In the age of the consumer, entrepreneurs and organisations are waking up to the need to design their business models around customer requirements. Healthcare industry is no different. The panel discussion on ‘Patient – driven innovations in healthcare’, brought to fore these innovations and highlighted strategies that will enhance caregiving in India. The panel, consisting of Chayan Chatterjee, Co-founder & COO, Lattice Innovations (moderator); Lalit Pai, CEO, Nightingales Home Healthcare Services; Dr Aniruddha Malpani, Director and Value Custodian at Solidarity Advisors; Dr Nagarjun Mishra, Chief Officer-Business & Strategy & Co-founder, Purple Health and Suresh Satyamurthy, Founder, Tarnea Technologies.
Chatterjee started off by talking about the changes that the healthcare industry is currently witnessing. He led the conversation towards understanding the concept of patient-driven innovations. He said, “This is the phase where innovations in healthcare will be research and technology driven, and patient needs will play a significant role. Organisations which will seize patient needs and design their innovations around these needs will be the ones who will succeed.” Moving on, Chatterjee asked the panel to share their perspectives on the challenges faced by them in implementing patient – driven innovations.
Dr Malpani began by accentuating on the importance of keeping patients first. He mentioned that at times doctors are rude to patients and they need to respect them. “It’s time doctors realise that patients and healthcare providers stand on the same side.” Pai pointed out, “As a community, we do not talk about patient outcomes. There is an urgent need for communication at all levels within the healthcare system and so that we shift our focus to driving successful patient outcomes. It’s time that healthcare communication becomes more objective.”
Key takeaways
- Keep patient first
- Healthy communication among healthcare providers and patients is a must
- Pick up a problem that affects patients and try to solve it
- Follow an unified process
- Interaction with patients can bring in new ideas for healthcare delivery
Citing the example of a US-based online patient network – patientlikeme.com, a very successful business model, Chatterjee asked Dr Mishra about the workability of a similar model in the Indian context? Replying on the same, Dr Mishra stated that these concepts are a good way to empower patients, however the Indian patients still have some apprehensions about sharing their medical information with others. Nevertheless, there is some slow progress in this area. He referred to FaceBook’s new initiative for pregnant women, wherein expectant mothers can interact and share their experiences, problems and medical conditions.
Pai and Dr Malpani chipped in with their views on how interaction with patients can bring in new ideas for healthcare delivery that can be beneficial for the patients as well as healthcare providers.
Satyamurthy brought in a new perspective to this discussion. He spoke about the role of pharmacies in empowering patients. He shared experiences where patients take help from their pharmacists to understand the doctor prescription. He went on to admit that he began his venture with once such idea.
Taking the conversation forward, Dr Malpani gave examples of how small innovations can be done within hospitals taking patient requirements into consideration. Adding to this, Pai spoke about how various digital technologies can be leveraged to bring out these innovations. However, he also raised concerns about regulations in this area.
Satyamurthy further engaged the audience by asking them about their mobile phones and convinced the entire congregation present to believe that innovations comes from increasing needs and no government can bring about innovations until the people want it and work for it. Therefore, he urged hospitals to understand patient needs to bring about these innovations.
Chatterjee finally asked the panel for their recommendations on design and product development. The panelists suggested looking at one problem that affects patients and trying to resolve it. Keep
patients first and the rest will fall in line. Don’t try too many things and follow a unified process to run your business, were some invaluable advices.