In an ever-evolving and growing healthcare industry facing an unprecedented pace of technological innovations, Durable Medical Equipment/Home Medical Equipment billing (DME/HME billing) has become highly complex and time-consuming. Effective DME/HME business management to ensure streamlined revenue-cycle management requires time and resources, making it an increasingly challenging task for healthcare providers.

The answer to this challenge is outsourcing billing needs, a practice that has been in vogue in western countries for a long time and is becoming increasingly popular in India of late. The key to greater adoption of medical billing outsourcing is the growing realization of the multiple advantages it offers:

Benefits of Medical Billing Outsourcing for Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers can avail of several benefits of medical billing outsourcing, such as below:

1. DME/HME can Focus on Business Development

The most significant advantage of medical billing outsourcing is that it relieves administrative and back-end burden on the DME/HME staff. It also allows them to focus on other critical aspects, including communication and due diligence of submitted documents. The outsourced staff is also trained thoroughly for the order-taking process.

2. Better Quality Checks and Simplified Processes

The billing process requires due diligence and an in-depth understanding of various processes such as insurance verification. Submission of incomplete or inaccurate information can lead insurance companies to delay or even deny payment, which can prove very costly for the DME/HME. Outsourcing can altogether avoid this situation as it helps streamline information management and processing to ensure more accurate and complete claim applications.

3. Trained and Expert Staff at Lesser Costs

Considering COVID-19 pandemic induced layoffs by many companies, outsourced medical billing assistance can help businesses avail themselves of the right expertise without scrambling to arrange for it in-house. This benefit also allows enterprises to avoid making new investments in training their staff and enhancing their skills to the desired levels.

4. Latest Infrastructure and Technology Assistance

Also, outsourced assistance enables businesses to hit top gear right from the start. The facility also allows DME/HME access to infrastructure without the need to make any capital investments, frees them from the hassles of system maintenance and updates, and allows them the leverage to offer service extensions to clients.

5. Compliance with HIPAA Guidelines and Other Regulatory Norms

Efficient medical billing processes, compliances with various regulatory norms, and vulnerability management are critical for DME/HME businesses to ensure growth and stability. Yet, none of these is possible without having experienced resources with the right skillsets at one’s disposal. Outsourced billing assistance is a sure-shot way of ushering in greater efficiency and preventing data gaps. It can also help reduce expenses by streamlining revenue cycle management.

6. Due Care for Privacy of Patient Information

While the growing adoption of technology has made our lives easier, it has also increased privacy concerns. For healthcare providers, the challenge is to secure sensitive patient information. DME/HME billing largely depends on personally identifiable information to process claims and payments successfully, and protecting patient data is a must. Instead of investing in systems and creating the infrastructure that provides end-to-end encryption to secure patient information, billing outsourcing can help DME/HME businesses leverage professional assistance to access such capabilities.

7. Benefits for the Outsourcing Company

Outsourcing companies can avail of several benefits of this process, such as below:

8. Increase in employment opportunities

With the outsourcing model, employment opportunities in India have increased tremendously, especially during the pandemic. Even at Analytix Healthcare Solutions, there are plans to add over 100 employees to meet the increasing demand.

9. Rise in in-house revenue

Outsourcing encourages investment in India and contributes to the inflow of revenue to India that enhances the standard of living. The result is a win-win situation for all. Therefore, medical billing outsourcing can overcome several challenges and help provide better benefits for both—the outsourcing company and the healthcare provider in the long run.

Allan Bell

Vice President – Business Operations (DMS) 

Analytix Solutions. 

The post Medical Billing Outsourcing – A Must for Healthcare Providers appeared first on Health Vision.

Digitisation of healthcare remains critical in India. There is considerable scope for the introduction of new tools, models and technologies to augment growth in the sector. If numbers are anything to go by, India still ranks 154^th out of 195 countries in terms of quality and accessibility of healthcare, according to a recent Lancet study. The pandemic has been an eye-opener, which has brought to the forefront the shortage in medical staff and infrastructure in India. India had one medical doctor for every 1,404 people and 1.7 nurses per 1,000 people, lower than the World Health Organisation (WHO)recommended for 1 medical doctor and 3 nurses for 1,000 people.

