Gurugram-based start-up Vaidam Health, India’s premier online platform for medical tourists established by two IIM graduates has now become the subject of a case study by Ivey Business School, one of the oldest business schools in Canada whose MBA program is ranked among the world’s best. 

The case study, meant to provide material for class discussion for MBA students at Ivey and other business schools worldwide, has been written by Prof. (Dr.) Anupama Prashar of Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon, and published by Ivey Publishing, the publishing arm of Ivey Business School which is the most prolific and credible publisher of business case studies in the world after Harvard Business School. 

Said Manish Chandra, Co-founder, Vaidam Health: “Though Ivey Business School publishes about 350 case studies each year focusing on businesses around the world, very few actually relate to India. We are therefore extremely delighted that this prestigious B school has chosen to publish a case study on Vaidam Health for study by MBA students worldwide, and our company may be taught as a part of their curriculum. This is a huge achievement and a vindication of our business model and future growth potential considering that we started our operations hardly three years ago.” 

The Ivey case study, titled "Vaidam Health: Facilitating Medical Value Travel," notes that since its inception in January 2016, Vaidam has partnered with over 100 world-class healthcare facilities and more than 1,000 medical practitioners in India. As one of the pioneers in setting up web-based medical tourism services in India, Vaidam has been able gain the trust of overseas patients by offering personalized and customized care with complete transparency, it points out. 

Vaidam Health, which raised angel funding in 2016 from Singapore-based 4CE Ventures, has been certified to ISO 9001 and 27001 standards as a web-based medical tourism facilitator. It is also India’s first and only online platform for medical tourists to get accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH). The portal (www.vaidam.com) is a healthcare facilitator connecting foreign patients with best-accredited healthcare specialists and hospitals in India for treatment at an affordable price. 

Said Manish Chandra, Co-founder, Vaidam Health: “Though India's medical tourism market is growing at a CAGR of 15% and is expected to touch $8 billion by 2020, it is still largely unstructured, consisting of hundreds of small to medium-sized medical tourism facilitators. Our mission is to organize this market so that foreign patients can make an informed choice and get a hassle-free experience in coming to the country and getting world-class treatment at a fraction of the price back home.” 

Ivey cases are highly prized by the academic community for meeting the rigorous demands of management education. They are real-world cases, typically field-based, involving actual interviews with businesses from around the world. Unlike Harvard, however, whose case studies are written by its own professors, authors of Ivey case studies can come from any business school in the world, making the works representative of what’s being used and selected by professors in the wider world. 

Most business schools in the US, Canada and elsewhere have adopted the case method as their primary approach to teaching. Case studies produced by business schools like Ivey and Harvard are also used by B schools around the world for teaching their own students.