Healthcare may well be the next sunrise sector for India over the next two decades, bringing in remarkable methods to improve the quality of life for patients, professionals, and a whole new class of end users or wellness consumers. Demand is being spurred not just by economics and policy factors, but also innovative findings and breakthrough in healthcare services—from behavioural health counselling, healthcare informatics, genetic counselling and telemedicine specialities
To understand the exciting new landscape of healthcare professionals, one should look at the 2021 Bill for Allied and Healthcare Professions. It identifies 53 types of healthcare professionals in 15 categories. These include Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Cell Geneticists, Medical Records Analysts, and Clinical Coders to name just a few. And the demand is growing very fast! India has fewer than 1 million workers in this group while the need is for nearly 5 million.
At the same time, the demand for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and so on continues to grow to an extent much more than what our education system can provide. Today, we have about 6 million such professionals, which is even fewer than half of what we actually need. Because of inadequate data and dropouts, among other factors, the gap will soon touch 15 million. India’s doctor population ratio is far behind what WHO recommends. Besides, we also need to upgrade all the practising and aspiring doctors about the latest findings and technological advancements in the healthcare domain.
Use of Digitization
India has a huge smartphone user base, which is larger than the population of several countries. With early rollout of 5G and low bandwidth costs, this is the perfect set-up for a rapid spread of learning and skilling ecosystems. Digitization also opens up opportunities for livelihood creations away from physical learning centres that are basically concentrated in large urban areas. Digital platforms can fulfil the aspirations of youngsters from the remotest and smallest of towns and villages.
With new findings and evolving technologies, such as AI and ML, among others in healthcare, quality and efficiency of care will continue to improve. Digital initiatives, especially during Covid have gone up. Healthcare startups, technology companies are coming in to solve a lot of problems digitally.
Digital Medium & Solutions
Technology, such as networking platforms, hands on workshops and online conferences, among others help doctors stay updated on the latest developments. Today, surgeries, especially critical ones are often streamed live from the operation theatres where a large group of clinicians are able to watch. They can even rectify any errors that they may have been carrying out all this while because experts are showing them how to perform some of the critical surgeries.
So events, such as live streaming of OT, seminars, webinars, video content, hands-on-workshops, among others can help last-mile physicians and healthcare workers upskill themselves.
Nowadays, a lot of hospitals have started investing in digital technology and are training their staff and are holding certificate workshops as well. Moreover, Medical councils are also looking at digitization of Continuing Medical Education (CME) with accreditation.
Today doctors can digitally attend CME program held by state councils to earn credit points and need not travel to locations and sit physically. This will be of immense help, especially in the rural markets where a doctor, for instance, sitting in Rural Bankura in the State of West Bengal, need not travel to Kolkata to attend CME programs to earn credit points. Now they can sit at the comfort of their clinics and get upskilled digitally now being promoted by bodies such as the Indian Medical Association.
Phygital: The Way Ahead
Governments, medical associations, hospitals, academia—all are going digital heavily where more investments are being done so that more digital solutions are available for doctors—whether they are students or practising doctors—workshops are held digitally. The mantra now is Phygital. One part digital and one part physical and so, the term ‘phygital’ comes in. Phygital is the convergence of the physical and digital developments. These will transform the ways we manage both our health and healthcare system interactions. From lifestyle change, early detection to digital monitoring to long-term care, among others will be impacted hugely.
New innovations is expanding both the ‘physical’ world in such areas as nanotechnology, robotics and connectivity and so on in medtech and device, while in the ‘digital’ world, early detection, use of AI in diagnostics and therapies, and much more.
Keeping last-mile doctors updated
It is very difficult for doctors practising in the remotest areas of the country to attend Medical seminars and workshops with the plethora of new information coming in on new diagnostics & treatment options, to stay updated on the latest developments in the healthcare space. This is where online platforms become extremely important. For instance, a doctor in Kohima, Nagaland, called up MediSage and said that his practice has enhanced vastly with better patient outcomes because he now has access to the MediSage platform which was not available earlier. Thanks to the internet connectivity and the app – he is now immensely confident with lectures from Specialists & Experts from Mumbai & Delhi transmitting key information for free.
This is leading to complete democratisation of Medical knowledge which is not limited to conferences happening in silos with thousands of rupees in registration fees conducted in five star venues of metro cities.
We believe 2023 & beyond all the healthcare ecosystem will leverage technology immensely & come together to collaborate & communicate to build a healthier & Safer World of tomorrow.
About the author: Abhishek Ghosh is the Co-founder & Director of Medisage. He started his career at Baxter, an American Pharma multinational and later worked with various multinationals such as Ranbaxy, AstraZeneca, etc. In his last corporate role, he led marketing for Sanofi India and was instrumental in launching Forxiga – now a multimillion-dollar drug in India. Over years, Abhishek has developed connections with business leaders in the Indian healthcare space and currently leads Business development for Medisage.
