Omar Najid (Docline): from replacing paper with digital health that serves in 48 hours

The Bankinter Innovation Foundation’s “Coffee with Entrepreneurs” initiative brings you closer to leaders in the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem to learn first-hand about their trajectories, learnings and vision of the future.

Our latest Coffee was with Omar Najid, CEO and co-founder of Docline, a startup that has revolutionized the digital health sector by becoming one of the leading digital hospitals in Spain, which has begun its international expansion, including Latin America and Morocco, as part of its global growth strategy. From its beginnings digitizing private medical prescriptions to becoming a comprehensive platform that works with insurers, hospitals, pharmacies and companies, Docline has been able to adapt to the market and scale in one of the most complex and regulated sectors.

In his conversation with José Carlos Huerta, our Director of the Startups Program, and Carlos Montalvo, a member of the team, Omar shares with us what his personal journey has been like from Morocco to leading a cutting-edge healthtech in Malaga, the challenges of entrepreneurship in a demanding sector such as health, the role of artificial intelligence and medical devices in the future of medicine, as well as his vision on financing in digital health and the importance of venture capital and banking in the growth of startups.

Omar is an entrepreneur who has achieved something unusual: transforming a real need into a scalable, useful solution backed by large corporations in the health sector. Docline is today one of the leading digital hospitals in Spain. Its history is marked by resilience, continuous learning and the ability to execute with focus. This is his career, as told by himself.

Here you can see the Coffee with Omar Najid:

Coffee with Omar Najid, CEO and Co Founder Docline

From Morocco to Spain: the story behind the entrepreneur

Omar Najid arrived in Spain from Morocco at the age of 17. He studied Business in Granada and spent a key stage in England, where he studied a Bachelor’s degree and experienced his first cultural and professional shock with a completely different environment.

It was 2008, a complicated time to enter the labor market. While some of his colleagues were joining family businesses, he decided to try his luck on his own. This is how his first project was born, an international consultancy focused on helping Spanish companies expand in Morocco, a country he knew well. For five years, that adventure allowed him to see up close what works and what doesn’t when a company tries to jump country without preparation. He learned as he went, making mistakes, correcting, listening to the customer.

The leap into technology and the beginning of Docline

Despite having no technical background, Omar has always been passionate about technology. A self-confessed early adopter , he tried all the tools, apps and platforms that fell into his hands. At a time of saturation with traditional consulting, he sold his stake and moved to the world of technology consulting, in the midst of the boom of mobile applications.

It was then that she met her current partner, Roberto Medina, a doctor by profession. Together they launched a digital project consultancy focused on health. From several commissions, and after detecting a specific need that Roberto experienced first-hand as a doctor, the idea of Docline emerged: a platform to digitize private medical prescriptions.

From an idea to a startup (with many curves along the way)

Docline was born in 2015 as a SaaS for doctors in the private sector. In Spain, where the public health system is strong, there is also private healthcare that covers more than 12 million people. That was the target market. The first product allowed doctors to issue electronic prescriptions legally, securely, and efficiently, without relying on traditional paperwork.

The need was real, but the market was not prepared. Doctors were unwilling to digitize their processes, and medical colleges still operated with analog bureaucracy. The timing was not adequate. And as Omar says, in startups it is not enough to have a good idea; You also have to have the right timing and the ability to execute.

During those early years, Docline couldn’t find traction. Despite having developed the technology, adoption was scarce. That led them to rethink the business model and pivot towards a B2B strategy. Instead of selling doctor to doctor, they would start offering their platform to large insurers, hospital groups, pharmacies and companies. This way, they could scale faster, gain volume, and focus on what they did best: technology.

What is Docline today: a white-label digital hospital

Docline has established itself as a comprehensive digital health platform. It offers video medical consultations, electronic prescriptions, digital medical records, medical chat and connection with the more than 22,000 pharmacies in Spain. All this with a customization layer that allows companies to use the platform with their own branding, integrating it into their existing services.

This approach has allowed Docline to work with companies such as IVI, Vithas, MAPFRE and other major players in the healthcare sector. But beyond the names, what is relevant is the impact.

