GOQii partners with ‘Walk with a Doc’ initiative in Mumbai

Walk with a Doc, a movement started by Dr. David Sabgir, a cardiologist in Ohio, USA, has now made its way in to India. Spread across 6 countries, the first edition of the movement in Mumbai, India was hosted by Dr. Aashish Contractor, Head of Department, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine at Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital on June 18^th 2017. GOQii, the world’s leading health eco-system and preventive healthcare platform, has partnered with this unique initiative and pledged its support to organize more such events across the country.

The 60-minute-long walk started at 7 am from NCPA and covered a distance of 5 kilometers on NCPA-Marine Drive promenade and ended back at NCPA at8 am. The walk saw a large turnout people who are patients of Dr. Contractor and also included GOQii players.

The walk began with Dr Aashish taking the participants through the basics of understanding the heart and how to measure Pulse rate. In all, 50-people attended the first walk. Dr. Bipin Chandra Bhambre, Dr. Jaini Patel, Dr. Chandan Poddar and Dr. Richa Nadkarni from Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital along with Dr. Akshat Chadha from GOQii attended the walk as well. The walk concluded with distribution of healthy refreshments such as fruits and water and a summation by Dr. Contractor. The idea of walking with a doctor is to encourage people to give up the sedentary lifestyle and focus on healthy living.

“It was wonderful to see the enthusiastic response of the patients, despite rainy weather. They enjoyed the walk and were interested in both, learning and walking more,” said Dr Aashish Contractor.

Dr. David Sabgir, Founder WWAD said on its India launch, “We are excited about the completion of the first Walk with a Doc in India. We are thrilled and humbled to see WWAD transform hundreds of new communities across the world. The opportunity to collaborate with the great physicians of India is a tremendous honour that we will never take for granted.”

“We are delighted the maiden walk of Walk With A Doc in India was such a success. To see over 50 walkers come together on a Sunday morning for listening to and walking with Dr Aashish Contractor was nothing short of exhilarating. We have a large number of people with Hypertension, Diabetes & several other lifestyle related disorders in India & act of walking is one of the simplest ways a person can be active. And all the benefits of walking begin by taking just a few determined steps. We took the first step on Sunday & clocked approximately 1,50,000 steps walking together. That’s Walking the Walk! We look forward to more physicians joining us in conducting the walks regularly & helping patients inculcate walking into their daily lives,” said Rajashree Menon, Walk Leader-Walk with A Doc India.  “Thank you Walkers, Dr Aashish Contractor, Team GoQii, Team Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital for making the maiden walk possible,” she added.

Vishal Gondal, CEO and Founder, said “GOQii advocates healthy living and preventive healthcare. I am thankful to Dr Contractor who spearhead the first edition in India. We will now work towards organizing more such Walks and truly bringing this health movement to India”

“WWAD is an excellent idea for making the concept of "Practice what you Preach" genuine. As a doctor, I keep telling all my patients to get up and get moving but that doesn't mean that they do it. Seeing the doctor walk alongside, gives the due importance to being physically active along with the creating a bond with the patient by breaking the doctor-patient barrier. I was excited that I could help out the patients in such a fun and non-serious setting. Looking forward to doing it again and again and again,” says Dr Akshat Chadha, Head of Medical Services at GOQii Technologies Inc.

Walkers who attended the walk were enthusiastic and said that the initiative of walking with a doc was brilliant. They felt that the whole walk was so different from all other walks that they had attended. All of them congratulated the team to start something like this in India.

“I like this idea of walking with the doctor. I was able to talk to him when I walked along,” said one of the walker and asked when was the next walk?’

“I would like to have tips regarding walking to help lose weight, the walker said pointing to his wearable watch. How should I pace myself?” said another walker who participated in the Walk with A Doc. Most walkers wanted to get tips on walking.

WWAD program aims to reimagine healthcare between doctors and their communities. Initiatives like WWAD will have great significance in India where the people are at high risk due to sedentary lifestyle and the doctor to patient ratio is lower than WHO recommendation. WWAD aims to bridge the gap between the doctor and the community to promote preventive healthcare.