WebHealthCentre starts new services

Mumbai: WebHealthCentre.com, an online health portal promoted by Tata Consultancy Services in association with Web Health Systems, has launched new online services.

Patients can now, with the help of these online services, fix appointments with doctors, can get their diagnostic test reports from medical laboratories and access health directory for relevant information on hospitals, doctors and chemist shops in Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.

The services can be accessed on a PC or on a mobile phone. Dr Sumanth Raman, who looks after the marketing of the site, says though the services are offered free now, it would eventually become a pay site. He expects revenues of at least Rs 2.50 crore in the next two-to-three years from these services.

The website is in the process of registering various doctors, hospitals, clinics and laboratories. Raman says: Till now revenues largely came from sponsorship support - from companies like Hindustan Lever and Reckit and Coleman - aggregating to about Rs 50 lakh in the last fiscal.

Talks are on with a couple of foreign governments, which are interested in putting up similar sites in their countries. Its a comprehensive site of around 23,000 to 24,000 pages; no other site gives this kind of information. Its a one-stop shop for healthcare services, he says. The new web service is developed on Microsoft .Net framework by Microsoft .Net Centre of Excellence, Mumbai. TCS is a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider.

Announcing the launch, TCS CEO S Ramadurai said: The TCS health portal is envisaged as an important nodal point for the dissemination of health-related information in India. It will immensely benefit the medical community and the public at large. The multi-institutional online consultation is the first of its kind in India. This unique confluence of technology with convenience is in line with our commitment to the social cause. The implementation of the .NET application has enabled us to add on a whole range of other value-added benefits for our users.