Dialysis Olympiad in India: Interview With Vice President – Strategy, NephroPlus

Highlights:

• NephroPlus organized 2nd edition of world’s one & only Dialysis Olympiad in New Delhi
• NephroPlus is India’s highest and most qualitative dialysis delivery network
• Mr. Sohil Bhagat said, “NephroPlus is Driven by a guest-centric (at NephroPlus all patients are called guests) approach”

NephroPlus, India’s highest and most qualitative dialysis delivery network has hosted the 2nd edition of the world’s one and only Dialysis Olympiad at Thyagaraj Sports Complex in New Delhi. The Olympics style event was conducted exclusively for those who were on dialysis. More than 800 people who were on dialysis participated from different parts of the country.

NephroPlus encourages people on dialysis to lead normal lives, including to let them work, to travel and to have fun.

Dialysis Olympiad, this year had a series of events like cricket, basketball, table tennis, running, cycling, sudoku, and carrom. These events were organized to instill confidence in them to lead an optimistic and happy life. At the end of the event, the winners were awarded gold, silver and bronze medals for the respective games.

NephroPlus designs innovative solutions to enhance the quality of lives of those people on dialysis. Dialysis Olympiad was kicked off early this October by conducting a record-breaking longest bike expedition, which was a 400 km ride from Jalandhar to New Delhi.

Six bikers were accompanied by a team of doctors and nurses. They covered sectors of Ludhiana, Khanna, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Panipat, and Sonipat in over four days. Thus, re-establishing the fact that anybody can dare to dream big and can also achieve their dreams with the backing of expert care.

Dialysis Olympiad's first edition was held in 2015 in Hyderabad. About 600 champions across the country participated in the event who fought their illness to reveal their undying spirit.

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Organizing the Dialysis Olympiad truly empowers the dialysis community to dream big and helps them gain confidence to live life to the fullest.

Vikram Vuppala, Founder and CEO, NephroPlus said, “Two years back, when we had conducted the first edition of Dialysis Olympiad, it was considered a revolutionary moment in medical history. Convincing the dialysis community to indulge in physically challenging activities was a herculean task. But with our expertise, confidence in innovating with our services and reach across the length and bread of the country, this year we were able to increase the participation for the event.”

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Also, Sohil Bhagat, Vice President – Strategy, NephroPlus remarked, “Though kidney failure is a medical condition, there is a huge psychological component to it. We are committed to elevating the psyche and quality of lives of the dialysis community. Therefore, we take pride in announcing the commendable participation we received this year and would like to extend our deepest gratitude to every participant who demonstrated their will to win, believed in us and together helped in repeating history.”

About NephroPlus

NephroPlus is India’s largest Dialysis Provider Network offering highest quality dialysis services. With a strong commitment to quality, it is spearheading a change in the way in which dialysis is done in India and beyond. NephroPlus has 125 centers currently across 18 states in India and is expanding soon to other geographies. The vision of the company is to enable people on dialysis across the world lead long, happy and productive lives.

Medindia conducted an exclusive with Mr. SOHIL BHAGAT, VP, Strategy - NephroPlus.

1. What inspired you to start the first Dialysis Olympiad?

The first Dialysis Olympiad was started in 2015. The origins, go back to something that we fundamentally believe as a company. We believe that people on dialysis need to lead a normal life and we need to change the perception in the market that it is not the end of life. They usually believe that they cannot do what the normal person can do. Mr. Kamal Shah, co-founder of the company has been on dialysis for past 20 years, and he believes this, and that belief spread across the company, and we started the even just to reinforce that belief and ensure that everyone in the dialysis patients community gets to know of this and that they get to know

2. Tell us about the dialysis Olympiad and the type of games the patients are encouraged to participate?

We have a mixture of games. Certain games require some physical activity like badminton, table tennis, brisk walking, cycling. There are also some games that are more sedentary like carrom, chess, etc., the event is designed to ensure maximum participation. We don't want people to feel left out. This time we introduced to cricket and basketball as well. And people can participate in multiple games. We typically ask them to limit themselves to three so it is not an exertion, but still get to choose.

3. Are there other countries where they conduct such dialysis Olympiad?

No, we are not aware of any other countries where this event is conducted. We believe that we do only such event across the world.

4. What message would you like to give to our dialysis community for their lifestyle management?

I think it is essential to believe that dialysis should just be a part of life. It does not define anyone’s life, just like healthy people who would go to the gym every day for one hour. People of dialysis need to go to a center 3-4 times a week for 4 hours everytime. So that's it. Apart from that, they can lead a normal and healthy life that they want to spread among the dialysis patient community. People need to take care of themselves, eat the right things, follow the prescription that the doctor gives, and ensure that dialysis is done as frequently as possible so that the health is always under control.

5. What percentage of your patients go on to get a kidney transplant?

Currently, we tret about 10,000 patients every month at Nephroplus, and we see about 50 odd transplants every month. Over the last few months it has been higher, it has been close to 100 every month. 50-100 people get transplant every month at Nephroplus.

6. Is NephroPlus involved in any other social activities like say promoting organ donation?

We are not directly involved, but we a have sister organization called Aashayein Kidney Foundation. We do events like holding patients support group to meet, or kidney camp in various places. We also subsidize treatments for some of the people who are in a backward section of the society. Along with the government, we have multiple centers where people can get dialysis-free of cost. And all those centers are not hugely profitable, but we do those because its one of the Pecos of the company that we do not leave anyone behind.

7. Tell us about Nephroplus and who are the other founders.

Started by three gentlemen,VIKRAM VUPPALA, Kamal D Shah, & Sandeep Gudibanda. We call our people who are on dialysis as guests and never address them as patients. It's important to spell it positively.

We have 125 centers across the country and about 10,000 patients come for treatment every month. We have been the largest in the country, and we have been the eight largest in the world regarding the number of patients we treat, which started seven years back. Its a significant achievement for an Indian company to enter the top 10 in the world. And within India, we spread across the country and treat for free in certain government hospitals in the country.

Sohil is a young and motivated professional who is committed to contributing to the society through scalable and sustainable initiatives. His passion to work in early-stage companies and help them grow led to him joining NephroPlus in June 2013. He currently manages the Strategy, MIS and Human Resources functions at NephroPlus.

Prior to joining NephroPlus, Sohil spent three years at A.T. Kearney advising large organizations across India, South-East Asia, Africa and Australia on important strategic and operational initiatives. While he had no prior healthcare experience, the exposure to strategic planning and implementation that Sohil gained through his A.T. Kearney stint has proved immensely helpful in the growth stage of NephroPlus.

Sohil is a Mechanical Engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is an avid reader, an (often over-)indulgent foodie and a self-confessed connoisseur of folk rock. He also spends a lot of time doing cryptic crosswords and solving Rubik’s cubes.

Source-Medindia