The fitness sector is battling the COVID-19 pandemic on the front line with all available resources. However, infrastructure can no longer be kept up to date with the increase in COVID-19 instances across India, resulting in a shortage of hospital beds and fitness professionals.
Amid the pandemic, Chennai-based Modulus Housing seeks to solve the challenge of mediCAB hospital infrastructure, its instant and portable hospital units.
Credit: Housing Modulus
Founded in 2018 through IIT-Madras alumni Shree Ram Ravichandran and Gobinath P, Modulus Housing aims to build microinfrastructure. The startup incubated through IIT-M supplies folding huts to solve infrastructure disorders similar to crisis relief, shelter for refugees, defense, occasion management, medical and educational camps, hotels and MPME stores, sites, etc., oil refineries and mines.
“In January, we partnered with an NGO, the Selco Foundation, and to build a micro-hospital for rural areas. The product was primarily a gestation room to solve the challenge of childbirth in unsanitary or open spaces in rural areas. in this product when COVID-19 hit and the structure staff had to return to their home countries. But we were already fulfilling the physical care assignment and focused on creating portable hospital equipment to deal with the pandemic,” Shree Ram explains.
mediCAB. Credit: Housing Modulus
Modulus Housing partnered with the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Thiruvananthapuram, and presented mediCAB. “They contributed to medical design and clinical inputs of the product while designing it,” Ram says.
The CEO adds that the startup has already implemented its first unit earlier this month in the Wayanad district of Kerala and started its pilot. The deployment in Kerala was carried out thanks to grants from the US NGO Habitat for Humanity.
According to the co-founder, the portable microhospital unit can be customized. It can evolve to come with 4 areas: a cabin for fitness workers; A room for patient detection. Isolation rooms; unit(s) of extensive care.
Each isolation room can be supplied with two COVID-19 patient beds. Areas can be added to microhospital structures according to need, area, and budget. The unit comes with integrated electrical components, which are plug-and-play and can be powered. The unit will also need to be connected to a water source.
Shree Ram says the start-up can ship spare parts across India in a week and install hospital equipment in two hours.
Credit: Housing Modulus
Shree Ram says the concept of the startup came to the duo in 2015 when they were sophomore engineering students. In the same year, Chennai experienced devastating floods that killed many others and took shelters for several thousand people.
In 2016, co-founders approached the concept of folding housing to help provide answers to other people displaced by herbal errors and began executing the prototype as a university project. The duo won the Azim Premji Social Enterprise Idea Challenge organized through Azim Premji University. They created the startup in 2018 and introduced their flagship product in 2019.
Currently, the startup offers portable housing solutions for crisis relief, housing for refugees, defense, occasion control and medical and educational camps, among others.
Credit: Housing Modulus
The co-founder says state governments, institutes, NGOs and hospitals can be potential buyers of mediCAB. He says the value of the unit depends entirely on the length of the unit, the design and the requirements. The pilot allocation in Kerala charges Rs 1,800 to Rs 1,900 consistent with square foot.
Shree Ram says the start-up has gained an investment in CSR from a US bank to expand a 100-bed facility. Although he revealed monetary details, the CEO said the start-up will begin to run on the assignment from the first week of August.
The startup is also in talks with state governments for the deployment of mediCAB.
The CEO also stated that the launch and adoption of mediCAB has also opened up business opportunities.
“We won more than 50 programs in 3 days for farms to be established in rural areas where other people have land, but any form of structure is difficult. Apart from that, we have also partnered with the Meghalaya government to establish micro While staff have returned home due to COVID-19, the state government will expand micro-factories to employ staff for spice processing and pickles, and the creation of tasks,” he adds.
(Edited via Teja Lele Desai)
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