With the increase in demand for healthcare especially post Covid, the healthcare industry is working toward betterment to meet the health demands of patients. Health for all is a must. As well as the person should be physically, mentally, emotionally strong enough to live a healthy life. Healthcare should be easily accessible and approachable to everyone.

Health challenges such as poor mental health, substance abuse in the form of drugs and alcohol need attention. When healthcare is not accessible to all, poor health outcomes are observed. The Healthcare industry is undergoing innovations, technological advancements, and establishing new trends to accelerate healthcare. Artificial intelligence is emerging in healthcare and is widely used in western countries and in India too.

AI works very efficiently, quickly and completes the process at a lower cost, and even saves time.  AI is becoming a part of the healthcare ecosystem widely. Technological advancements include numerous applications that help in encouraging a healthy lifestyle among humans these days. Wearable devices with AI are helpful to diagnose early-stage heart disease. This provides quick treatment on time and better monitoring by doctors and caregivers.

Trends expected to  accelerate for healthcare

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is doing tasks quickly these days. It saves time and is cost-effective too.  How Artificial intelligence is accelerating healthcare?

1. Better Medical care by prompt and accurate diagnosis

It provides doctors with an accurate diagnosis. It also provides the present history and history of associated medical conditions. It also identifies the future complications that a patient could face.

2. Improved line of treatment

Technological advancements have generated an improved line of treatment plans like robotic surgeries. As well accurate diagnosis help in providing a better treatment plan.

3. Continuous self-monitoring by patients

Continuous self-monitoring by patients itself provides early diagnosis, prompt treatment for patients thus preventing emergencies. This is helpful in overall best patient outcomes thus the good quality of life.

4. Technologically advanced radiology

 CT scans, MRI scans, and other radiological advancements are already playing an important role in the healthcare system. Research is going to develop Artificial intelligence-based radiological advancement. This will help in eliminating the biopsies required in most advanced cases like cancers for diagnosis or planning the treatment.

5. Easily accessible

With AI the advanced digital healthcare system is accessible to a large number of people nowadays.  Improved and easy accessibility is helping a large of people to get efficient healthcare guidance and treatment on time.

6. Affordable and cheap

AI has made the healthcare system affordable with an accurate and quick diagnosis. The treatment is thus becoming more efficient and accessible to many.

7. Technologically advanced Robotic Surgeries

Robotic surgery techniques in complex surgeries provide accuracy, precision, very few side effects, early discharge from the hospital, and fast recovery.

8. Time-saving

Artificial intelligence is processing the healthcare system at a faster speed. Manual work used to consume a lot of time and energy.  Shifting to digital healthcare helps provide better health to people in less time.

9. Advanced treatment for cancer

Artificial intelligence in Immunotherapy is used to treat a cancer patient. Through immunotherapy, the body’s immunity helps in fighting and killing cancer cells. This is the advanced technique used to treat cancer patients these days widely.

Hospital administration

Artificial intelligence use in hospital and healthcare clinics and settings is a boom in the healthcare industry. It could be used to manage medical records, documentation, data entry, billing. This saves time and reduces the manual work burden on the employers.

Health guidance and treatment virtually

AI helps patients to self-monitor themselves up to some extent. The wearable devices are helpful and assist in self-monitoring. These devices also remind about when to take the medicine, if any medication is missed, lab tests reminder, scheduled doctors appointment for a consultation or follow up,  and even assist in Virtual appointments with the Doctor whenever required.

Virtual Health assistance and guidance through various applications available handy through mobile phones help patients to discuss their health problems, symptoms, medical history, insurance details, health-related queries, diet-related queries thus increasing patient engagement.

Various applications provide 24/7 assistance to patients by responding to voice calls, video calls, and text messages through mobile devices thus improving patient engagement and health wellness. Virtual health support is affordable and even save traveling time and waiting time at hospitals by consulting doctor virtually.

Mobile applications and healthcare

With Artificial Intelligence patients are engaged these days through mobile applications that are free of cost. They keep well informed about how to manage lifestyle diseases like Diabetes, heart diseases, high cholesterol. These apps are helpful in scheduling doctor’s appointments, prescription management, and updating health-related queries. These apps also suggest prompt medical advice and treatment during emergencies.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine is gaining popularity worldwide. Through telemedicine, the healthcare services like consultations, health-related information, treatment, queries about how to maintain lifestyle disorders are provided to the patient through electronic media. Telemedicine has helped in the delivery of health-related information without a patient’s visit in-person to a clinic or hospital. The physician and patient could have interaction through telemedicine and could discuss the health-related queries, care, advice required for patient care and monitoring.