There are, however, companies that are leading a silent revolution of sorts through the introduction of smart technologies and digital solutions for projects related to Smart City, Population and Public health, Pandemic Management and Telehealth. The company holds the potential to adopt a multifaceted approach towards providing solutions at district, enterprise and country levels. There are many companies which provide healthcare solutions which can be consumed by and used by patients themselves like patient portal as a part of care journey with the provider who have adopted solutions from the company.

We realised that digitisation is taking faster adoption in the healthcare space and Smart Cities, Population and Public health are our key focus areas. We have been awarded public health projects in few countries internationally. We have built innovative solutions for pandemic management while which are being used by various hospitals, civic bodies and administrative bodies such as Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), Kolhapur district administration in Maharashtra and Wockhardt-Rajkot in Gujarat.

With close to two decades of experience in the digital healthcare domain, Manorama Infosolutions Pvt Ltd (MIPL) has introduced various innovative solutions such as Lifeline Communicable Disease Management Suite (CDMS), which can be implemented to manage a pandemic situation for communicable diseases like Covid-19. The solution has greatly helped various governmental, administrative and civic bodies and city health authorities through the pandemic, facilitating the screening and management of Covid-19 and enabling patients to remotely connect with doctors and have their diagnosis done.

Digital healthcare solutions

For instance, MIPL has successfully implemented the Communicable Disease Management Solution, which is embedded with Telemedicine capabilities for the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) facilitating the management and treatment of Covid-19 cases. Similarly, the company has facilitated the setting up of a war-room for Covid management in real-time for the government authority of Kolhapur district in Maharashtra.

In addition, MIPL’s digital healthcare solutions are selected for three Smart City projects in India, which include Dahod and Vadodara in Gujarat and Bhubaneswar in Odisha that are using the Lifeline Smart City Suite of Solutions. For example, in Vadodara Smart City, 250-plus health workers (ANM and ASHA) are using the public health app in 34 urban primary healthcare (PHC), which are integrated with multiple external health systems. It offers inbuilt disease surveillance and immunization management control. Similarly, in Dahod Smart City, MIPL has initiated Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and telemedicine under Integrated Command and Control Centre and Smart Solutions.

Interestingly, the company is also working with large & connected Healthcare echo systems networks, which include organisations such as Coal India Limited (CIL) and Steel Authority of India (SAIL), where it has implementing the digital healthcare transformation solutions including Enterprise HIMS and more. Better patient care through the implementation of various information technology solutions is the need of the hour.

Ms. Ashvini Danigond
Founder and CEO, MIPL.

The post Digitisation of healthcare paves the way for Smart city, Population and Public health projects appeared first on Health Vision.

While the Indian Pharmaceutical and Healthcare supply chain sector had been onthe path of steady growth, it remained largely fragmented and motivated by the traditional growth drivers like manufacturing and import/ export. The pandemic, however, has suddenly brought the sector under spotlight, with increased demand for life saving medicines, need for blood and plasma transfusion, surgical kits and temperature sensitive vaccines. Since March 2020, the Indian pharma and healthcare supply chain has been one of the most reliable pillar for the fight against the pandemic, and continues to play a significant role in combating the virus.

As per a report by JLL, the national cold chain sector is expected to grow at over 20% CAGR by 2025, and the Indian Pharmaceutical and healthcare supply chain remains a major growth driver. The pandemic has led to accelerated transformation of the sector and has opened up immense opportunity for expansion in not only Tier-I cities but also in Tier-II cities and towns.

