Innovative Cancer Care and Rehabilitation Pvt. Ltd aka ICanCaRe is a social enterprise established with a vision to build an ecosystem for preventive care by eradicating cancer and tobacco use from the Nation and making a clean, green, healthy, and lively place to live on. They strive to provide rehabilitation for cancer to resume a normal life as early as possible and have a beautiful and energetic living beyond cancer.
They sensitize and educate varied age groups about how to detect early signs of cancer and conduct screening camps to assess people’s health and detect signs of cancer if any. They also conduct self-examination sessions where both males and females are taught to identify any changes in their body that might turn malignant in the future. Besides, they also specialize in tobacco cessation, tobacco being the root cause of highest number of oral and lung cancer in India.
Their mission is to “SAVE the Youth” whereby they Sensitize children, adults, professionals, Organizations, Corporate, Institutes, Hospitals and Firms about the menace of tobacco, how to seek professional help to quit the tobacco habit; Assist in Tobacco Cessation; Prepare Volunteers to carry out engagement activities for encouraging tobacco free community and Enforce policies to make the Premise Tobacco Free.
They have a portal www.icancare.in and are extremely active on social media.
How did you come up with the idea of ICanCaRe?
In India, people procrastinate seeing a doctor and start living with the disease. A small itching in the body might be an early stage of skin cancer or constant cough might be the initial stage of TB or lung cancer. Simple symptoms are ignored and a patient sees a doctor only when the signs grow severe. By that time the damage is already done and huge resources and time are spent to get the disease treated. Our aim is to encourage people to stop living with the disease and get themselves cured in time to prevent heavy damages to both the patient and their family.
Besides, India is home to more than half the world’s oral cancer patients. India stands third for breast cancer and cervical and lung cancer is on the rise. There’s a huge gap in screening and early detection of this deadly disease, providing counselling for building strength in the patient’s mind and lack of awareness sessions to keep the people informed about the varied signs and symptoms of different forms of cancer. Tobacco is one of the major reasons of oral and lung cancer and is a severe menace the country is facing in the present era.
There are 266.8 million people in India using tobacco as per GATS-2 of which 232.4 million are daily users. Tobacco, the leading causes of oral and lung cancer, also causes other severe diseases like cardio-vascular disease, Stroke, TB, COPD, and many more non-communicable diseases. 1 million people die every year in India due to tobacco use and 5500 new users are added daily. 79% of deaths can be prevented if the use of tobacco is stopped in the country. More than that, the economic loss of billions of rupees can be prevented only by preventing the use of common forms of tobacco like bidi, cigarette, khaini, paan, ghutka and others. Currently, there is no ecosystem to rehabilitate the tobacco users from this deadly disease. India lacks tobacco education in its medical colleges. Besides, established doctors do not practice cessation. Only a few doctors are trained on cessation and perform counselling and pharmacotherapy properly. Others only give advice.
All this lack in capacity and technology for early detection of cancer and cessation, led us to establish ICanCaRe that can provide wellness services and save the country from this epidemic. Tobacco sickens a person, slowly poisoning them to death and leaves the family crippled. They entire family has to be saved!
What problems are ICanCaRe solving?
Mentioned below are the current gaps in the healthcare industry for cancer, tobacco and its related diseases. Our solutions strive to solve the same.
- No periodic screening camps or educational sessions for early detection of cancer
- No tobacco related education in medical institutes
- No technology support for cessation to both doctors and patients
- No dedicated portal to provide medication at the lowest price for treatment, cure, nutrition and rehabilitation from cancer, tobacco and its related diseases
- No state-of-the-art tobacco wellness and oral screening centers
- Very limited sensitization sessions for children and adults about lifestyle modification, self-examination, stress management, health and hygiene and avoiding common mistakes, early signs of cancer and many more
- No self-help resources available for assisting in de-addiction process
- No motivational merchandise or engagement activities to keep the patient motivated. That’s why relapse rate is high. We ensure the relapse rate is minimum
How does ICanCaRe work?
- We provide tobacco related education through our 3-day certificate course named “Certified Tobacco Cessation Specialist” and 1-day Orientation course named “Orientation Course in Tobacco Cessation”. Both are accredited by the University of Gujarat. IT helps the healthcare professionals learn about tobacco, cessation, counselling, pharmacotherapy, relapse prevention, treatment planning, oral lesions and diagnosis and documentation in detail.
