At 50, when most people plan their retirement, Dr Prathap Chandra Reddy revolutionised healthcare in India. Reddy turns 90 on Monday and he is as active as he was when he launched India’s first private sector hospital in 1983. The Apollo group has now grown into a chain of hospitals, pharmacies, and diagnostic labs. In an interview to Teena Thacker, Reddy says on his birthday he is excited to gift the Clinical Intelligence Engine (CIE), an app for the doctors, which will assist them in taking precise clinical decisions. Edited Excerpts:

What is the secret of your energy. What keeps you going?
My energy is my patient. Asking myself what more can I do for him. Every year I ask my people the three wishes that I have: the patient-first concept. The second is, what more have you done from last year till now? What better things have you done for people? And third, have you adapted to challenges. The healthcare has new challenges. We saw Covid, which we never expected. But government and private healthcare have done enormous work to make India proudThe World Economic Forum, the UN, the World Health Organisation have been saying that the world will face a crisis with non-communicable diseases. So my wish is, how is Apollo going to tackle this? We have provided a new mantra, called ProHealth. It is a one-time health record of yours on your phone. I think if the government, public and the private, all together work, we can make India as a global healthcare destination. This is what I suggested to the prime minister and I’m happy the government is working on it. India should become the healthcare capital of the world. This is not my dream. This is not my wish. This is our goal.

You have four daughters, and all are involved in Apollo. But is there any succession plan that you have in your mind?
All of my girls started out even when some of them were still in college. They started have taken the hospital from 300 beds to 12,000, and done remarkable things. Each one of them has made a significant contribution. They have a good team with them; things are happening.

Are your grandchildren entering Apollo?
They are slowly getting in, they are still in college. We will see more involvement from them also in the hospitals.

Apollo hasn’t been able to tap the rural market. Is there any plan to penetrate into tier-II and tier-III cities or do you think you are reaching that market through artificial intelligence?

Today. we do the largest telemedicine in the world. With artificial intelligence, it is going to become much more viable.Any coming projects for tier-II and tier-III cities?
To do a hospital, there are three requisites that are necessary. You need to have a good hospital built with modern technology, second is to enable it with connectivity to all our hospitals so that every patient receives best possible advice. And the third most important is that the whole team, not just the doctors, must have this.