Some of the key trends that are shaping the future of this sector, can be highlighted as under:

1. Tech Adoption:This has been the cornerstone of change and disruption, transforming logistics and supply chains sector as a whole. From automation in warehousing for monitoring and maintaining cold storage facilities to driverless vehicles, and use of AI and ML enabled processes to ensure efficacy and speed, the Indian logistics sector has been rapidly adopting to change.
2. Enhanced reach: Empowered by the policy push for infrastructure development in logistics, the Indian pharma and healthcare supply chain is further expanding its reach. Tech adoption, newer rail and road transport routes, setting up of dedicated logistic parks around ports etc., has given rise to the development of multi-modal logistics, and ensured that the vaccines and vital medicines are made accessible to the remotest corner of the country, in a shorter turn around time.
3. Skilled and trained manpower: Tech adoption has put the need for training and up-skilling of handling staff and labourers, under spotlight. Given the significance of the cargo, especially sensitive medical material, like medicines, diagnostics kits and temperature sensitive vaccines, educating and training warehouse, transport and ground handling staff to handle the shipments with efficiency, has become vital. The training and up-skilling of labourers in Logistics and warehousing had been a largely ignored area so far. However, the pandemic has highlighted the urgent need and accelerated the process of adopting regular training for both, on ground and managerial staff, about effective handling of life-saving cargo, optimising tech enabled warehouse and supply chain operations and focusing on digital literacy for the blue collar staff.
4. Policy push for FDI: The government decision of conferring infrastructure status to logistics has been one of the most important impetus for growth of the pharma and healthcare supply chain is the recent times.Apart from a lot of other benefits, this move has enabled the sector to be eligible for 100% foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in the storage and warehousing sector. This has been instrumental in allowing businessesto gain access to the much needed funds for accelerated tech adoption and expansion, at lower rates, and longer tenures. This is also enabling companies in the logistics and warehousing sector to access large sums under the external commercial borrowing (ECB), at a lower cost and longer tenure.

While all of the above factors are key drivers for growth of the sector, largely brought about due to the global pandemic, the renewed push for manufacturing and vocal for local initiatives are going further to ensure there is a continuous impetus for growth, in the post COVID era.

Aditya Vazirani
CEO – Robinsons Global Logistics Solutions

The post 4 Trends shaping future of pharmaceutical and healthcare supply chain appeared first on Health Vision.

The Indian healthcare sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country and is estimated to reach a market size of USD 320 Million, by 2022. Along with supportive government policies, accelerated technology adoption and leveraging emerging tech innovations, across the country, is one of the key drivers of growth for the sector. From robotics and AI to ML, IoT, Nanotech, and 3D Printing, the Indian health tech is fast progressing to become world leaders.

The pandemic has further accelerated digital adoption across smaller, non-urban health service providers, making it accessible to masses. As per a report by the CII, the global health-tech sector is expected to grow upto $297 billion by 2022, registering a CAGR of 13.2 percent from 2016 to 2022. Additionally, a recent report by health-tech start-up Practo, states that upto 5 Cr. Indians have turned to the virtual medium for some or the other health care need, between March 1 and May 31, 2020, during the national lockdown, recording a 500% jump in online doctor consultations. The report also states that up to 80% of the respondents were trying the e-consultations for the first-time and 44% were from non-metro cities.

Health sector  vulnerable to cyber-attacks and frauds

However, with this rise in tech adoption, the sector is increasingly being vulnerable to cyber-attacks and frauds. India continues to remain the second largest country to face cyber-attacks and has already seen a 37% increase in cyber-attacks in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020. Also, upto 73% of all cyber-crime recorded, as per a report by KPMG, can be attributed to malware (KPMG 2017), and Ransomware, both of which have been particularly impacting the healthcare industry.

Cyber-attacks and frauds ranging from Identity theft, Financial fraud, Malware, and Phishing to even serious threats like hostage situation in healthcare institutions and compromise on Intellectual property and confidential research findings, etc., have been severely plaguing the Indian Healthcare Industry. Moreover, hospitals in India allocate not more than 5% of their budget, making them increasingly ill-prepared to cyber-attacks. Listed below are key initiatives and actions that Indian healthcare sector can incorporate, to counter cyber-attacks:

1. Integrating security into medical devices:

With the increasing number of medical tech devices and the use of IoT, ML and AI across various streams of diagnostics, preventive and remedial medicine, it has become vital to ensure the integrated safety of these connected devices, as they could mean a matter of life and death for patients.