- We have an e-cessation app that helps to perform cessation remotely and is first of its kind in India. It helps to perform protocol and evidence-based tobacco cessation. It is platform independent and is cloud based solution. It lets you check your willpower, expenditure, gives knowledge about impact of tobacco, and much more. It is available on Google Play Store for download and use.
- We also have a 24×7 e-portal www.icancare.org to provide medication, nutrition, rehabilitation and other health related products for cancer, tobacco and its related diseases at the best possible affordable price to resume a normal life after the disease
- We help in setting up of state-of the art tobacco wellness and oral screening centre by providing all the necessary equipment required for performing evidence based cessation.
- We have sensitization sessions for educating the masses about the menace and impact of tobacco through our mascot, Shrijay, a cute smiling boy.
- We have wide range of motivational merchandise to keep the tobacco users engaged and motivated at all times and is available on our e-portal
- We have self-help resources for doctors, patients and children to assist them in cessation. It is available in 5 regional languages – Hindi, English, Gujrati, Marathi and Odiya
- We conduct screening camps for varied organizations to check the health status of an individual and aware them about signs of cancer, if any
- We provide wellness services for Corporate and School for delivering an end-to-end fitness and wellness service in their premise
- We also organize boot camps for breaking free from a stressful and sedentary lifestyle at work.
What do you want to achieve from ICanCaRe? What is your larger goal or vision?
We want to setup an ecosystem for providing world class infrastructure for preventive care for cancer, tobacco and its related diseases. Through this business we aim to medicate, provide wellness, nutrition and rehabilitation to patients suffering from cancer, tobacco and its related diseases. We want to ensure that cancer is detected early so that the family is not devastated and crippled due to heavy losses in the future.
Our system will also help individuals quit their habit of tobacco with ease, provide medication at most affordable prices, educate the healthcare providers on performing cessation and prepare them with state-of-the-art infrastructure to perform evidence-based cessation. This program also aims to prevent children from getting into the habit of tobacco so that the no.of new tobacco users every day are reduced exponentially.
Who is your target Audience?
- All the tobacco users in the rural and urban regions
- Doctors who are oncologists, pulmonologists, cardiologists, general physicians, Homeopathy, Ayurvedic, Placebos and Quacks
- Corporate and schools health assessment and screening
- People from the community across varied socio-economic group
What are your geographical target areas?
ICanCaRe is operational in Faridabad, Delhi NCR and Hyderabad and we intend to expand in these regions full-fledged first. In phase 2 we will target other metro cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Coimbatore and other tier 1 cities.
What is the revenue model of ICanCaRe?
We earn out of the e-portal and the sensitization sessions and in the future it will expand to cessation courses, corporate wellness program and school wellness programs.
What best Marketing practices/tools that you always rely on the business development, marketing, and branding?
It is mix of digital and social media marketing. We mostly engage through email marketing, whatsapp messages and print media like pamphlets and brochures.
How do you plan to market ICanCaRe?
Through print media like pamphlets and brochures. By email marketing and active discussion on social media.
What is your competitive advantage?
We have a full proof ecosystem for tobacco cessation where certificate course and e-cessation app are first of its kind in India. Besides we have multiple self-help resources and motivational merchandise available for doctors, patients and children in multiple regional language. We also specialize in state-of-the-art infrastructure setup for tobacco wellness and oral cessation centre. We have a cute mascot with a smiling face who is very well accepted in the society than the grisly pictures of tobacco use.
What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years and 10 years?
We want to associate with more doctors and upgrade their skills to performing cessation in the Faridabad, Delhi NCR and Hyderabad in next 2 years. Build network to deploy corporate wellness and school wellness in 5 years. Train 1500 doctors and medical students on cessation. Develop 100 wellness centres. Expand in 10 more tier 1 cities.
And in next 10 years: As the leader of providing tobacco cessation and the first choice for delivering sensitization talk, school wellness and corporate wellness program. First choice of customers for quality preventive care and pioneers of innovative solutions for delivering cessation into the existent healthcare system with minimum investment and maximum results.
