Interviewed By Humaira Tabassum, Team MBR

Dhaka Cast is the first ever healthcare startup in Bangladesh that is exclusively focused on diabetic care. The startup aims to provide all the services and products required by diabetes patients at their doorsteps at the most reasonable price, without any hassle or endless queue. The services include specialist doctor consultations online or at patients’ homes, nursing services, diagnostic support at home, medicine home delivery, lifestyle modification, and so on. Team MBR was in a conversation with the founder and managing director of Dhaka Cast, Dr. Fahreen Hannan, and learned about her inspirations behind forming Dhaka Cast and her aspirations for the startup.

Humaira Tabassum: Dhaka Cast has a compelling founding story rooted in personal experience with diabetes. Would you kindly share with us the journey and the inspiration behind founding Dhaka Cast?

Dr. Fahreen Hannan: After graduating from medical school with a degree in dentistry, I started practicing like most doctors do. In the early hours, I served as a lecturer at Marks Medical College, and I used to practice in the afternoon. However, I was very irregular at that time, as I was a mother of two babies and I was preparing for a postgraduate degree in the field of dentistry. However, while I was studying for a master's degree in public health, I came to the realisation that doctors are not meant to provide treatments only. Rather, they have many other roles to play as well. I started feeling that I was capable of doing greater things for the people around me, but I was not sure about the direction I should follow. Despite having such thoughts, I continued to practice dentistry for 8 years. By 2018, I was practicing actively, and every day I could serve 7–8 patients in my chamber. Serving such a small number of patients did not satisfy me. I kept feeling the urge to do something where I could reach millions.

As days kept passing, one day, my mother-in-law became very sick due to diabetes. It was very unexpected, as she was a very active member of our family. The fact that both I and my husband were doctors made us even more worried. At that time, my husband and I decided that we needed to do something for the people. From this motivation, I formed Dhaka Cast. I left practicing privately and focused on my entrepreneurial journey. I must mention that I always received full support from my husband. My husband, Prof. Dr. Mohammad Montasir Islam, is the co-founder and chairman of our company. Also, we have Md. Al Ferdous with us as co-founder. Back in those days, I once had the thought to start my own podcast. However, as the idea of a podcast was ahead of time for our audience back then, it never turned into a reality. I still have that wish, and I named our startup Dhaka Cast out of my interest in podcasts. I must mention my mother and my late father, who played instrumental roles in my entrepreneurial journey. Also, I must mention my kids.

Humaira Tabassum: Dhaka Cast offers a comprehensive suite of services, including online consultations from doctors, sample collection from home, caregiving services, and so on. May we know how Dhaka Cast differentiates itself from other telemedicine service providers?

Dr. Fahreen Hannan: Our biggest advantage is our ability to offer quality and affordable services very promptly, especially for non-communicable diseases, which other telemedicine services do not yet fully focus on. Currently, we are focusing mainly on diabetes. We are gradually trying to cover more non-communicable diseases over time. Another point is that while other telemedicine services are working on many different issues, we are trying to specialise in diabetes. We are trying to address the troubles diabetes patients face to make their lives easier.

Humaira Tabassum: Logistics support is crucial to Dhaka Cast’s operations, as its services include sample collection and medicine delivery. Would you kindly share with us how Dhaka Cast manages this aspect of the business?

Dr. Fahreen Hannan: It is to be noted that we are not just a Dhaka-based service. We have entered a total of six areas. We maintain the inventory locally and collaborate with local diagnostic centers. We think that until we ourselves grow in expertise on this matter, those who are experts in this matter should play the role. Basically, technical tasks such as sample collection require professional skills, and such tasks are usually performed by third-party service providers from different diagnostic centres.

Humaira Tabassum: Dhaka Cast has the potential to significantly improve healthcare access, particularly in underserved areas, by leveraging technologies. May we know how Dhaka Cast is contributing to bridging the gap between urban and rural populations in Bangladesh in terms of access to healthcare?

Dr. Fahreen Hannan: Our target from the very beginning was to extend our services to rural areas. We tried to reach people without smartphones in rural areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though we could not reach our full potential, we are constantly experimenting with that. It is not possible to increase the reach at an early stage for any online health consultancy, let alone Dhaka Cast. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us a great lesson. During that time, people actually got to know what online consulting is. People realised the importance of healthcare support online. Technologies play a vital role in reaching rural areas. We usually divide healthcare services into three stages: primary, secondary, and tertiary. In the tertiary stage, patients need to come to the hospital. But in the primary stage, patients do not need to come. Dhaka Cast wants to work in this area by creating awareness. Awareness can start with school awareness programmes, lifestyle modification programmes, etc. Spreading awareness has been very easy these days through the internet. Now that we have received support from Startup Bangladesh, we want to leverage this support to reach rural areas. We want to enhance the availability of services in rural areas. One should not need to go to specialists for primary healthcare services; rather, he or she can avail the service easily online. We want to send these messages through our activities. On top of that, primary healthcare services do not need to be applied only to diabetes cases; rather, we can target every disease. If we all can work together with a long-term vision, it will not be difficult to reach remote rural areas.