2. Awareness and training about cyber security:

The lack of cyber security awareness continues to be one of the strongest reasons why cyber frauds and crimes are so prevalent. Building a task force, within the organisation, that can help practice due diligence, be vigilant and identify or report a cyber-threat in time, can go a long way in controlling or avoiding cyber-attacks.

3. Regular Security Testing and Risk Assessment:

This is another most significant aspect of creating a robust cyber security infrastructure. Most institutions, including healthcare centres, do invest in recommended cyber security infrastructure, however, they fail to ensure regular security testing and risk assessment. This is extremely vital, given that new patent data, equipment, repairs and are added on a daily basis. Additionally, with remote access, and use of mobile friendly applications to check updates and reports, has given rise to end point security vulnerabilities which need to be effectively monitored and fixed regularly.

Penetration or Pen test, which mimics a cyber-attack, to actually find loopholes and fix them proactively, is another important defense mechanism used for effective cyber security maintenance. Taking tips from the American HIPPA model of compliance and data security, a regulatory framework for institutions, that describes stringent guidelines for safeguarding patient data and financial information, is the need of the hour.

4. Information sharing on threats and mitigation:

As a sector, one of the most significant steps towards building an effective cyber security ecosystem, is information sharing about industry specific threats, weaknesses or to highlight specific incidents and discuss the mitigation of the same. By highlighting and sharing information of individual cyber-attack incidents, on an industry platform, can help members be more aware, vigilant and work together to create a robust approach to the healthcare focused cyber-attacks.

Although nascent, the data privacy and cyber security awareness in the Indian Healthcare Sector is steadily rising and with effective education, awareness, and means to handle the rising cyber threats and data breaches. As technology innovations continue to enhance and disrupt the way healthcare is provided, more and more lives will start depending on the new technology-driven infrastructure for their basic wellness and even their lives. Under such circumstances, it is vital  to ensure the process and the devices are secure and not vulnerable to foreign cyber-attacks.

Sandeep Kamble
Founder & CTO- SecureLayer7

The post Cyber threats and frauds- How the Indian healthcare industry can safeguard? appeared first on Health Vision.

Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) on the occasion of 74th Independence Day with the aim to revolutionize Indian healthcare. Such platform has become a need of the hour to serve as a focal point of the healthcare ecosystem. NDHM will have digitized health records, personal health IDs of every citizen, registry of doctors and registry of health facilities across the country, among others.

The announcement of National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) is a commendable step towards further fuelling digitization in Indian healthcare. The digitized interoperable health ecosystem puts patients at the centre stage and provides power in their hands in the form of Unique ID for availing quality care and gaining better access to healthcare facilities and doctors.

Electronic Health Records (EHR) can  transform the  healthcare:

As we know, Electronic Health Records (EHR) can play a crucial role in transforming the way healthcare is delivered in the country. The government’s thrust on personal health records accessible through a unique ID validates the very fact. Use of machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to analyse the data generated from the records will help learn disease patterns, predict onset of ailments and suggest seasonal outbreaks, bringing efficiencies and effectiveness in healthcare.

In the later phases, the introduction of telemedicine and e-pharmacy will bring a lot more inclusivity. In the real sense, NDHM will take quality healthcare to rural masses and bridge the yawning divide which until now existed between urban and rural India. This digitization effort couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time than this when people are realizing the true potential of digital healthcare on the back of scenario created due to COVID-19.

Also Read: EPHARMACIES : SERVING THE NATION DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Dr. Harshit Jain, Founder & CEO
Doceree

The post National digital health mission (NDHM) will revolutionize Indian healthcare appeared first on Health Vision.

We are probably adding a decade of old age to our life instead of youthful agility in trying to extend life expectancy. Information Technology (IT) in healthcare is trying to add value by providing useful information from the huge data available among a particular section of the society.

Healthcare is broadly dependent on two factors- Nature and Nurture. We may, apportion the same at 50% each to keep man healthy and sane always.

