Rustom Lawyer, Co-Founder & CEO, Augnito talks about EMRs and its successful implementation in India
The Indian government is committed to improving the healthcare system and has introduced a number of different initiatives that will benefit its citizens. India’s average spending on health care, as per reports from The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is lower than both developed countries like Europe or Canada but also developing one’s such as Brazil which has higher rates due to their poverty level when compared with its population size. The Indian government spends only 1.13% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare according to the policy think-tank, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog 2019 report. In a country with so many needing help, that is a concerning statistic.
And now…
India’s healthcare is projected to reach US$ 372 billion in 2022 with a growth rate of 17%. The government hopes that this number will increase by 3% every year, which would mean an additional worth around USD 450 million for Indian hospitals. To help meet these goals they have established two new programs: National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) and NITI Aayog’s “Health System For New India”. The first aims at digitizing current paper-based practices while also providing incentives like tax breaks if implemented correctly; the second offers suggestions on how different stakeholders can work together more effectively when it comes down to changes or improvements needed within rural areas without access. According to the paper ‘‘Implementing Electronic Health Records in India: Status, Issues & Way Forward’ by Soham Sinha, Srishti Majumdar and Arpita Mukherjee from MITRE Corporation’s Centre For Cost-Effective National Security Informatics Programmes (CCONSIP) government schemes are increasingly developing plans for a unified health information system. Designing electronic medical records or EHR is crucial if all patients need to access digital healthcare initiatives as well other ambitions such as insurance claims processing without human intervention during emergency cases which will reduce costs significantly. There will be fewer errors made through typing data into computers compared with humans doing so, therefore, saving time and resources wasted on each patient encounter.
The road to adequately digitising India’s healthcare is long and full of challenges…
Financial hurdle: One major challenge that lies ahead for this journey is a financial incentive from the government, which currently does not provide any form of encouragement in providing EMRs systems within their hospitals; thus, most providers must do all grunt work themselves.
Lack of standardisation: Although the government in the EHR Standards 2016, mentions a list of ISO standards that hospitals may comply with, it is a voluntary exercise. This prevents any documentation from being universal and could form an impediment to establishing a unified information system. A gap may also occur when trying to establish one information system as there are different technical solutions available; some might work better than others depending upon what service you need from your electronic medical records (EMR) keeping software provider!
Less awareness: In spite of internet penetration growing to 50% of the population, there’s still half of Indians who aren’t online. The concept of EMRs is not only unheard of but raises scepticism from both patients and healthcare providers. After all, there has been a heavy reliance on paper recording. While patients are hesitant because of fear of security about their data, on the other hand, healthcare providers are simply too used to traditional methods.
Disruption of work: The initial period of working with EMRs is often disruptive for administration. Whether it’s migrating to new methods or training of staff, every new initiative takes time. In healthcare, this amounts to a dip in not just services provided but also affects the revenue generation of an establishment. Small-scale healthcare providers cannot afford the interruption to their daily activities.
Time constraints: The time and effort required by healthcare providers to record data often leads them away from providing medical aid. There is also a lack of education on how technology can help, but innovative AI solutions have eliminated the need for paper-based systems altogether through voice commands or other automation features like natural language processing algorithms.
Achieving success: The introduction and implementation of EMRs in India have been a long process. But with the right incentives, policies or regulations it can be achieved more effectively than before. To achieve this goal, we need to increase healthcare expenditure on both public and private levels while creating awareness about their benefits among both physicians practicing within government-run facilities as well those who work for private practices where they will eventually benefit patients too! Furthermore, data collection itself must be simplified and made more efficient. In the absence of standardization for EMR systems in healthcare settings, it will never become a universal program where patient records can be inputted into an integrated database to reduce paperwork while also ensuring user-friendliness from both sides: patients as well staff members who need access rights accordingly.
In addition, there should be training programs designed around this new technology so that risks associated with implementing such tools aren’t taken lightly especially since they require storage space to be shared automatically between providers. Another way to prepare for the future is by having technical knowledge imparted at educational institutions, which will help in achieving effective EMR implementation. Additionally, access to open-source technological solutions may also aid unity of data collected from patients and healthcare providers alike as they all work towards a more cohesive goal: providing quality care unimpeded by technology’s many limitations!
India has only just started on this journey, so stay tuned…
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