By Carina Kohli
The landscape of the Indian healthcare sector has significantly changed over the last decade. The pandemic catalysed innovation and growth in this sector: digitalisation of healthcare, smartphone penetration, government initiatives, funding of research and development, vaccine discoveries – all on acceleration has transformed the healthcare industry globally. The healthcare sector has become one of largest sectors of revenue and employment in India. With a boom in innovation, significant change, as well as new discoveries – the trajectory for the Indian healthcare sector looks very promising.
For hundreds of years healthcare was experientially looked at as physical. However, in the last 20 years there has been a movement towards holistic care that emphasises that the mental and emotional aspects of health are equally important to physical health. The traditional form of healthcare focused on in-person hospitals, clinics or facilities. The move towards digital health was launched a decade ago with many benefits such as convenience, lower costs, saving time and ensuring privacy. Though telemedicine in India has existed well before the Covid-19 pandemic, the uptake and the adoption of digital health became extremely prominent in 2020. 2020 also brought on a wave of health awareness and consciousness, with people looking for healthier alternatives, hands-on solutions and new options they could try – this demand propelled a boom in innovation: start-ups solving different problems through technology, and a new focus in therapeutics and preventative based care. The telemedicine market in India is expected to grow to $5.4 Billion USD by 2025, with CAGR of 31%, higher than ever before.
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed gaps and discrepancies in access, affordability, equity and awareness of healthcare in India. Digital healthcare initiatives such as National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) and E-Sanjeevani: the governments free telemedicine service India have significantly helped reduce the gap in access to healthcare between urban and rural areas in India. The rise of Indian healthcare startups providing digital healthcare solutions using technology, AI and innovation have assisted in bridging the gap in India’s healthcare sector focusing on improving quality, reducing costs, increasing health equity, equality and access and improving efficiency. The focus on not just urgent physical care, but all aspects of health, such as mental, emotional, fitness, lifestyle diseases, hormones, maternity, fertility, family building, women’s health, preventative healthcare, therapeutics and holistic care is a new development in healthcare. The initiatives and progress in the space don’t just focus on healthcare for tier 1 and tier 2, but focus on healthcare for tier 3 and rural India – prioritising uncompromised healthcare for all.
There is a boom in exploration in AI and Machine Learning (ML), of which the application into healthtech advances improvements in automation, diagnostics, consults, precision in delicate surgeries, and personalised healthcare. Blockchain in healthcare can be used for various aspects from securing patient data to managing the pharmaceutical supply chain. Security and privacy are especially important in relation to the healthcare industry. One of the most vital applications of blockchain is keeping medical data safe and secure. Blockchain ensures that patient data is maintained in a decentralised and incorruptible manner, which is an essential functionality of security applications. With the implementation of blockchain in the healthcare industry, medical data is stored in a decentralised network instead of a central server, which reduces the opportunities for hackers to access and tamper. Blockchain, when integrated appropriately, can improve, innovate and benefit healthcare to a great extent by improving data security and maintaining 24/7 continuous data monitoring, improving drug safety, streamlining various processes such as insurance claims, and benefits eligibility verification, billing and scheduling.
Although there have been significant advances in the healthcare industry there is still a long way to go and room for improvement. Existing pain points include the urban-rural healthcare discrepancy, the lack of health equity and equal access, the stigma and bias around several areas in healthcare, the lack of awareness and education of preventative and affirming healthcare. There is an absence of proactive healthcare and support in corporate India related to family-building care, women’s health and lifestyle disease-related issues. Healthcare and wellbeing prioritisation and initiatives in the workplace such as better healthcare policies, judgment-free and confidential healthcare options that are inclusive, personal and holistic are key to long-term well-being and sustaining growth.
As India continues to adapt to the rapid integration of technology and innovation into its healthcare sector, some expected trends to look forward to in the coming future are a focus in preventative holistic care, digital healthcare, therapeutics, lifestyle and disease management, use of AI, ML and blockchain in end to end healthcare processes, automation and improvement in data and digital health records storage, omni-channel healthcare delivery, more initiatives and a global expansion of Indian healthtech startups. This is truly the beginning of a new era of healthcare in India and healthcare in the world.
The author is founder, Humm Care