1. Nature: Nature are those qualities – in the form of genes – that we have inherited from our ancestors.

2. Nurture: Nurture is that segment of human endeavour, which stresses more on the upbringing in the society (environment) and preventive and curative measures.

Artificial Intelligence and research and development in improving quality of genetic factors has led to good as well as detrimental results. Therefore, incessantly improving the standards of Nurture becomes more relevant and essential in this century. All organisms are made up of combination of both Nature and Nurture factor. We have less or no control on the inherited part of our life BUT we can and should improve our health for a quality life while taking care of Nurture.

Today’s man lives longer than his predecessor not because of mutation in genes or miracles but better management of his health.Looking back statistically, the average life expectancy of males in India in 1947 was 52 yrs and that of females was 47. The same stood at a healthy 69 and 63 respectively in 2018 thanks to the greater impetus on healthcare by the successive governments as well. Yet, the average spend per capita on healthcare is a pathetic 1.96% down from 2.6% six years ago. Our Government allocates close to 18% of annual budget to defense forces as against 1.96% to Healthcare. To build a better and healthy population for the future, this trend needs to be reversed.

Now, let us look at what is “IT” doing in healthcare. Healthcare of a person is a continuous process rather than a one-time achievement. Man is subject to continuous onslaught of Mother Nature, – the natural calamities complementing – the changing weather conditions and the rough weather in many geographical terrain of our planet.

Global warming and depletion of Ozone layer is a serious concern. Polluted Air in India today, across the Nation is hitting alarming proportions as PM (particulate matter) had reached over 900 in Delhi and many parts of North India during early winter in 2019. As you move towards poles, the weather conditions worsen (freezing temperature, i.e. – 50 C) and towards the center of earth, the temperatures rise as high as 52 degree Celsius.

Man is the only animal that requires longer duration of parental care whereas; most other animals stand on their own legs within hours of their birth. And it would certainly help if; medical history of the person is maintained from the date of birth for better healthcare management in times of need. Over 95% of Indian population does not have any record of their health conditions and that is where IT can play a bigger role. Maintaining health records of man in physical form has always been challenging and computerization eases the daunting task.

The advantages of computerization could be summarized as:

1. Speed of operation/transaction

2. Storage of large volume of data

3. Quicker retrieval of the stored data

4. Comparison and mapping of stored data for research

5. Data analytics for beneficial decision making

6. Data sharing across geographic area

INFORMATION is the key to success in any field Thus; information could be picked from available DATA. Data is built over a period and storage of the same is a monumental task. Software helps in maintaining patient records in electronic form. Such data could be stored in small devices like Smart card, Cloud storage etc in addition to online data storage and transfer. Such data access helps greatly in disease diagnosis, preventive and curative actions.

1. 5 years ago less than 20% of hospitals were computerized.

2. Today over 60% of hospitals are computerized in urban /semi-urban area.

3. It is expected that nearly 90% of hospitals would be computerized in next 5 years.

4. National UID may help data access of healthcare also.

Since most Indians do not maintain any health record themselves, IT in healthcare has great potential in providing the same at low costs by service providers like Hospitals, Health Insurance cos etc.,

A healthy man builds a healthy Nation.

G.L.Nagendra-Managing director
Ciftech solutions
488-B,3rd Block, KIADB Bldg.
Peenya 2nd stage, Bengaluru-58
Ph: 080-28367373/7474 Mob – 9448283850
Email: ciftechsolutions@gmail.com

The post What is “IT” doing in healthcare? appeared first on Health Vision.

In the year 2015, The Ministry of Health and Welfare published a note that instituted a National eHealth Authority (NeHA). This was done in order to regulate the increasing usage of electronic records in healthcare, and for the maintenance of digital health information and e-Health records across the country.

Coming to the current healthcare scenario of India, where services, especially in rural India have been largely unaffected by the influx of the Internet, e-records are the need of the hour. Even today, doctor’s prescriptions, lab and X-ray results are archived in the same manner as we did decade ago, and manually transported from one place to another.  Thus with the institution of NeHA, Indian healthcare is set to change radically.

