PCL Health: Disrupting the $2 trillion agetech market

PCL Health was first born as Poonyah Care (www.poonyah.co.uk) in 2018 when our Founder, Deepti Atrish, realised the stress and difficulties of trying to care for her elderly mother in India while she was living in the UK. Like many entrepreneurs, she started by trying to fix a problem she faced herself and her passion grew into wanting to share that solution with the millions of other people around the world facing a similar challenge.

Poonyah, which has now become PCL Health, derives from a Sanskrit word describing the notion of earning good karma. Using PCL’s solution we can all be more involved in our loved ones’ care and earn good karma by helping others.

What does PCL Health do?

PCL Health has created a remote monitoring and analytics platform which empowers health and wellbeing using the latest technologies. An AI-driven health score is combined with wearable technology and an app, to help patients, carers and families monitor their own health.

Such products and services reduce worry and, even more importantly, reduce the risks of our relatives becoming unwell without us knowing, so helping people lead longer, more independent and healthier lives. When our concept was devised in 2018, we could not have foreseen the impact of Covid-19 on society, but the challenges of self-isolation and social distancing measures that the pandemic has brought about, make our solution even more relevant today than ever before.

How has Covid-19 changed the landscape for PCL Health?

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a huge shift in the way patients and clinicians interact. According to the Royal College of General Practitioners, 71% of routine consultations were remote in the four weeks leading up to April 12th 2021, compared to 25% in the same period last year.

While we are hopefully in the last phase of national lockdown in the UK, we all know that what we used to think of as normal life is still a long way off from returning and many of the shifts we have made to digital living and working will remain. PCL Health’s platform will support patients, doctors and families to proactively manage their health and respond to early warning alerts in order to benchmark their health and wellbeing.

We plan to implement our solution intelligently, so that we can play a key role in assisting healthcare professionals to manage increasing demand. We provide patient-focused care through connected care wearable and IoT devices which are integrated into the clinician’s platform. Our solution is not only highly secure but it is interoperable which makes it an excellent choice for many NHS practices to adopt and use. PCL Health’s remote monitoring allows people to take more control of their own health whilst reducing footfall to GP surgeries, allowing resources to be focused where they are needed most.

Who are the team behind PCL Health?

Our team shares a combined vision of patient-centred care and a seamlessly connected health system. We ultimately want to make the world a healthier and happier place.

Our Founder Deepti Atrish , is a technology entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience managing a digital agency. She is founder of two start-ups, was one of the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech in 2019, was shortlisted for the Techwomen100 2019, and was a Finalist in the Tech Leaders Awards Data For Good 2019. Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr Stewart Southey , has been a consultant anaesthetist in the NHS for 12 years and has advised numerous start ups on adopting digital health solutions.

What makes PCL Health unique?

Some of our competitors offer elements of what we do but none offer the full package of connected care that we have created via our platform. The healthcare market is still very fragmented and there is an urgent need for the kind of one-stop solution we can provide.