healthtech kudis going straight to the source of innovation by recruiting at universities
Contxto – Kuidis is a Mexican health marketplace that has thrived by branching out into educational, supply, insurance, and—obviously—health services sectors. Through the clever and integrated use of technology, almost four-year-old startup has sought to digitize, facilitate entry into the health ecosystem in terms of physical and financial accessibility.
For patients, the system is designed so that they are able to book and pay for a physical or virtual checkup, all online.
Kuidis wants to be the company to create the first health service ecosystem in the country. And, to achieve this they have opted to recruit universities—over 50 of them as it stands—and their fledgling doctors.
An uncertain diagnosis
Unlike what you would tend to expect with a healthtech startup, the primary customers here aren’t only the patients. It’s also the doctors, pharmacists, and other medical professionals they’re after.
Their business model is multifaceted and intensely diversified. Kuidis is part medical supplies e-commerce retailer, part medical lab, part learning platform, part insurance provider, as well as being part doctor’s office.
Yet, it is this last aspect which is perhaps the most interesting—and potentially sensitive—offer on Kuidis’ large spread of products.
Interesting because the startup does a lot of its recruitment directly from universities, which makes good sense for both the company and the doctors. Imagine being a new-fangled doctor, who may well be a dab hand at in her bedside manner, but who may not know the first thing about how to enter the job market.
Yet, this is where it gets potentially sensitive as well.
Take a job listing on Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM) official page. It posts a staggering 500 vacancies at Kuidis, but unlike other offers, the salary section is left numberless. Instead, the text reads: “The cost of your hourly rate.”
In a saturated and low-paid medical labor market, such as Mexico’s, this formula could lead to a race to the bottom regarding salaries that no one would like to see.
One would like to think this is a win-win for everyone, so long as these doctors are not induced into a strange type of “medical gig economy”, especially for their being so green in the labor force.
The last thing we’d like to see is a Rappi-type conflict, with underpaid kuididoctores—as opposed to rappitenderos—running around town.
Related articles: Tech and startups in Mexico!
-AG