Development and promotion of eHealth ecosystem

At NeHA, the goal is ‘to ensure development and promotion of eHealth ecosystem in India for enabling the organisation, management, and provision of effective people-centered health services to all in an efficient, cost-effective and transparent manner’.  Keeping this as the end goal, electronic health records (EHRs) will definitely go a long way to enable uniform and smarter access to healthcare.

EHRs enjoy the ability to store and make information available through a cloud which provide higher quality and safer services. EHRs can also ensure better care by providing accurate, complete, and up to date information about patients. Through EHRs, information can be shared securely with medical professionals and patients. By employing such methods in healthcare operations, it can greatly help with accurate diagnosis and reduce medical errors.

EHRs also go a long way in improving the relationship between patients and medical service providers, besides enabling safer and more reliable prescriptions. EHRs function as a centralised source of patient information, and helps legible and streamlined documentation, as well as improve efficiency through decreased paperwork and reduced duplication of testing.

In a country like India, where accident statistics show one serious incident being reported every minute and 16 deaths every hour, EHRs are definitely the need of the hour for emergency medical service providers. With the implementation of EHRs, systems can be installed in ambulances and hooked up to patients to continuously monitor and record their heart rate, blood pressure and other vital information. This will then be directly recorded and stored in a patient’s record, for further use.

With more than 65 to 75 per cent of outpatients and inpatients being admitted to private facilities in India, the use of EHRs has become increasingly important for accurate diagnosis. One of the biggest problems we face today is that of wrong diagnosis, and by bringing in a modern approach with e-records, this can be minimised and eventually become a thing of the past.

Use of information and communication technology

The use of information and communication technology has already made its way into our lives, with thousands of apps constantly accessing our information. Data like locations, contacts, pictures, fingerprints and even habits are being tracked, and used to communicate between service provider and user, to make our lives easier. This introduces a similar system for healthcare, which is of prime importance. At present, the use of information and communication technology has been limited to registration and billing for patients at hospitals. With the NeHA at the helm of matters concerning EHRs, we can soon change this and bring about a revolution in Indian healthcare.

Manish Sacheti, Ziqitza Health Care Limited (ZHL)

Sunshine Tower
Senapati Bapat Marg, Dadar(W),
Mumbai, Maharashtra-400013
Tel:+912261785000
Email: contactus@zhl.in

The post How “Electronic Health Records” can bring revolution in Indian healthcare? appeared first on Health Vision.

With the introduction of machine learning algorithms, doctors are able to recognize recurring patterns across heaps of data and warn patients of potential health complications based on reference groups. The adoption of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector is helping predict such situations and assist providers to take extra precautions. With the presence of this technology, it is allowing individuals to easily access and secure the patient’s medical data by understanding and analyzing their illnesses.

The overall healthcare industry is one of the largest with a massive patient database in India. With the on-going developments in artificial intelligence, it is expected to reach $6.6 billion by 2021. Looking at the numerous and exciting potential healthcare applications for AI technology, healthcare providers are exploring the application of AI programs to insurance verification, skin cancer diagnostics, the analysis of lab results and medical record data analysis. We are also beginning to explore the depths of healthcare innovations that can be unlocked with these continuous advancements in AI technology.

According to the Interim Budget of 2019-2020, the government is also stressing on creating a stronger healthcare delivery system in the country with an ambition to enable people of all strata to avail accessible and affordable medical facilities. In order to fulfill this ambition, the government is working towards setting up a National Centre for Artificial Intelligence, along with the development of National AI Portal, to create an ecosystem for the adoption of technologies and support the momentum of care. Additionally, Dot era is opening a myriad of opportunities including internet of medical things for the healthcare industry. In simple words, machine-to-machine communication using sensors that captures an event and translates that for the receiver to take an action. In this process of communication, AI has been continuously bridging the gap between healthcare service delivery and patient recovery.

