Welcome to our new series Possible If You Want, powered by Grameenphone, exploring the power and possibilities of the internet. Over the perhaps last 20 years, the internet has reshaped our world. Today, we communicate and connect differently. We shop and consume differently. We build companies and solve problems differently. The internet has penetrated and transformed almost every area of our lives.
This series is about our innate possibilities, the power of the internet, and what happens when we bridge the two. We’ll be interviewing some of the country’s successful technology entrepreneurs and learn about their vision, their take on the power and possibilities of the internet, how they personally and their businesses use technology to tackle some of the pressing problems of our society and much more.
All the stories will be exclusively published in Future Startup and you can find them here.
Digital Healthcare Solutions Co-founder and CEO Sajid Rahman on how the internet has transformed our lives and work and enabled individuals to access resources and pursue possibilities and opportunities that were hard to access before, his first experience with the power of internet, his work at DHS, the rise of digital healthcare services, and much more.
In this excellent interview with Mr. Sajid, we talk about a wide range of topics: the power and possibilities of the internet, how the internet has transformed the world of work and life, has made entrepreneurship easier and accessible to an ever growing number of people, and is transforming the future of healthcare in Bangladesh, offers us a peek behind the scenes of DHS, discusses how he works and much more.
Digital Healthcare Solutions is an integrated health company based in Dhaka. The company provides a wide range of services, delivered via mobile, app and/or web, including: 365 days access to doctor consultation, coverage on hospital admission and outpatient treatment, discounts at different health-related outlets, appointments with renowned doctors, on-demand medicine delivery and pathology tests etc.
The company says over the past 2 years, it has served 5.5 million members of its health subscriptions and services, combining access to micro health insurance, telemedicine, doorstep diagnostic tests, medicine delivery, and patient support programs on diabetes and maternal health.
“I was born and brought up in Dhaka. My father was a government employee and served in different parts of the country and we moved along with him to those places.
I attended Notre Dame College for my Higher Secondary. In college, I was involved with a lot of extracurricular activities like debating, science club etc and in fact, we used to publish a magazine from the debating club.
After college, I did my honors and Masters in Marketing from Dhaka University. I was originally from the science background and my father was an engineer and my other siblings were also in science. For me, commerce was out of the way but I was getting interested in business.
I did well academically in the University. I was first class first in both Honors and Masters and there was obviously a chance to join the University as a teacher but I did not opt for that.
I joined ANZ Grindlays Bank for a brief period of time after graduation and then moved to Standard Chartered Bank. As part of my work, I served at different corners of the world. My last job was in Jakarta, Indonesia. I stayed at Standard Chartered Bank for almost thirteen years.
After that, I left the bank and started my own business. I and some of my friends set up a small fund to invest in technology companies, mostly in Silicon Valley and some in South East Asia. I joined Telenor Health in November 2015.”
He is currently the Co-founder and CEO of Digital Healthcare Solutions.
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