Through Telemedicine health care professionals could diagnose, prevent, evaluate the disease and provide treatment to the patient without the in-person visit of the patient to the clinic or hospital. In underdeveloped or low-income countries, Telemedicine helps provide clinical information and learn to healthcare providers, physicians, and tertiary hospitals regarding healthcare through video and audio conferencing.

Telemedicine and its advantage

Telemedicine is efficient and low-cost treatment approaches helpful both in emergency and non-emergency conditions. One can take medical assistance simply by talking over call to a physician for simple health issues. The investigations are shared via electronic media with a physician without visiting them at a clinic or hospital.

Follow-up visits for chronic health issues like diabetes, blood pressure are monitored over the call or video conferencing or simply through text messages. It is a cost-effective approach and saves time both at the same time. It cut the traveling expenses, reduces long waiting hours at the hospital, and provides prompt treatment guidance.

How Telemedicine works 

Telemedicine provides consultations at ease for chronic health issues such as diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, and non-emergency conditions. The information is stored easily in software. It reduces paperwork and manual work for physicians and staff. All the information is stored as data in the software and the doctor gains accessibility whenever required.

The information like lab reports, diagnostic imaging like x rays, blood investigations are shared by the patient to the physician and by a physician to another healthcare provider for appropriate assessment within no time. The follow-up visits for patients are reduced by managing them through telemedicine. The patients could take a second opinion from another doctor without visiting. This prevents traveling and long hours of waiting time. Health applications, websites are accessible on smartphones and consultation could be taken from healthcare providers within no time.

Wearable devices in healthcare

Wearable devices available these days in the form of advanced technological advancement is famous worldwide. These devices are helpful in day to day monitoring of patients on regular basis. The wearable devices are available as smart watches that are worn on the wrist for tracking health information. These devices and the apps provide guidance about lifestyle disorders, how to manage them and how to prevent them.

It is affordable and personal and can be taken at every place the patient visits even to the bathrooms. The wearable devices detect heart rate, blood pressure, transfer data to the doctor, and also give signals during the alarming situation. The smart watch can prompt you to do exercise, sleep, take a rest, and have endless other functions. Wearable devices in the form of fitness trackers monitor the heart rate at rest and during physical activity. Wearable blood pressure measuring devices are very useful, in calculating the blood pressure

Conclusion

New innovative trends are emerging and accelerating in healthcare. New technology is finding its way to improve healthcare by increasing its access to more and more people at affordable cost.

Dr Jyotsana Anand Suri
Certified medical content writer
Email: jyotsana789@gmail.com

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New Delhi, 15 March, 2021: DoctorOnCall.org, one of the fastest-growing telemedicine companies in India has signed up more than one Lac subscriptions in less than six months in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India.

With the aim for providing quality doctor facilities in these regions, more than 100 cities in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities will have access to the best doctors from around the country.

India suffers from unequal access to healthcare. While India’s middle class and above in Metros have excellent access to doctors and hospitals, people in tier 2/3 cities and even blue-collar workers in metros don’t have that kind of luxury.

This stems from both the lack of affordability and dearth of good specialists serving tier 2 and 3 cities. Doc on Call will  remain very focused on its core i.e., India’s blue-collar workers and people in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

Responding to the development, Mr. Karan Chopra, Co-founder, DoctorOnCall.org, said, “Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities are proving to be the growth engines of India. Availability of best doctors for consultation in these cities will strengthen the horizon of healthcare. We will continue to innovate to provide a better healthcare experience for this target audience”.

Doctor On Call has served patients from 150 cities till now. They have been able to do this by effectively reaching out to their target audience via a mix of online and offline distribution channels. According to a FICCI report, digital health has grown 250% from March to September. For the next year, Doctor On Call’s ambition is to become an end to end healthcare delivery provider, with a tech backed hospitalization product in the pipeline. They will also focus on doubling city count and doctors count on the platform.

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New Delhi, 15 February, 2021: Hospido, a tech enabled online platform dedicated to treating Cancer patients all over India has forayed into the Home care segment for cancer patients across India.

With a super- specialized team of efficient nurses having expertise in handling cancer patients, Hopsido aims to provide Doctor-driven treatment from the comfort of patient’s home. The team is equipped for delivering personalized care plans that enables seamless fulfillment of the requirements. From e-monitoring capabilities to availability of a general physician, the patient is dealt with utmost care and competency.

