Laboratory business under the microscope
Our story on Habré began with the publication of how Lab4U works and what our know-how is . Now, having received a permanent registration at the Megamind, we want to tell about the project in more detail. A startup for more than three years and it, to a greater extent, is a business. Let's start the article with how the idea of the project appeared and what the specifics of the medical analysis market are.
Once there was a very popular line from the song “If I get sick, I won’t go to the doctors ...” There’s more about friends there, but nowadays you can give these words a different meaning: you don’t always have time and money to go to doctors public or private clinics. Do not self-medicate, but in some situations, medical tests can provide a quick assessment of the health status.
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The demand for laboratory diagnostics is evidenced by the fact that in 2015 the Invitro network laboratory became the leader in the Russian market of medical services (revenue for 2015 is more than 11 billion rubles). It took more than twenty years and about 800 reception sites in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan to achieve such an outcome.
Obviously, with the expansion of the network of treatment rooms, the costs of its maintenance are growing. These are non-core activities for laboratories and, often, they offer their franchise, thereby shifting the operating costs of their partners and paying them up to 60% of the research cost. As a result, it is necessary to overestimate the cost of analysis.
If we add to the above the high cost of automated analyzers (tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars), it will become clear the scale of the investments necessary to launch and develop the laboratory business. At first glance, a startup has nothing to do here. Nevertheless, we managed to find our niche and grow. Based on our experience, we formulated several startup rules that significantly increase the chances ofsurvival to become a business.
Information that the costs of treatment rooms eat up the lion's share of the profit prompted us to look for a way to pay for each procedure for taking biomaterial, which would make it possible to drastically reduce the cost of services - and therefore, to offer patients analyzes on more favorable terms. This idea was the starting point in the creation of Lab4U, and it could only appear in the head of a person who had already worked in the laboratory business.
In fact, five years ago, we invented our own Uber, in which commercial medical centers play the role of a taxi - it was precisely them that was decided to attract patients. In the zero years, the number of such clinics in large cities has grown so much that they began to meet at every turn. There were no queues in them - loading was almost always lower than planned.
At first glance, such cooperation was unprofitable for them, since they had already offered to take tests at their prices, much higher than ours. But, for the recoupment and growth of their core business, they needed patients, the flow of which we could provide. As a result, this argument was decisive, and we found clinics that agreed to accept patients for a fee corresponding to the cost of the biomaterial procedure.
Now, having solved a key issue, there is an opportunity to formulate the essence of the intended service. This is the online medical analysis shop LAB4U , in which the user is invited to independently arrange and pay for the order with a substantial discount (up to 50% of the competitors' prices), and then come and take the tests at one of the partner medical centers. We organize the delivery of biomaterials in large laboratories and the transfer of results to users in electronic form or on paper form.
1C Bitrix was chosen as a platform. Now we can say that this decision was justified. Thanks to him, we managed to start the service in a short time and start taking orders - 1 year was left to develop the site. Improvements were necessary in order to take into account the specifics of laboratory services and our business model. For example, it is necessary to consider which biomaterial corresponds to each study and in which medical centers it can be taken on a certain day.
The BION laboratory was selected as a performer. It is among the top five in terms of research volumes in Moscow.
How the work in BION is automated can be found in the article on ICTtimes “IT-systems in medicine” .
The key factor was the availability of a universal integration solution (API set) built on the InterSystems TrackCare LAb technology for interaction with other companies. Thanks to this, we were able to integrate LAB4U with the laboratory system as much as possible and set up an efficient transmission of the results and reports on the change in the status of the order.
In any online store, the basis is a range, in our case a list of suggested analyzes. Despite the fact that the sites of laboratory networks indicate the number of more than fifteen hundred, the most popular of them are about three hundred (which is well in line with the Pareto rule). It is them that we have chosen to include in your price list. Thus, medical centers have another incentive to work with us: in addition to the fact that we bring a patient to them, they can carry out studies that are missing from our list (for them, this is additional income).
Starting work, we expected in the first year to bite off a few percent of the market leaders due to the “grandiose price drop” by 50% while respecting the high quality of the analyzes. In practice, it turned out that even this advantage is not enough. One of the major obstacles to our growth is that not all patients can correctly formulate the name of the tests they need to pass. There are no problems for those who come to the laboratory is not the first time.
Since we cannot replace the doctor and tell the patients what tests they need to pass, a detailed description is made for each test with a list of the situations in which it is assigned and the results are interpreted. “Analyzes and prices” is one of the most visited pages on our site. In fact, this is a catalog, broken down by type of research or disease, for the diagnosis of which they are used.
