Posted On: 2021-03-11 04:43:50
What is crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is a worldwide concept that has a long history and several roots, it is when the crowd collects or donates funds to a campaign for a certain cause. It can be generalized into 3 sections, the first section is of the individuals, group of individuals or organization starting the campaign, the second section is of the people who support the needy or support the cause and contribute funds for the campaigns, and lastly and most importantly the medium in most cases it is the website that brings both the donor and receiver party together. One of the notable impacts of offline crowdfunding has been the assembling and installation of the Statue of Liberty where the government of the United States of America was not able to provide funds for the project of the monument and through a newspaper advertisement, 160,000 citizens came together to fund the project.
Crowdfunding in the Health Sector
Crowdfunding in the health sector is used to raise funds for medical care or related expenses. In recent years, crowdfunding gained admiration especially in countries without universal healthcare coverage. Though, these universal healthcare coverages do not cover the medical charges of everyone. The same goes with the health insurance funds as they too do not cover all medical expenses. With the help of crowdfunding, it becomes easier to raise funds online for patients who cannot raise funds for their treatment.
It is a fantastic platform for receiving funds without even taking loans or paying EMIs. Investments or donations are usually made through online platforms, which then organize and manage the funds. The Healthcare sector is one of the domains that benefit the most from Online Crowdfunding platforms, largely because numerous patients (the crowd) have a humanitarian interest in healthcare issues and often show compassion to the patients. In Crowdfunding, neither the campaigner nor the donor has any age, religion, caste, creed, or relation barrier. The true purpose of the campaign is to raise funds without any restriction. According to the article by Entrepreneur India, Healthcare crowdfunding is growing enormously as crowdfunding platforms are raising crores of rupees every week for medical causes.
You may have come across ads on the internet that displays messages that say “My child's life is at stake, please help me or my baby will lose her life". They are followed by images of a critically ill person and his or her sorrowful family members. These intensely touching cases are usually a form of crowdfunded healthcare i.e. raising funds online to pay for someone’s medical expenses. Unfortunately, it is often the only option left for people who are in dire need of medical funds.
According to an article in "The Hindu", in the year 2015, a Hepatologist (liver surgeon) and her team at Aster Hospital in Bengaluru were most likely the first doctors in India to set up a campaign on a crowdfunding platform for a transplant. The transplant was of a Foundry worker’s daughter who wasn’t able to pay for the transplant which made Dr. Asthana and her team reach out for the option of crowdfunding. She explained, “It was unacceptable that a foundry worker’s daughter would not get her transplant because her father earned just ?7,000 a month. We have the facilities”.
Since 2013, Dr. Asthana has been working with private foundations and CSR teams of corporate hospitals to fund liver transplants. In 2018, 51 liver transplants took place and among these transplants, seven of them were crowdfunded.
Simran Ansari, an 8-year-old young girl, caught fire from garbage burning nearby while she was returning home from the grocery shop. She tried to stop the fire but failed to do it on her own. Soon she was found and was immediately rushed to the nearby “ Family Care Hospital” where her treatment was started. She suffered from a total of 48 % burn which critically affected her waist, feet, leg, and her back. She was instantly taken to the ICU. As she was unable to breathe, she was helped with artificial ventilators, for her nutritional needs she was dependent on saline drips. Her condition was critical for her age. Due to the intense burn skin grafting was needed to be carried out. Her father is the sole breadwinner of the family and he was a taxi driver so he couldn't bear the expenses of his daughter’s treatment. Taking into consideration the situation Family Care Hospital reached out to the Child Help Foundation where the partial cost of the treatment was successfully raised on the crowdfunding platform. After a month of prosperous treatment was entirely recovered and now is back to her normal life. Who would have taught that with help of the crowdfunding platform we could save lives!
Sashi Gupta, (another great example of how crowdfunding helps in raising funds) a 3-year-old baby boy of Amit Gupta (father) who is a driver, and mother Arti Gupta who is a homemaker. Sashi is the youngest child with two elder brothers. At the age of 2-year-old, he started falling ill often. When his parents took him to the local physician and provided him with the prescribed medicines he used to get better for a few days but then soon fell ill again. This process continued till one day his mother noticed dark spots developing on his body. His parents got worried and rushed him to the local hospital where he went through a couple of tests. When the tests returned it was confirmed that Sashi had blood cancer. For his treatment, he was shifted to Rainbow Children’s Hospital, where they were informed that the estimated cost of his treatment would be around 6 lakhs. As his father is the sole income producer in the family of 7, it is out of the question for him to cover the cost of his son’s treatment. With the help of Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Sashi’s family came forward to ask for the funds needed for their child’s treatment on Filaantro (Crowdfunding platform) through the Child Help Foundation. Sashi is still in need of treatment and you can save his life, click on the link to support Shashi fight the battle.
https://filaantro.org/fundraiser/view/shashi
Crowdfunding has proved to be a blessing for projects in life sciences or other similar projects which lack enough funds. It saves time from tedious paperwork and helps upfront without any returns. Funding study projects that could direct to better treatments or find cures for deadly diseases. The crowd reaches together to support fund solutions for the world’s most dangerous and virulent diseases. Multiple biotech companies need tens of millions of money before they can get their products to the market, these amounts can make a big difference at the beginning of the journey of a young biotech startup or the existing research. Example
Urodelia, a biotech startup developing innovative drugs against cancer fund (€800,000 raised).
Antabio, a biotech startup developing innovative drugs to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections (Source: over blog).
Sometimes, it is difficult for these companies to raise capital for continued development. It is a great opportunity for new investors to invest in companies working on treatments close to their hearts. Some families who have or know cancer patients, won’t hesitate to invest in a company working to find a cure for the disease.
Crowdfunding is proving to be a salvation in the healthcare sector, especially for scientific study and research projects which require excessive funding. Projects that are more helpful than commercials, such as research on cancer treatments, and the other most deadly diseases which require widespread research for finding cures and possible treatments.
FUNDS
On the crowdfunding websites, the individual requesting funds explains his/her need and submits the required documents. The documents are then cross-checked with the hospital before putting up the case on the website to verify the documents and prevent scams from happening.
There are certain ways in which you can obtain reach on a particular campaign, medical cases usually have a constrained time frame with a large number of funds needed. This requirement varies as per the patients' needs and the donors can contribute without any limit. But, it is uncommon for a campaign in crowdfunding to fund the entire cost of the treatment as there are certain risks associated with the online methods. to understand the risks read "Understanding Crowdfunding". The average campaign adds up to 40% of donations such as trust, government funds such as the Chief Minister's relief funds, as well as the hospital’s own CSR funds. But in a few extremely sensitive cases 100% of the donations are raised by crowdfunding platforms.
Hence, crowdfunding has revolutionized the healthcare industry, not only through funding research projects but also in a way saving and enhancing the quality of lives and reaching out to those who are in desperate need of getting treatments and paying their medical bills
Author : Hritika Singh & Lubdha Dhanopia
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