On this development, Mr. Karan Chopra, Founder, Hospido, said, “There are few homecare companies around, but no one specifically caters to cancer patients. Our capable team of expert patient coaches and nurses, backed by our strong telemedicine capabilities will enable a higher level of independence and dedicated services to cancer patients and caregivers. Technology advancements have fueled the growth of innovative healthcare delivery at doorsteps, and at Hospido we are committed to adapting and implementing new models of high quality care ”.

“Home care at Hospido is a very carefully designed model that benefits the patients in many ways. With clinical excellence and safety of the highest order, there can be no better location than one’s home for patient-centric care”, added Karan.

Hospido empowers cancer patients & caregivers to get easy access to right treatment and advice, and provides high quality treatment for all types of cancer. With Home care in place, Hospido will have a more wholesome approach towards treating Cancer Patients across India. Hospido is India’s leading tech backed cancer care platform which provides holistic support to the patients in their entire journey of battling with the disease.

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Bengaluru, Tuesday, 29 September 2020: A joint publication by BCG and FICCI titled “Leapfrogging to a Digital Healthcare System: Reimaging Healthcare for Every Indian” was released at the 14th FICCI HEAL, (the annual health conference organized by FICCI) by Shri M Venkaiah Naidu, Hon’ble Vice President of India, Dr Sangita Reddy, President FICCI and joint MD Apollo Hospitals, and Mr. Bart Janssens, Managing Director and Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group. This report will be distributed to the Prime Minister’s Office, NITI Aayog, Chief Ministers, Health Ministers, State ministries and Secretaries among other dignitaries in the public and private sector.

Digital era in healthcare to take shape:

The way we live, and work has been profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to upending our lives the pandemic has also exposed India’s weak healthcare system and reinforced the need to urgently improve all levels of healthcare, including primary care. As is inevitable in times of adversity, the pandemic has also inspired promising innovations, particularly in digital healthcare models. From the telemedicine guidelines being announced in March 2020 to the launch of national digital health ID in August 2020, we have just started to see the digital era in healthcare take shape.

Surveys conducted by BCG across doctors and patients highlight that 85% of the clinicians used digital platforms for patient interactions during the lockdown. 50% of the clinicians found these platforms to be an effective medium for providing care. Additionally, 60% patients across metro and tier 1 cities reported they would continue using digital platforms for primary care in the post COVID world due to the fundamental benefits of shorter waiting time and easy access to qualified doctors. In addition, as per reports, the lockdown period saw teleconsultation services being accessed by over 2000 small towns, with 80% patients being first time users.

Digital infrastructure for the Indian healthcare ecosystem.

We are now at the cusp of the digital 3.0 era of Open Digital Ecosystems that represents a fundamental change in the way the government can leverage technology for public care delivery and enable private sector innovation. It entails creation of a shared public digital infrastructure that can be leveraged by both public and private players to deploy new solutions that enhance the end-user experience. Just like the creation of shared digital infrastructure in the financial industry enabling UPI payments, the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), in the next few years, will catalyze a robust digital infrastructure for the Indian healthcare ecosystem. 

As per the report, it is estimated that over the next decade, NDHM can potentially unlock an incremental value of INR 1.5 lakh crore for the healthcare industry. The report undertakes a collaborative approach to ensure that multiple perspectives across government bodies, private sector entities, developers, and the user community are brought to the forefront. It aims to drive active stakeholder discussions to help accelerate India’s journey towards a healthcare system that puts the patient at the center of all solutions and drives accessible, affordable and quality healthcare all.

Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO NHA and PM-JAY, says “With the guiding principles outlined in the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB), the government has laid out a comprehensive strategy to bring a fundamental transformation in healthcare and open a range of market opportunities for all stakeholders. This report details out how the entire ecosystem will gain, and the industry will be galvanized as a result of the implementation of NDHB over the next few years.”

According to Dr Sangita Reddy, President FICCI and joint MD, Apollo Hospitals  “There is an urgent need to shift to a new care delivery paradigm that leverages public technology infrastructure. This needs to be done while ensuring patient-centricity, and adequate digital security. It is great to see that this timely and pertinent report has been put together to drive active discussions amongst the stakeholders.”

Bart Janssens, Managing Director and Senior Partner, BCG said “We anticipate that over the next 10 years, NDHM can unlock incremental economic value of over USD 200 billion for the healthcare sector. Public and private ecosystem players will have to realign their operating models to capture this value and stay ahead of the curve. This will pave way for more patient-centric solutions driving accessible, affordable and quality healthcare for all.”

