By Rohit Sathe
As the international pandemic raged across the globe, we saw in 2020 the resilience and courage of folks, patients, and healthcare experts who had been in the frontlines of the fight against COVID 19. The Indian government had recognised the prospective of digital technologies in enhancing the healthcare landscape in the nation early on. The launch of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) and National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) underscore the worth that the government attaches to the digitisation of healthcare. Digital transformation had been on the agenda of healthcare providers for years—yet, in spite of substantial progress across the business, complete rethinking of healthcare for the digital age usually remained an elusive lengthy-term target.
It is right here that Covid-19 supplied a tailwind to the want for reinforcing the part of digital technologies in enhancing India’s healthcare.
One of the most substantial trends that we have observed is that care is moving towards patients in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Earlier patients from these cities would come to tier-I cities for remedy with COVID-19 that was not attainable. What is taking place now is that tier-2 and tier-3 cities are creating capacity to treat patients with diagnosis getting completed by specialists in tier-1 cities. Much of this is taking place by way of the web and usually manifests itself in the type of e-consultations, tele medicine and other such types of intervention. And this genuinely is the idea of connected care exactly where eICUs, NICUs (neonatal ICUs) and Remote Operating Centres (ROCs) can be monitored by specialists who are not genuinely in the identical geographic place. India at present has more than 11.5 lakh physicians, more than 25,000 government hospitals and more than 7 lakh beds in these hospitals. These sizeable assets, which are getting enhanced upon, can be extended and more optimally utilised by employing digital approaches to healthcare. Today, you could quickly have an complete chain of NICUs in a tier-2 city obtaining its young patients getting monitored by best-notch intensivists from a metro. A option driven method, exactly where merchandise and services are bundled with each other, delivered by way of new mediums can drastically alter the healthcare landscape for the superior in the coming days!
A second trend that we are observing, mainly because of digitisation, is the on the internet education and education of health-related experts. Earlier, most education was in individual. Now, due to the higher use of the on the internet medium, for which Covid-19 has been to a fantastic extent accountable, on the internet education is gaining acceptance e-Learning and the use of simulators are a lot more prevalent and acceptable currently. New technologies in simulation like haptic feedback make for more realistic on the internet education. With haptic feedback, trainees can get an expertise of touch to realistically simulate the jerks and vibrations which would otherwise be skilled by a surgeon through surgery.
A associated trend is that with the want for higher accreditation, hospitals and physicians are investing in understanding to be on par with international requirements. What we saw in the final year was an abundance of webinars and on the internet discussions—all fantastic forums for practicing physicians to participate in and get updated on the newest methods in medicine and surgery. This undoubtedly final results in superior diagnosis and care.
Coming back to the NDHM (which saw more than 1 lakh well being IDs getting made inside a month of its launch), it supplies a stellar advantage in making certain the protected and safe availability of patient health-related records across the nation. This tremendously empowers the medical doctor as he can now overview the complete continuum of previous diagnosis and remedy to diagnose superior and make a decision on a course of future care.
Lastly, NDHM also encourages hospitals to standardise themselves. If we are searching at technologies and digitisation as a pathway for care in the coming days, standardisation is a must. It is, by itself, one of the single most essential preparatory measures for the next phase of healthcare in India.
What is clear from the trends discussed above is that we are moving towards the digital transformation of healthcare. We are searching at a future exactly where connected care becomes the norm and patients are no longer constrained by geography when it comes to accessing care. We are searching at a future exactly where our physicians and hospitals are effectively equipped to provide precise diagnosis and remedy to patients employing the newest in on the internet and collaboration technologies. Most of the policies to allow this adjust are in location. What’s necessary now is the will and determination to embrace this adjust and provide superior care to Indians in the coming days.
The author is Vice-president (well being systems), Philips Indian Subcontinent