Therefore, it is essential to build pillars under this sector that ensure a seamless experience to the patients with early diagnosis, health assistance, mining complex data analysis, drug discovery, and supply chain. Focused not only at making an organization’s bottom lines healthier but also at contributing towards a better way of preventing diseases through prediction. With Fujifilm’s long history of innovation in medical imaging and healthcare informatics, it has created newer AI platforms like REiLI to meet the current needs of the patients. By bringing in technologies like Image Processing and Artificial Intelligence, it will allow specialists to facilitate accurate diagnosis among their patients.

Today, digital technology has liberated physicians, nurses and researchers to focus more mental energy on higher-level cognitive tasks and patient care. The medical professionals are not required to memorize information as they did 50 years ago, thanks to the digital revolution. It is believed that artificial intelligence is poised to take it to the next level. Therefore, it is important for healthcare providers to leverage these technologies in the country that is facing a series of health issues like growing disease burden and poor doctor-patient ratio. Spurring AI-based innovation and establishing AI-ready healthcare infrastructure is thus imperative for both government and the private sector.

Another upcoming challenge expected with the entrance of AI is the relationship between Physicians and artificial intelligence. In order to improve the lives and the health of the patients, both Physicians and AI need to move together in synergy. With the best of both applied sciences, AI will help the physicians in faster diagnosis allowing them to focus on reviewing the data given by AI algorithms and work on complicated cases that AI cannot handle.

Given the growing demand for qualitative care in the complex healthcare environment in India, AI has significantly disrupted the traditional medical approach and is likely to transform the healthcare delivery model over the coming years.

Mr. Chander Shekhar Sibal
Executive Vice President
Fujifilm India Medical Division

The post How Artificial intelligence is impacting Healthcare Industry? appeared first on Health Vision.

‘Information’ is the essence of better management – Management of patient care, Management of personnel, Management of Finances/other resources. We get access to ‘data’ from many sources day in and day out, but the relevant piece of it and ‘compiled’ version is known as ‘Information’. Information helps in better and timely decisions.

Healthcare providers – Doctors, Paramedical staff, Insurance companies, Govt agencies and more importantly ‘Patients’ and attendants are always trying to achieve optimal levels of output since long in all related services.

The advent of IT – a good combination of computer hardware and software provides an efficient tool in achieving this goal. Hardware and software are inseparable as software cannot exist independently and hardware is almost useless without appropriate software.

Patient care, in a typical Hospital scenario envisages – patient visit to Hospital –registration – Doctor consultation – Diagnostic services – remedial prescription in the form of medicines etc. This is necessary even to all out patients.

Patient data/ history of patient could be made available to the doctor at the click of a button either on desktop PC/ mobile phone during progressive visits of the said patient. Computerisation helps a great deal in accessing patient data anywhere, anytime for providing advice and treatment to patients very quickly. Availability of history of patients, will help doctors in taking right and timely decisions.

And there is no better tool than good software to aid a doctor in providing patient care.

Good software can also compile patient illness of similar type, age and gender including specific geographical and professional hazards to patients.

In a field sample survey during 2000-01 of Medical doctors – Allopathic and Ayush, it was found that no more than 1% of doctors were maintaining any record of the patients. It is to be noted that in 2006 Govt of India mandated through an act that practising doctors should keep patient records for at least 3 years. In spite of it, less said the better in availability of patient profiles across the country. Of course Medicolegal cases (MLC) and other sensitive data is a different matter.

We have over a Million registered doctors in the country as against the WHO (World Health Organization) recommendation of 2.1 million doctors for a population of 1.25 billion in India. It’s a far cry before we reach that milestone with the flawed healthcare policies of various governments. Healthcare expenses have reached prohibitive levels to common man’s reach in India. Hence, the option of health insurance over cash payments is increasingly becoming popular.

Insurance:

Today over a period of last 2 decades healthcare insurance – private as well as government initiatives – is coming of age with coverage of nearly 30-40% of the population, importance of IT in healthcare cannot be ignored.

Any data, like patient illness, admission and discharge record, diagnostic reports and bills are to be provided to Insurance companies in the electronic form. Govt of India has just soft launched ‘Ayushman’ health insurance scheme across the country to cover nearly 50% of Indian populace. We can’t even imagine providing and managing healthcare under Ayushman without IT infrastructure.