According to Dr Alok Roy, Chair, FICCI Health Services Committee and Chairman, Medica Group of Hospitals , “The need to accelerate changes in our health care system is an obvious inference of this pandemic. The advent of an open digital health ecosystem will unleash a new wave of innovation and transform the way primary healthcare is delivered in India. As illustrated in this detailed report, the health ODE will enable patients who are under-served by the physical healthcare infrastructure to access high quality healthcare, by leveraging a common digital infrastructure”

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New Delhi 10th August 2020 : The unfolding situations of COVID-19 in India exemplify that it is here to stay. No one expected that the pandemic will change the dynamics of healthcare, setting a new normal. As the pandemic is all set to change healthcare, we need to know certain things. Where do we stand in the pandemic? Are Vaccines or medicines still a distant dream? The future of the healthcare industry in India in post COVID. To discuss these important issues, the largest 2^nd India Healthcare e-SUMMIT was organisedon 6^th August 2020 by HEAL Foundation— a healthcare advocacy group in association with ICCIDD wherein experts from across the spectrum participated and deliberated on respective significant issues.

Throwing light on the future of the healthcare industry post COVID during the 2^nd India Healthcare e-SUMMIT, Mr Anand Shrivastava, Chairman, Maharishi Ayurveda, said, “COVID-19 has taught us so many lessons in healthcare such as how to continue our lives in the emerging new normal as it is going to stay with us. Especially, it has taught us that we can’t live with comorbid conditions now. We need to make our immunity stronger.” In the changing dynamics of healthcare practises and emerging new normal, opinions from across the sectors about the essence of ‘Home Care’ which seems to be the affordable and accessible solution in such a time of crisis have been gaining ground.

One big change  in healthcare — Telemedicine:

Answering a query regarding doctor-patient relationship during the 2^nd India Healthcare e-SUMMIT, Dr Sonia Lal Gupta, MD Metro Group of Hospital, said, “The importance of Doctor-patient relationship in terms of understanding the disease and the adherence of the therapy has increased in COVID times. Education and awareness is the only way to curb the upsurge of the pandemic. The COVID-19 has brought one big thing in healthcare — Telemedicine. India can develop Public Private Partnership (PPP) for better accessibility and affordability of healthcare for everyone.”

On the prevalent changes brought about in the lives of Doctors by COVID-19, Dr Sushil Kumar Jain, Laparoscopic Surgeon, Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, said during the 2^nd India Healthcare e-SUMMIT, “As the doctors are the busiest lot always fall short of time, and earlier they couldn’t manage quality time for their families as well as following their hobbies and other necessary pursuits, but during COVID-19, they are able to spare time for themselves. Now they manage time to connect with their kith and kin, though digitally.”

Dramatic change in the acceptance of Home Care:

Elaborating on the essence of ‘Home Care’ during the 2^nd India Healthcare e-SUMMIT, Mr Vivek Srivastava, Co-Founder & CEO, Health Care at Home, said, “There has been a dramatic change in the acceptance of Home Care in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19. A large number of people are opting for Home Care and we have been receiving an increased number of queries. Even in a survey with an oncologist, it came out that 50% of cancer patients are seeking chemotherapy at home. There has been a dramatic shift at all levels whether patients, doctors or government. The Delhi Government has also recommended for Home Care at massive scale. And insurance companies are also covering all aspects of our services in-home care. We are the first to launch Home Isolation services in the country, and we are running it for all Fortis Hospitals across the country and for Delhi government as well.”

Also Read: HOME ISOLATION – A BOON FOR COVID-19 PATIENTS WITH MILD SYMPTOMS

Speaking on how to take care of the mental health of children, Ms Yvonne Biggins, Mental Health & Well-being Expert, Day to Day Health, London, UK, said, “It is very important to provide safety and assurance to children, deal them with gratitude and kindness during the pandemic.”

Speaking in the 2^nd India Healthcare e-SUMMIT, Ms Shwetima Jamwal, RJ, 98.3, Radio Mirchi, J&K said,“Every tough time makes us learn new things, and during the ongoing unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, we have been learning new things day by day such as how to face the difficulties and overcome challenges. We are getting stronger in testing time.”

“We need to learn how to live with the emerging new normal. Don’t fear, think positive and be positive. In the tough times of COVID, there has been lots of medical supply. We are running 400 home offices to facilitate the supply chain. We are also using drone services to improve the possible supply of essential medical devices and consumables in remote and hilly areas”, said, Mr Vivek Tiwari, Founder & CEO, Medikabazaar.

 Also watch: How building an immunity is essential to fight against corona

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While the COVID pandemic has forced us to adapt to a new normal, lives have suddenly fit into the challenging times. Now that masks, sanitizers and social distancing have caught up our regular routine, there is one more trend that has evolved drastically in these times – online consultations with doctors.