Docline doesn’t just digitize processes. It radically improves the experience of the patient, the doctor, and the corporations that provide health services.

What it brings to insurers and companies

In the case of insurers, Docline has become an ally in reducing medical costs and waiting lists. Its platform allows it to offer remote medical services in a scalable, efficient and fully integrated way into the ecosystem of each insurer.

For companies that offer health services to their employees, Docline represents a flexible, adaptable and modern solution. Many organizations that have corporate health insurance have found in this platform a way to expand coverage, eliminate travel and facilitate access to professionals from different specialties. In addition, the ability to provide medical care in less than 48 hours makes a key difference compared to the traditional system.

The Value for Physicians

One of the pillars of Docline is its relationship with healthcare professionals. Far from trying to replace them, the platform is designed to empower their work, reduce their administrative burden, and allow them to focus on what really matters: patient care.

Doctors who use Docline have a professional, agile, frictionless technological tool that allows them to carry out video consultations, issue electronic prescriptions and access the patient’s medical history from a single environment. According to Omar, many doctors especially value the possibility of combining face-to-face consultation with digital consultation, without duplicating efforts.

The use case for dermatology and other specialties

One of the specialties that has best fit into the Docline model is dermatology. It is a very visual area, where often a quality image can be enough to diagnose or monitor effectively. This has made it possible to implement a very powerful remote care model, which has reduced waiting times and improved the patient experience.

The same happens with other specialties such as psychology, endocrinology or general medicine. In many of them, face-to-face attendance is not an essential requirement to offer quality care. And in all of them, digitalisation allows for better time management and greater continuity in monitoring.

Artificial intelligence, yes. But with clinical sense

Omar Najid is not a technologist without context. He knows that, in health, technology is a means, not an end. And that artificial intelligence does not come to replace the doctor, but to enhance his or her capacity to work.

During the interview, he insists on the importance of implementing AI with a practical and medical approach. Docline is integrating artificial intelligence functionalities that improve the patient experience, streamline clinical processes and assist healthcare professionals in tasks such as managing medical history, symptom classification or image analysis.

However, he also warns against the risk of hype. “In health, we cannot play AI without medical supervision. There has to be clinical evidence, safety and regulation. It’s not about launching a pretty chatbot, it’s about providing real value,” he explains.

In the case of specialties such as dermatology or general medicine, AI can help to prediagnose or refer better, but always with a doctor behind it. The objective is to free the professional from repetitive tasks, without compromising the quality of care. According to Omar, the most interesting technologies are those that are integrated into the clinical flow without friction, without disturbing, and that provide useful and actionable information.

In addition to this first avenue – focused on assisting the professional from within the flow of care – Omar speaks of a second emerging approach: the development of connected medical devices capable of generating automatic clinical decisions. This is where opportunities are opening up with wearables, smart sensors and devices that measure vital signs in real time. If they are approved, and comply with regulatory standards, they can activate alerts or even manage referrals to the health system autonomously.

This is especially promising in areas such as cardiology, diabetes management or postoperative follow-up, where a device can detect abnormalities before the patient even notices them. But, Omar warns, this approach implies a great responsibility: “To talk about devices that make decisions is to talk about medicine, not just technology. Here AI is not just an assistant, it can be an actor. And that requires clinical testing, regulation, and above all ethics.”

Both approaches – AI as the doctor’s co-pilot and AI embedded in smart devices – are complementary. And, according to Omar, they will mark the development of the sector in the coming years. The key will be how they are integrated, validated and adopted in the clinical day-to-day without ever losing sight of what is essential: people’s health.

The great challenge: to attend in less than 48 hours

One of the objectives that the Docline team has set itself is to ensure that any patient can be seen in less than 48 hours by video consultation. This standard is radically different from the traditional system, where waiting lists can be weeks or even months.

Achieving this goal requires a robust technological architecture, an available network of professionals and highly optimized internal processes. But it also implies a clear vision: that digital health must not only replicate what already exists, but improve it.

