Growing up, I vaguely remember my parents mentioning how curious I was about finding ways to help others. As I became an adult, I thought, "What better way to do that than by becoming a doctor"? After earning my medical degree from Northwestern University in Chicago in 2006, I began my journey as a certified physician and practiced medicine for over eight years.

During those years, however, I started to notice gaps in the industry that remained unaddressed. I wondered why no one seemed to acknowledge these gaps and realized I needed to start with the ‘man in the mirror.’ I felt compelled to contribute to the greater good by going beyond my traditional role as a physician. This was the moment I recognized my soul’s calling to explore the ‘creative side’ of healthcare and pursue an unconventional transition into healthcare advertising.

Although some industry peers raised their eyebrows at my decision, I was determined to follow my instincts. On this journey of ‘creative experimentation’ in healthcare, I held several leadership positions at McCann Health across Asia, Europe, and the United States, winning some of the industry’s most prestigious awards for my marketing campaigns, including the Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Good.

But my journey didn’t stop there. My instincts led me to combine my knowledge of medicine and marketing through entrepreneurship, culminating in the launch of Doceree in 2020. With Doceree, I set out to address rising healthcare costs and challenges in HCP-patient engagement.

As the Founder & Global CEO of Doceree, I oversee the company’s business growth and global operations in 25 countries across 4 continents. With over 200 pharmaceutical clients, including the world’s top eight brands, and a workforce of over 180 employees, my responsibility as Doceree’s leader is to make the best use of Doceree’s talent and collectively work with them to ensure our technology-first connected ecosystem is seamlessly functioning within the healthcare industry, both in the United States and globally.

Being the world’s first exclusive network for healthcare professionals (HCPs), our primary mission is to empower HCPs to improve patient care by facilitating informed clinical decisions in real time. However, speaking as an entrepreneur, I aim for the global healthcare sector to see Doceree as a catalyst for the much-needed positive change in healthcare rather than a profit-driven solution provider.

Certified by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and holding a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Doceree is the world's first HCPs-only global network for physicians' programmatic messaging. Launched in 2020, Doceree is striving to enrich HCP-patient engagement and make it more meaningful through its patented technology, addressing emerging challenges for healthcare and life sciences organizations in achieving improved patient outcomes.

Launched in 2020, Doceree addresses the communication gaps between HCPs and pharmaceutical brands caused by inefficient and untimely messaging. Through our patented technology, ESPIYAN™, Doceree empowers pharmaceutical brands to advertise their prescription drugs directly to HCPs with messages tailored to their specialties and patients’ medical histories, enabling ads to become more relevant and supporting HCPs in making informed decisions in real time during critical points of care.

This framework reduces rising healthcare costs caused by on-ground marketing efforts and allows HCPs to utilize these tailored messages for their informational needs in real time while delivering care, further enriching HCP-patient engagement and making it more outcome-oriented.

Additionally, Doceree’s solution sets an example for responsible advertising. As a former physician myself, I’ve seen the mental fatigue irrelevant advertisements can cause for doctors while they are providing care. Recognizing this long-standing issue, Doceree’s technology seeks to make advertisements for HCPs more relevant and timely by analyzing patient and HCP data to generate personalized messages and deliver them precisely when HCPs need them.

This approach ‘nudges’ HCPs toward informed decision-making with greater precision and speed, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes.

As key stakeholders make life-impacting decisions almost every day, the healthcare industry is inherently critical. Given this importance, advertising and marketing initiatives must be approached with sensitivity and ethical guidelines to respect patient trust. Prior to the pandemic, as most marketing efforts were conducted offline, sometimes even indulging in corrupt practices, HCPs facing distractions from their primary mission of working toward quality care became a silent norm.

During the absence of digital solutions, patient consultations only took place physically, leading to poor health outcomes in remote areas due to accessibility and travel affordability challenges. However, this scenario soon changed when the pandemic struck in 2020, slowly nudging the entire industry toward digital engagement. This is precisely the moment when Doceree emerged as one of the first to showcase digital advertising as an alternative solution in the global healthcare industry.