Telemedicine in multiple ways has made users’ lives easy, ensuring convenience, comfort and cost-effectiveness in seeking advice from doctors. Nevertheless, people were hesitant to consult doctors online as touch and feel during a doctor consultation were still considered absolutely essential (physical examination) or, in another reason, there was a complete lack of awareness about telemedicine that marred its potential.

Over the last few years, the scenario changed with people in metro and big cities getting to understand the value telemedicine offered. Post COVID-19 when social distancing norms were in place, people preferred talking to doctors online, and that is when telemedicine gathered a lot of steam, yet with existing challenges.

Telemedicine – A long term sustenance?

It isn’t easy to sustain in a ‘digital’ business-to-customer domain. Players in the telemedicine industry face tremendous pressure because of low profit margins. Taking into account the operating cost, patient acquisition as a user, marketing cost, and the doctor’s fees, the profit margin a telemedicine player is left with is considerably negligible.

Though the COVID outbreak has led to a significant jump in online consultations, it would still be too optimistic to say that the phenomena will not change once things begin to normalize. Undoubtedly, the decline would happen, but the situation for entire telemedicine industry would be better off than earlier, especially for big players. But the question still remains that ‘Will that be enough to make their businesses sustainable?

 A battle pharmaceutical companies are fighting

Corona virus outbreak created a unique challenge for pharmaceutical companies. The situation doesn’t look like to be easing up for Rx drug makers even after staggered opening of territories. Physicians, in all possibility, would also not be comfortable having hordes of people around in hospitals or in their clinics, except for patients and their caretakers. For sales representatives, it will now become particularly difficult to meet doctors in person.

Given the situation, how pharmaceutical brands will manage to share crucial information about their existing and new product and services with doctors. Not just that, how doctors will have access to such critical information when sales representatives’ visits would be very limited ?

Joining hands to open up possibilities

Coming together is a solution that would work in favour of players from both the industries, pharmaceutical as well as telemedicine.  Telemedicine platforms have doctors that pharmaceutical brands ultimately try to reach out to in a bid to educate them about their products and services.

The platforms have a unique opportunity to monetize their property by showcasing messaging of Rx drugs targeted to each physician, something pharmaceutical brands would be more than willing to do when their sales representatives would be unable to visit the healthcare professionals regularly. This would also push pharmaceutical brands to make the most of the digital mediums at a time when their target audience – doctors – are going digital.

A telehealth platform can show a banner messaging to the physician while a chat or video consultation is on, or play a brand video messaging while the physician is waiting for the next patient consult to begin. All this can happen in a completely non-intrusive manner by smoothly integrating into the overall interface of the app.

And rather than acting as a standalone entity, telemedicine platforms can partner with integrated physician  engagement platforms that can help maximize their monetization effort by opening up their marketing-messaging spaces to multiple pharmaceutical brands, who would bid in a real time for that space for a banner messaging or a video messaging display.

In order to sustain a long term association between the Telemedicine platform and Pharmaceutical players, there is a need for innovative and a cohesive partnership.

Dr. Harshit Jain
Founder & CEO, Doceree

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Gurugram:

  Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Ayush Mishra, CEO& Co-founder, Tattvan E-Clinics said, “Tattvan believes in transforming lives of people living in the remote regions of the country. Telemedicine delivers better healthcare support to patients at home or in rural areas. It’s a great opportunity for us and we are thrilled to be expanding to one of the biggest healthcare market in the world.”

A delegation headed by Professor Zack Shengzhi made a two week visit in Delhi and Hyderabad, trying to find a solution to tackle the affordability and opinion access to Chinese patients especially for Oncology, Nephrology and Dental.

Chairman of China India Business Council and India China Pharma Trade Center, Professor Zack Shengzhi said, “Telemedicine is the best model and the most sound solution to offer access to quality opinion and affordable medicines through government vision route map in China. CIBC is very happy to witness the signing ceremony between Tattvan and Hunan Tech.”

Ranga Sudhakar, Chief Strategy Officer, Tattvan highlighted,“We are very excited at the prospect. Indian specialists and super specialists services are amongst the best and most affordable in the world and we are happy we could contribute towards increasing its outreach globally.”

 Over the next few months, Tattvan plans to set up 15 clinics in cities like Moradabad, Guwahati and few more. The brand is expanding its healthcare services across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand with more than 50 E-Clinics over next 18 months. On the International level, Tattvan E-Clinics is looking forward to expanding in Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Ethiopia and Maldives.

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