Currently, we are thinking about how to make the ordering process more convenient and in parallel with this we are systematically engaged in Internet promotion and scaling of the service by increasing the number of partner medical centers, thereby making our services more accessible. In 2016, the number of clinics working with us passed over a hundred and continues to grow.
Every day, our patients have questions that require timely solutions. By automating the work of the customer support service on the Bitrix platform, we promptly respond to all requests. After the client addresses by mail or through an input form, a task is formed that should be closed.
Potential problems with the work of our partner medical centers reveal the feedback system, which we have already mentioned on the Megamind in the article “What does the feedback system help an Internet project?”
To receive calls by the federal and Moscow city numbers, a virtual PBX is connected and the voice menu is configured. Some questions come through online chat.
We believe that the main indicator of the quality of our work is that cases of refusal from the services of our service are rare (there was only one case in a year when we were asked to close an account). We ourselves pass the tests through Lab4U and recommend to our relatives and friends to do likewise, since we know for sure that this is a saving without sacrificing quality.
Actually, word of mouth is one of the most important channels for attracting new users. Well aware of this, we have developed an affiliate program to reward those who recommend us to their loved ones.
With the growth of business volumes, more and more time is spent on routine. Very soon, employees are fully loaded with current work. It is important to constantly think about where to develop further.
We see the prospect in changing attitudes towards medical analyzes from healthy people. After all, in fact, it is an inexpensive way to control your health with diets, workouts, lifestyle changes.
The blood cells in the human body are updated every 120 days, so laboratory diagnostics is a reliable way to see the impact on the body. Regular analysis of research results makes it possible in numbers to assess the state of one’s health and the influence of various factors on it.
As an example, we can cite a number of situations when it is useful to control the blood composition:
Regular testing is an opportunity for a person to conduct an annual check of the state of the body for a certain number of parameters (for example, the “Annual Examination” complex of analyzes ). With a high degree of confidence, if the indicators are normal, there is nothing to worry about. In that case, one of the parameters went beyond the reference values, there is a reason to visit a doctor of the appropriate profile.
Once there was a very popular line from the song “If I get sick, I won’t go to the doctors ...” There’s more about friends there, but nowadays you can give these words a different meaning: you don’t always have time and money to go to doctors public or private clinics. Do not self-medicate, but in some situations, medical tests can provide a quick assessment of the health status.
')
The demand for laboratory diagnostics is evidenced by the fact that in 2015 the Invitro network laboratory became the leader in the Russian market of medical services (revenue for 2015 is more than 11 billion rubles). It took more than twenty years and about 800 reception sites in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan to achieve such an outcome.
Obviously, with the expansion of the network of treatment rooms, the costs of its maintenance are growing. These are non-core activities for laboratories and, often, they offer their franchise, thereby shifting the operating costs of their partners and paying them up to 60% of the research cost. As a result, it is necessary to overestimate the cost of analysis.
If we add to the above the high cost of automated analyzers (tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars), it will become clear the scale of the investments necessary to launch and develop the laboratory business. At first glance, a startup has nothing to do here. Nevertheless, we managed to find our niche and grow. Based on our experience, we formulated several startup rules that significantly increase the chances of
Rule number 1: get experience in the area in which you plan to open a startup.
Information that the costs of treatment rooms eat up the lion's share of the profit prompted us to look for a way to pay for each procedure for taking biomaterial, which would make it possible to drastically reduce the cost of services - and therefore, to offer patients analyzes on more favorable terms. This idea was the starting point in the creation of Lab4U, and it could only appear in the head of a person who had already worked in the laboratory business.
In fact, five years ago, we invented our own Uber, in which commercial medical centers play the role of a taxi - it was precisely them that was decided to attract patients. In the zero years, the number of such clinics in large cities has grown so much that they began to meet at every turn. There were no queues in them - loading was almost always lower than planned.
At first glance, such cooperation was unprofitable for them, since they had already offered to take tests at their prices, much higher than ours. But, for the recoupment and growth of their core business, they needed patients, the flow of which we could provide. As a result, this argument was decisive, and we found clinics that agreed to accept patients for a fee corresponding to the cost of the biomaterial procedure.
RULE number 2: use at the start of circulation solutions.
Now, having solved a key issue, there is an opportunity to formulate the essence of the intended service. This is the online medical analysis shop LAB4U , in which the user is invited to independently arrange and pay for the order with a substantial discount (up to 50% of the competitors' prices), and then come and take the tests at one of the partner medical centers. We organize the delivery of biomaterials in large laboratories and the transfer of results to users in electronic form or on paper form.