Humaira Tabassum: Dhaka Cast has introduced the concept of premium membership for its users, which comes with an affordable price tag. Would you kindly share with us the benefits that the premium members of Dhaka Cast enjoy?

Dr. Fahreen Hannan: Suppose someone’s mother has booked a session with a doctor today, and she wants her son or daughter to be with her. But her son or daughter has work to attend to. Dhaka Cast has brought solutions to this problem with its premium services. Dhaka Cast is working on both the direct target group, who are diabetic, and the indirect target group, who are people from our generation and busy at their workplaces. With a simple phone call and payment, someone can easily make an appointment for their parents through Dhaka Cast. The parents can also feel prioritised and be pleased with such premium services. Our consultation sessions last a minimum of 20 minutes. We do not simply write a prescription; rather, we try to hear all the unspoken words related to the health of the patients. Also, services like providing carers for elderly people for a short period to assist with medicines are also included in the premium services. Furthermore, if someone is living far from their near ones and the near ones require follow-up checkups, they can avail of Dhaka Cast’s premium membership to get the checkups done and assess the reports from the farthest places. Many non-resident Bangladeshis generally take advantage of this membership. We also have a push notification system for premium memberships. For example, the patients require reminders at the end of the month for medicines. With the premium membership, we can thus send them push notifications. Based on the bio-personal analysis, which is done by assessing someone’s medical records, we usually send these notifications.

Humaira Tabassum: Raising awareness among diabetes patients and those who are exposed to the risk of being diagnosed with diabetes is important to minimise the impact of this health condition. May we know if there are any such awareness-raising initiatives from Dhaka Cast?

Dr. Fahreen Hannan: We have a huge number of awareness-raising initiatives. Almost 90% of our initiatives are awareness-related. When we were in the GP Accelerator, we arranged free health campaigns for the employees of Grameenphone. We also arranged free health campaigns in different places, such as World University, Daffodil International University, EMK Centre, parks, rural areas, especially in Sylhet, and so on. We organised a lot of health camps. We have published many healthcare blogs written in easily comprehensible language on our website. I am even planning to start podcasts to raise awareness. We have already uploaded many video messages on our social media to raise awareness. We also try to motivate people through one-on-one conservation in parks, different healthcare events, etc. I feel that those who are in the medical industry should give 90% of their time to this awareness-raising aspect. To survive in the long run, one should not only focus on revenue generation. Many healthcare startups have already closed down due to their overemphasis on revenue generation only. The main focus of Dhaka Cast has always been raising awareness. I always feel I have a responsibility to society, which is why I have always done my best to raise awareness. 

Humaira Tabassum: Dhaka Cast boasts of offering healthcare services at significantly cheaper rates than its competitors. Would you kindly share with us how the collaborations with its partners facilitate providing affordable services to the clients?

Dr. Fahreen Hannan: Dhaka Cast’s healthcare services are about 40% cheaper than the industry average. While calculating the total costs of availing healthcare services, someone must include time as we know that time is money, transportation costs, consultation fees, costs for diagnostic tests, medicines, etc. The clients may not feel the affordability of our services at first. But if they calculate their total healthcare expenditures at the end of the month, they will be able to understand the differences in the costs of availing services from Dhaka Cast. Till now, we have found the satisfaction level of our services to be 90%. We never compromise on our services. At the end of the day, clients always want quality services, and hence, we always try to maintain the quality of our services. 

Humaira Tabassum: Your transition from dentistry to entrepreneurship is surely inspiring. What are your suggestions for those who want to choose the entrepreneurial path in their respective fields like you did?

Dr. Fahreen Hannan: I always believe that every woman is stronger, even beyond their imagination. They do not even know what they can achieve. Most of the females are often told to return to their homes as early as possible after their out-of-home tasks are finished. Thus, it is tough for us to generate ideas while sitting together with others. On the other hand, I feel that males can easily avail themselves of the opportunity to brainstorm together to generate great startup ideas. If females can group up, realise their true potential, and give priority to their wishes, they will also be able to conquer the world. Sometimes, we get influenced a lot by our society. I believe that it is very important to talk with oneself for 30 minutes daily to explore oneself. Also, we should develop the mentality to accept rejections. It is important to know what someone can or cannot do. They need to set their priorities right and focus on them rather than trying to balance everything out.