Though changes did happen due to the pandemic, the industry took its own time to deal with the shift, allowing us to observe how our competitors continued to depend on conventional digital advertising tactics, lacking the precision and speed required to make swift and correct treatment decisions.

Considering this as an opportunity, Doceree introduced the concept of ‘personalized advertising through AI-enabled tailored nudges,’ allowing brands to directly connect with HCPs through endemic and point-of-care channels, providing them with an opportunity not just to ensure quality HCP engagement, but also to achieve improved script lift outcomes – resulting in higher return on investments and greater brand loyalty.

Being recognized for your hard work inspires you to do even better, and that’s exactly what my team at Doceree has done to bring our vision to life.

This acknowledgement reflects our dedication to innovation in healthcare advertising, encouraging us to keep improving our solutions and enhancing communication between healthcare professionals and patients for better patient care outcomes.

Recognitions like these validate the vision that inspired Doceree's journey, reinforcing our belief in our goals as a team and ultimately clarifying our purpose while strengthening our resolve.

Moreover, prestigious accolades like these reflect our commitment to smart innovations in healthcare and attract interest from potential clients, partners, and industry leaders, enabling us to collaborate for the collective progress of the global healthcare industry.

Developing a winning award entry is not challenging if the work you present is of high quality and makes a meaningful impact in your industry, setting you apart from competitors.

That said, it is equally important to present quality work effectively, as paying attention to detail highlights the significance of the effort and increases the likelihood of success in the awards process.

A business without purpose is like a ship without a compass—aimless and lost. As a business owner for over three years, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of purpose and how it should be guided by the problems you aim to solve. I understand the importance of normalizing mistakes, stumbling, getting back up, and relearning—something I wholeheartedly embrace as the Founder and Global CEO of Doceree.

For example, during my time as a physician and later as a global healthcare marketer, I noticed that resistance to digitalization was a common barrier hindering progress in the healthcare industry, both in the United States and globally. That was when I realized how precision and speed—two essential pillars of successful healthcare operations—remained underutilized despite the industry’s vast opportunities. This realization inspired me to pursue my purpose of creating a ‘tech-connected healthcare ecosystem’ with Doceree.

Success is never a solo effort; it requires teamwork. From my experience, fostering an environment that thrives on collaboration, open communication, and fearless ideation is a crucial step toward organizational success. When individuals with shared goals come together as a united team to address common challenges, driven by a strong sense of purpose and a focus on making a meaningful impact beyond just boosting business profits, success inevitably follows.

In an industry where life-impacting decisions are made daily, Doceree stands as one of the few—if not the only—providers offering solutions that prioritize the critical importance of HCP and patient data. This focus has cemented our position as a trusted partner among both HCPs and pharmaceutical brands. As the only HIPAA-certified healthcare marketing expert in the United States, we are dedicated to setting new standards for ethical marketing practices by excelling in compliance.

As one of the few platforms serving both sides of the programmatic advertising industry—enabling pharmaceutical advertisers to promote their Rx drugs on endemic and point-of-care platforms (demand) while helping such platforms generate greater revenue (supply)—Doceree is the industry's sole ‘all-in-one’ solution for healthcare programmatic messaging.

Our compliance-driven tracking of HCP and patient data not only enriches HCP-patient engagement through real-time, relevant messaging but has also made us the first in the industry to launch an ‘HCP-only data marketplace,’ providing verified and accurate data solutions to advertisers seeking effective programmatic campaign strategies.

Driven by an innovation-first mindset, we are now present in 25 countries across four continents, with over 200 pharmaceutical clients, including the world’s top 10 brands. Since our launch in 2020, the remarkable growth we have achieved over the past 3.5 years inspires us to move beyond traditional practices and continue innovating.

I am an Indian currently living in the United States, where I have been for almost six years now. While I've been fortunate to travel the world and learn from various cultures, it is the United States that has given me the opportunity to embrace new innovations and maintain a passion for experimentation.

