Grant Kuo, MD of India, MediaTek Inc elaborates on the way technology is transforming healthcare significantly and predicts the trends that would emerge in Healthcare IT
One of the biggest drivers slated to accelerate the spread of potent medical products and services across tier I and tier II centres in India is the Internet of Things or IoT. Elsewhere in the world, IoT is making it easier for medical and government institutions to reach out to people and deliver quality healthcare facilities that aid in delivering more accurate and timely diagnosis and response for various ailments. These solutions are able to modernise current medical practices, reduce costs, eliminate any duplication of tests as well as streamline processes and update medical records in real time. The latter has created a significant level of opportunity for providing more improved infrastructure to store data and make it available at different locations for specialised practitioners to analyse.
In order to reach greater levels of efficiency, precision and patient safety, healthcare providers need real-time visibility and intelligence in their data. Coinciding with this need, many industry analysts point to the Digital India campaign, which they view will help provide further impetus to IoT in rural healthcare. In fact, government will also be seen encouraging the use and implementation of IoT in the healthcare market very soon. The E-health initiative, which is a part of Digital India drive launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims at providing effective and economical healthcare services to all citizens. The programme aims to make use of technology and portals to facilitate people, maintain health records and book online appointments with various departments of different hospitals using eKYC data of Aadhaar number.
According to McKinsey’s report, a rapid rise in growth for devices and systems for in-home monitoring of patients is expected, particularly for those with chronic conditions such as diabetes. These devices have already demonstrated their potential to improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs among patients with acute forms of chronic heart failure, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Related to this, an estimated 130 million consumers worldwide use fitness trackers today. The number of connected fitness monitors is expected to exceed 1.3 billion units in 2025 with the rise of smart watches and other wearable devices. More so, by implementing solutions such as radio frequency identification and mobile scanners connected with cloud technology, organisations can gain visibility into these assets, providing real-time information to people and transactions that require them ensuring hospitals have what they need, where they need it, when they need it. IoT also makes it easier to integrate data from consumer devices such as fitness band into hospital systems, which help organisations gather more data and deliver better care.
Further, various devices and enablers which can help in integrating technology in the healthcare segment towards vitality and advancement are cheaper consumer off-the-shelf (COTS) software applications. Within this, fitness bands would work as tracking devices for daily analysis of patients. From the data generated by third party administrators would be able to manage and oversee data warehousing and mine it when required. However, looking ahead, improvements in collaborative data exchange, work-flows and mobility and need for better financial management are the next phase of technological evolution in healthcare. In addition, the shifts occurring in mobile devices, wireless technology and cloud computing would need to be accounted for, as they would hold a crucial key towards spreading better healthcare for the masses.
In fact, our firm in collaboration with World Health Partners (WHP) has been engaged in leveraging mobile technology to provide more effective healthcare solutions to rural populations in two central Indian states. This campaign works two-fold. Firstly, it reaches out to about 1.3 million people to spread awareness about symptoms of cardiovascular maladies through measures like screening a Bollywood movie to attract audience. Secondly, it makes use of a cloud-based auto solution, developed by MediaTek, which shall work as a screening tool to help remotely select probable patients, who can then seek further professional advice and consultation via WHP’s telemedicine services. With the help of this tool, the requirement of doctors’ resource will become more specific to only those people who are identified as suffering with a heart malady. Further, distance barriers will be eliminated thereby improving access to medical services that are not always available in distant rural communities.
Though such campaigns help, at present, the industry still faces operational challenges such as cost, complexity of implementation and usage, absence of efficient computerisation at urban clinics/ hospitals, inadequate storage facilities for capturing data etc. More so, over 30 million have now been diagnosed with diabetes in India. In rural areas, the prevalence is approximately three per cent of the total population. Large percentages of rural populations are still unable to access basic healthcare facilities. In rural India, where the number of primary healthcare centres (PHCs) is limited, eight per cent of the centres do not have doctors or medical staff, 39 per cent do not have lab technicians and 18 per cent PHCs do not even have a pharmacist technology can help bridge the gap.
Today, healthcare organisations need to streamline their technological infrastructure, to provide simple, quicker and more efficient healthcare service or delivery. The convergence of healthcare with upcoming technologies will play a key role in improving accessibility and mitigating manpower shortage. The coming years are expected to witness greater deployment of tools like telemedicine, teleradiology, hospital information systems / hospital management information systems, online or electronic medical records, etc.
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