Suicides:

Approximately 1.3 lakh suicides take place in India, out of which approximately 12% die from chronic illness. With better clinical data of these deaths were to be available beforehand, it could be prevented with better treatment. And that would be possible if IT is applied in patient profile management.

Prudence of EMR (Electronic Medical Record):

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoH&FW) has notified the Electronic Health Record (EHR) standards for India in Sept 2013, and revised EHR standards in Dec 2016.

Case study: A patient visited a dermatologist for a skin problem. The doctor examined and prescribed some medicine. But the counter salesman of the pharmacy gave a substitute, and the disease aggravated due to reaction. Ultimately, the patient had to suffer for almost a month even after undergoing a corrective surgery, for no fault of hers. It became a “case of negligence” by the doctor and finally consumer courts at district and state level awarded a huge compensation to the patient.

In this case, the doctor had not maintained any record of the prescription/ case history and thus could not prove his case. It may be difficult to maintain medical records manually and thus EMR becomes highly relevant.

G.L.Nagendra-Managing director
Ciftech solutions
488-B,3rd Block, KIADB Bldg.
Peenya 2nd stage, Bengaluru-58
Ph: 080-28367373/7474 Mob – 9448283850
Email: ciftechsolutions@gmail.com

The post Why is IT (Information Technology) Relevant in Healthcare? appeared first on Health Vision.

In the year 2015, The Ministry of Health and Welfare published a note that instituted a National eHealth Authority (NeHA). This was done in order to regulate the increasing usage of electronic records in healthcare, and for the maintenance of digital health information and e-Health records across the country.

Coming on the back of the current healthcare scenario of India, where services, especially in rural India have been largely unaffected by the influx of the Internet, e-records are the need of the hour. Even today, doctor’s prescriptions, lab and X-ray results are archived in the same manner as we did decade ago, and manually transported from one place to another.  Thus with the institution of NeHA, Indian healthcare is set to change radically.

At NeHA, the goal is ‘to ensure development and promotion of eHealth ecosystem in India for enabling the organisation, management, and provision of effective people-centered health services to all in an efficient, cost-effective and transparent manner’.  Keeping this as the end goal, electronic health records (EHRs) will definitely go a long way to enable uniform and smarter access to healthcare.

EHRs enjoy the ability to store and make information available through a cloud, and can help provide higher quality and safer services. EHRs can also help ensure better care by providing accurate, complete, and up to date information about patients. Through EHRs, information can also be shared securely with medical professionals and patients. By employing such methods in healthcare operations, it can greatly help with accurate diagnosis and reduce medical errors. EHRs also go a long way in improving the relationship between patients and medical service providers, besides enabling safer and more reliable prescriptions. As EHRs function as a centralised source of patient information, they also help promote the use of legible and streamlined documentation, as well as improve efficiency through decreased paperwork and reduced duplication of testing.

In a country like India, where accident statistics show one serious incident being reported every minute and 16 deaths every hour, EHRs are definitely the need of the hour for emergency medical service providers. With the implementation of EHRs, systems can be installed in ambulances and hooked up to patients to continuously monitor and record their heart rate, blood pressure and other vital information. This will then be directly recorded and stored in a patient’s record, for further use.

With more than 75 and 65 per cent of outpatients and inpatients being admitted to private facilities in India, the use of EHRs has become increasingly important for accurate diagnosis. One of the biggest problems we face today is that of wrong diagnosis, and by bringing in a modern approach with e-records, this can be minimised and eventually become a thing of the past.

The use of information and communication technology has already made its way into our lives, with thousands of apps constantly accessing our information. Data like locations, contacts, pictures, fingerprints and even habits are being tracked, and used to communicate between service provider and user, to make our lives easier. This brings us to introducing a similar system for healthcare, which is of prime importance. At present, the use of information and communication technology has been limited to registration and billing for patients at hospitals. With the NeHA at the helm of matters concerning EHRs, we can soon change this and bring about a revolution in Indian healthcare.

Manish Sacheti  
CFO, Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd

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