Saturday, 13th March, 2010

Nephroplus, Hyderabad’s only standalone dialysis center launches tomorrow. The center is the first of a chain of dialysis centers being set up by a group which is headed by Vikram, an IIT alumnus who did his MBA from Chicago Booth, Sandeep, an MBA from ISB is the other director in this venture and Kamal, on dialysis for the last thirteen years.

The advantage of having a standalone center is that the energy of everyone is focussed on dialysis and how to make the experience of the patients better. In a hospital, dialysis in only a small part of the operations. This leads to a lot of red-tape and delays in making things happen and introducing better processes to make life less painful for patients. Not so in a standalone center.

Is the first standalone center in the city? No. There have been others that have tried and failed. Then, what is different about Nephroplus?

The way the team operates. We have a missionary zeal to make life for patients better. We are hell bent on preventing cross infections, which is a major problem facing dialysis units today. The curse of Hepatitis B and C which turns a dialysis patient’s life upside down for no fault of theirs is something that can and should be avoided. We are introducing novel processes that aims to do just that.

The advantage of having people from outside the industry run this is great. We bring in fresh perspectives, novel ideas and do not have any preconceived notions. So, while even many people are resigned to cross infections – ‘it is not a question of if but when’ – we have taken an entirely different approach to the problem. Zero seroconversions is our goal. Often, it is the intent that matters.

Added to this, we are introducing other modalities like short daily, nocturnal and every other day dialysis for patients who would like to switch to these modalities rather then being condemned to a life of a ‘thrice weekly’ or worse ‘twice weekly’ schedule which leads to poor outcomes and sub-optimal lives.

We are excited about this venture and hope many patients will benefit. The launch is tomorrow, Sunday, 14th of March at Banjara Hills at 6 p.m. Please call 42408039 for more details.