Considering that the United States healthcare industry offers a highly evolved 'data-first' market, the country is indeed years ahead in digital adoption compared to the rest of the world. With the U.S. as the base of our operations, we aim to replicate successful campaigns globally. Operating in 25 countries across four continents, we are working to bring the same innovative spirit to healthcare markets in countries including Australia, India, and the broader Asia-Pacific region.

A fun fact about Doceree’s inception is that the pandemic became an unexpected opportunity for us, enabling us to demonstrate how technology can unlock untapped possibilities in the pharmaceutical advertising landscape. It allowed us to prove that, even in a time of crisis, technology-powered innovation could push the industry forward in ways that hadn't been explored before.

Before the pandemic, the healthcare industry was filled with apprehension about going digital, given how crucial patient and HCP data is for smooth treatment delivery. From marketing engagement to medical consultations, everything happened in person until 2020, when the pandemic halted all physical interactions for a year. This was the time when Doceree took the challenge to break down the traditional belief system in healthcare advertising and shift the industry's focus from merely chasing numbers to valuing meaningful, qualitative outcomes for long-term impact.

By introducing our artificial intelligence-powered connected ecosystem within the HCPs-only network, we dismantled traditional workflows and enabled pharmaceutical companies to resume their marketing initiatives through digital channels. However, despite the initial progress, the industry took its own time to adapt to the pandemic-induced changes. Considering this, Doceree steadily expanded its influence, gently nudging stakeholders to recognize the positive potential of digital solutions.

I’m anticipating the continued rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in the healthcare industry. Considering recent medical studies, it is fascinating to observe how cutting-edge technologies are becoming capable of diagnosing complex diseases before symptoms even appear.

Simultaneously, we are also seeing how AI is providing precise interpretations of vast data sets and enabling doctors to make more informed clinical decisions in real-time, even under tight time constraints. That said, while AI is now a proven enabler in enhancing human efficiency dramatically in the healthcare industry and beyond, it’s equally important that human expertise is applied to interpret and harness the insights AI offers correctly.

Considering today’s business landscape, there’s no greater asset than human resources. Many newer organizations mistakenly think that quickly building a larger workforce is the key to scaling their business, without realizing that the most crucial business investment lies in choosing the right people. Speaking from my personal experience, collaborating with individuals who share your vision and passion is essential for the collective success of the organization and your workforce.

That said, integrating technology wherever and whenever possible can lead to significant cost savings, giving one ample opportunity to invest their saved money into building the quality of the product/service their business is offering. Everything hinges on how clearly one defines their purpose; this vision is critical in steering one’s business forward.

From an entrepreneurial perspective, I do believe technology will play an extremely integral role in bringing both an operational and communication shift in the next 5-10 years. Though the pandemic nudged the healthcare industry towards digital adoption as a starting point, the advent of advanced technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the increased adoption of telemedicine and e-health facilities will definitely provide greater business opportunities and improved healthcare accessibility to people in the United States and different corners of the world.

However, it would be equally imperative for key stakeholders to play an active role in ensuring that such advances are integrated into the healthcare industry in a regulatory-compliant manner and are utilized as an ‘enabler’ for human actions, rather than as a ‘resource’ for them.

My greatest inspiration comes from my parents. I recall the transition I made from being a practicing physician to entering healthcare advertising, a move that many in my family and the industry viewed with skepticism, often suggesting that I was risking my career.

Despite this, my parents continued to believe in my vision and encouraged me to dream big since childhood, never making me feel guilty for being ambitious. That said, my experiences collaborating with like-minded individuals who share a vision for ethical and data-driven healthcare have also inspired me and reinforced my belief that I am on the right path.

As the term "business" is often equated with profits, it’s essential for current and aspiring entrepreneurs to redefine it by establishing a clear and strong purpose that supports their intent to innovate. In short, I’d say—know your purpose!

By understanding the industry challenges thoroughly, one can align their efforts to drive meaningful innovation and create a lasting impact that goes beyond just financial success. The focus on the problem you are looking to solve acts as a catalyst for making informed business decisions.