Omar insists: “The objective is not to digitize for the sake of digitizing. It is to radically improve the experience of doctor and patient. And that means making things simpler, faster and more humane.”

The pandemic as an accelerator (but not as an origin)

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many startups in the healthcare sector began to be born or scale at full speed. In the case of Docline, the advantage was that they had already been developing their platform for years, validating use cases and creating alliances. So when the market exploded, they were prepared.

They went from hundreds to thousands of consultations. They scaled their team, their infrastructure and their medical network. It was a real-time validation of the robustness of the model.

Venture Capital in Health: A Different League

Another key issue that came up in the café was that of financing. Docline, like many startups, has raised capital to grow. But the path in the health sector is not like in other verticals.

Omar explains that raising rounds in health requires patience, data and trust. “This is not e-commerce. Here you don’t scale in 3 months and you do an exit in 2 years. In health, cycles are long, regulation is complex, and validation takes time. But if you do things right, you create a lot of value.”

In his experience, venture capital funds that invest in health often ask for more evidence and more traction before entering. They also place a high value on the founding team, product strength and strategic partnerships. In the case of Docline, having worked with large MAPFRE companies was a very strong argument when it came to closing investments.

Omar also details how the process changes depending on the phase. A Seed round usually focuses on the vision, founding team, and market potential. There, investors trust people more than metrics, because the product is still in development. A Series A , on the other hand, is a league of its own: it requires clear traction, relevant customers, growth metrics, and a proven scalability plan. “In Serie A it is no longer enough to promise; You have to show that your model works and that you are capable of multiplying with more capital,” he explains.

Here Omar highlights something less common in entrepreneurial discourse: the key role of banks in the growth of startups. Banking, he says, should not only be seen as a traditional financier, but also as an actor that can accompany the development of the ecosystem, build bridges with large corporations and support entrepreneurs in critical phases of growth.

In this sense, the work of Bankinter and its Innovation Foundation has been differential in Spain. Through programmes such as Startups or Scaleup Spain Network, the Foundation provides knowledge, networking and strategic support. Omar himself recalls how his time in the Scaleup Spain Network was key to accessing high-level contacts and accelerating Docline’s growth. “Capital is important, but just as important is to have institutions next to you that open doors and help you professionalize your project,” he said.

His message to entrepreneurs in the sector is clear: raising capital in health is more difficult, but also more sustainable. And, above all, it has a real impact on people’s lives. And if you add to that the support of institutions such as the Bankinter Innovation Foundation, the chances of success multiply.

Lessons as an entrepreneur: focus, persistence, team and culture

During the conversation, Omar shares several key lessons. The first is the importance of focus. In the health sector there are many opportunities, but also many distractions. Knowing how to say “no” is as important as knowing how to execute.

The second lesson is persistence. Entrepreneurship in health is slow. There are regulations, bureaucracy, cultural resistance. But if the purpose is clear, the reward comes.

The third is the value of the team. An entrepreneur cannot do everything. Surrounding yourself with people who complement your skills, who share the vision and who stand firm in difficult times, is key to building something that lasts.

At this point, Omar placed special emphasis on culture and values as central elements of the success of any startup. It’s not just about hiring brilliant professionals, it’s about making sure they fit in with the company’s mission and the way you work in it. Each incorporation, he says, can reinforce or erode the existing culture, and that is why it is so important to take care of the selection process and the accompaniment of new signings. “You can have the best technical talent in the world, but if they don’t share your values, they will end up being a brake instead of a driver,” he stresses.

For Omar, culture is not an intangible: it is the glue that binds the team together, what gives coherence to difficult decisions and what keeps the vision alive even in moments of maximum uncertainty.

The future of health: interoperability, prevention and personalisation

Omar has a clear vision of the future of the sector. For him, health must be increasingly interoperable: the medical record must travel with the patient, not stay in a consultation. It should also be more preventive: not waiting for a problem, but anticipating. And it must be personalized: adapt the treatment to the profile and context of each person.

Technology, he insists, does not replace the doctor. But it can multiply its impact. And if used well, it can improve the lives of millions of people.

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