VMPL
New Delhi [India], May 11: India's healthcare ecosystem has made notable progress in expanding insurance coverage, strengthening primary care and accelerating digital health. Yet, a crucial gap persists - one that often determines outcomes even before treatment for the patient begins: emergency response. Bridging the gap between patients and hospitals is a fundamental priority for advancing India's public health vision.
The "Crafting Bharat - Season 3" presented by AWS Startups, an initiative by NewsReach and production partner - HT Smartcast, explores the founders' resilience, agility and passion to build a super startup and inspire the next wave of entrepreneurs. This series is hosted by Gautam Srinivasan, famed for hosting a diverse range of TV and digital programs, currently consulting editor at CNBC (India), CNN-News18, Forbes India, and The Economic Times.
In this episode, we spotlight Prabhdeep Singh, Founder & CEO of RED.Health, who is on a mission to transform the emergency response system. He shares his insights on how a deeply personal healthcare experience ignited his journey of building a tech-enabled emergency response network for India by optimizing ambulance networks to leveraging AI for smarter triage and decision-making. Discover the inspiring where we deconstruct the blueprint of growth for India's super startups through this series.
Edited Excerpts:
How do you distinguish between a "business idea" and a "calling" that justifies the startup grind?
Every entrepreneur knows some days feel completely bleak, when giving up seems easier. My father once needed an ambulance, and the nearest hospital failed to respond adequately. That experience taught me that speed alone isn't enough but reliability, excellence, and delivering fully on promises define true impact.
How did focusing on hospitals first help you scale your operations while managing both resources and high-pressure emergencies?
By focusing on hospitals first and building B2B relationships, we naturally grew into a strong B2B2C brand. Managing capital and human resources means preparing for both service opportunities and the inevitable grief that comes with emergencies. Our operations are elastic--scaling from a single dispatch to critical surges--enabled by strategic hospital partnerships.
Take us through the highlights of your partnership with AWS in terms of helping RED.Health transform emergency healthcare infrastructure and enabling you to build India's answer to the 911 emergency service in the US?
Reliability at scale is critical in emergency healthcare. Every hour of downtime can mean lives lost. Partnering with AWS allows us to scale seamlessly across cities, handle surges in demand, and run specialized services like air ambulances, pediatric, neonatal, and burn care centers. Our operations backbone is elastic, enabling us to manage everything from routine calls to disaster-level surges without disruption. AWS also supports our AI initiatives, helping us triage emergency versus non-emergency calls, assess severity, and even match patients with the most empathetic agents. With their infrastructure and expertise, we can focus on building India's answer to the US 911 system, confident our systems can scale and deliver reliability on demand.
You launched the AI-driven SALUS EMS platform in 2024, with AI for call and ambulance routing and 5G live tracking. How can AI help expand services to Tier 2 and 3 markets through your initiatives, and how can AWS support this?
SALUS EMS was designed in collaboration with emergency doctors. Beyond basic features, our focus is on Tier 2 and 3 markets, where patients often travel long distances and regulatory requirements vary by state. For instance, some states require a doctor in the ambulance for cardiac emergencies, while others rely on paramedics. Ambulances are dynamic environments: paramedics handle much of the on-ground work, while doctors often spend significant time remotely guiding them. Our goal was to see if AI could assist in reading vital signals like BP, ECG, temperature, and SpO₂ along with alerting the doctor, reducing the need for them to constantly monitor long rides. We've also built dashboards to provide actionable intelligence for emergency doctors. For example, when a heart attack patient arrives, multiple teams such as cardiology, cath lab, anesthesia; must be notified and coordinated. AI can analyze large datasets to suggest the most appropriate hospital, ensuring patients reach the right facility for their condition, whether it's a burn center, pediatric care, or neonatal services. This approach has the potential to significantly reduce mortality and improve emergency outcomes across India.
What is that north star metric that you showcase to investors when you try to say that RED.Health is a category-defining company?
I don't think anyone questions the importance of healthcare anymore especially post-COVID, everyone sees its gaps. In India, around 2 lakh ambulance operators run fewer than two vehicles each, showing the market is huge, but scaling and system governance is the real challenge. We raised funds to build tech, expand across cities, and prove the model. Once the economics became clear, investors recognized the opportunity. I believe the next decade will be our most impactful yet.
Stay tuned to Crafting Bharat - Season 3 as we bring you these inspiring entrepreneurs for insightful and candid discussions with Gautam Srinivasan.
Quote: "Emergency response is not only about speed, but also about reliability - arriving on time and in full."
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