Practo debuts in Latin America; launches Brazil operations

Practo, an online health-tech platform connecting patients with doctors, announced Thursday that it had launched its operations in Brazil. The company's foray into the largest market in Latin America is a part of its expansion plans into other emerging markets.

Starting with the city of Sao Paulo, the company will introduce its products Practo Search and Practo Ray in the market, both of which will be made available in Portuguese and English.

Practo Search enables consumers to search for doctors through its verified database and find one that matches their requirement. It also provides feedback from other users.

Practo Ray, a cloud based practice management solution, helps simplify scheduling, calendaring as well as billing and inventory management for doctors, while creating digital healthcare records and prescriptions. Practo Ray will be available in Brazil at a subscription fee of 750 BRL (approximately Rs 13,500) per month.

The company will reportedly have over 5500 verified doctors, covering nearly 50 percent of all the clinics in Sao Paulo.

"Over the next few months we will expand our coverage and product lines to enable consumers to make better healthcare decisions", Shashank ND, founder and CEO of Practo, said in a statement. 

In the second half of 2016, Practo plans to expand to Rio de Janeiro and other cities in Brazil, eventually listing all healthcare professionals.

In an earlier interview with International Business Times India, Shashank had stated that the South Asian market is the major focus of the company and it aims to grow its presence in emerging markets.

Practo now has a presence in 15 countries, and over 50 cities worldwide. Other international emerging markets the healthcare firm has a presence in include Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines. It lists 200,000 doctors and 10,000 hospitals, 8,000 diagnostic centres and over 4,000 wellness centres, receiving over 10 million searches a month across its website and apps.