The inauguration ceremony of Praava Health’s first family health center took place on August 24th in Banani, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The ceremony was led by Ms. Sylvana Q. Sinha, Founder, Managing Director, & CEO of Praava and was honored by the presence of Special Guest Honorable Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak MP, Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology. Also present were Ms. Sonia Bashir Kabir, the Managing Director of Microsoft Bangladesh; Dr. Jabil Rahman Sinha, Deputy Managing Director, The Acme Laboratories; Ms. Wendy Werner, Country Manager: Bangladesh, Bhutan, & Nepal, International Finance Corporation; and trending pioneer and former Twitter Chief Scientist Dr. Abdur Chowdhury.
“Proper healthcare is our basic human right. Every patient deserves to be treated with care and respect. My own experience compelled me to imagine family health centers where professionalism, expertise, and trust between physician and patient are not luxuries of the lucky few, but rights and realities for every citizen. The future of healthcare will leverage artificial intelligence, smart design, and biotechnology, and Praava is planning to use technology to enable a better patient experience and improve access and outcomes for Bangladeshis. Technology can never replace your doctor, but it can help you and your care team to better manage your health,” Ms. Sinha stated.
Honorable Mr. Palak shared: “Bangladesh is embracing a digital transformation thanks to Praava and other entrepreneurs who are introducing technology to the health sector. Bangladesh is also moving forward in inclusion, and I am happy to see Praava setting a good example with so many women in senior leadership positions. I am particularly excited about Praava’s initiative to connect doctors from the U.S. and abroad to Bangladesh.”
Ms. Kabir said in her statement, “Health-tech integration has been lagging behind in Bangladesh, so it is immensely heartening to see a women-led startup employing technology to transform the patient experience in healthcare. Patients at Praava will be able to access and download their medical records and communicate with doctors and even have their scans reviewed by radiologists all over the world.”
The Banani Praava Family Health Center is the first in a network of such facilities which will offer consultations with family doctors and a full range of diagnostic services including lab and imaging. A Microsoft Bangladesh BizSpark partner, Praava is building a better patient experience enabled by technology. It is also reintroducing the concept of family medicine, particularly the family doctor, to Bangladesh.
The company is introducing Bangladesh’s first molecular cancer diagnostics (Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR) lab in breast, cervical, colorectal, and lung cancers, as well as the country’s first fully integrated Hospital Information System (HIS), including Electronic Health Records (EHR) and featuring a patient portal available on the internet and as a phone app.