1C Bitrix was chosen as a platform. Now we can say that this decision was justified. Thanks to him, we managed to start the service in a short time and start taking orders - 1 year was left to develop the site. Improvements were necessary in order to take into account the specifics of laboratory services and our business model. For example, it is necessary to consider which biomaterial corresponds to each study and in which medical centers it can be taken on a certain day.
RULE number 3: use the partners API and create your own.
The BION laboratory was selected as a performer. It is among the top five in terms of research volumes in Moscow.
How the work in BION is automated can be found in the article on ICTtimes “IT-systems in medicine” .
The key factor was the availability of a universal integration solution (API set) built on the InterSystems TrackCare LAb technology for interaction with other companies. Thanks to this, we were able to integrate LAB4U with the laboratory system as much as possible and set up an efficient transmission of the results and reports on the change in the status of the order.
RULE number 4: look for partners and build mutually beneficial relationships with them.
In any online store, the basis is a range, in our case a list of suggested analyzes. Despite the fact that the sites of laboratory networks indicate the number of more than fifteen hundred, the most popular of them are about three hundred (which is well in line with the Pareto rule). It is them that we have chosen to include in your price list. Thus, medical centers have another incentive to work with us: in addition to the fact that we bring a patient to them, they can carry out studies that are missing from our list (for them, this is additional income).
Rule number 5: low prices do not guarantee sales - think over convenience.
Starting work, we expected in the first year to bite off a few percent of the market leaders due to the “grandiose price drop” by 50% while respecting the high quality of the analyzes. In practice, it turned out that even this advantage is not enough. One of the major obstacles to our growth is that not all patients can correctly formulate the name of the tests they need to pass. There are no problems for those who come to the laboratory is not the first time.
Since we cannot replace the doctor and tell the patients what tests they need to pass, a detailed description is made for each test with a list of the situations in which it is assigned and the results are interpreted. “Analyzes and prices” is one of the most visited pages on our site. In fact, this is a catalog, broken down by type of research or disease, for the diagnosis of which they are used.
Currently, we are thinking about how to make the ordering process more convenient and in parallel with this we are systematically engaged in Internet promotion and scaling of the service by increasing the number of partner medical centers, thereby making our services more accessible. In 2016, the number of clinics working with us passed over a hundred and continues to grow.
RULE number 6: build a user feedback system
Every day, our patients have questions that require timely solutions. By automating the work of the customer support service on the Bitrix platform, we promptly respond to all requests. After the client addresses by mail or through an input form, a task is formed that should be closed.
Potential problems with the work of our partner medical centers reveal the feedback system, which we have already mentioned on the Megamind in the article “What does the feedback system help an Internet project?”
To receive calls by the federal and Moscow city numbers, a virtual PBX is connected and the voice menu is configured. Some questions come through online chat.
RULE number 7: use the services of your service.
We believe that the main indicator of the quality of our work is that cases of refusal from the services of our service are rare (there was only one case in a year when we were asked to close an account). We ourselves pass the tests through Lab4U and recommend to our relatives and friends to do likewise, since we know for sure that this is a saving without sacrificing quality.
Actually, word of mouth is one of the most important channels for attracting new users. Well aware of this, we have developed an affiliate program to reward those who recommend us to their loved ones.
In conclusion, the MAIN RULE: to think for the future.
With the growth of business volumes, more and more time is spent on routine. Very soon, employees are fully loaded with current work. It is important to constantly think about where to develop further.
We see the prospect in changing attitudes towards medical analyzes from healthy people. After all, in fact, it is an inexpensive way to control your health with diets, workouts, lifestyle changes.
The blood cells in the human body are updated every 120 days, so laboratory diagnostics is a reliable way to see the impact on the body. Regular analysis of research results makes it possible in numbers to assess the state of one’s health and the influence of various factors on it.
As an example, we can cite a number of situations when it is useful to control the blood composition:
- optimization of the training process;
- detection of so-called latent infections;
- trouble sleeping, lack of vigor,
- identifying the causes of strong weight changes.
Regular testing is an opportunity for a person to conduct an annual check of the state of the body for a certain number of parameters (for example, the “Annual Examination” complex of analyzes ). With a high degree of confidence, if the indicators are normal, there is nothing to worry about. In that case, one of the parameters went beyond the reference values, there is a reason to visit a doctor of the appropriate profile.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/299702/
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