to arrive in the space and there would be immense opportunities for them to explore in the coming years. Since we are offering services to the healthcare industry, we should always be empathetic to the patients who are trusting in us and giving the body specimen. Their well-being is in our hands and therefore they should be cautious when it comes to the quality of the services they are offering. They should not compromise delivering the best of their capabilities in any circumstances.