How far has our nation progressed in terms of health indicators in our seventy years of Independence? While we are no doubt far far better than we were in 1947, it is also true that we lag on all important parameters. A recent report by The Lancet, based on analysis of data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) study between 1990 and 2015, revealed that India ranks 143 out of 188 countries, ahead of Pakistan (149) and Bangladesh (151), on 33 of the 47 health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators. Clearly, our healthcare delivery model has some gaps that need to be urgently addressed.
And where does the radiology fraternity fit into India’s healthcare delivery model? Is it only taking, developing and interpreting diagnostic images? Surely, radiologists of today do a lot more than their counterparts of a few past decades. As technology advances, radiology and imaging has evolved into a science. Albeit a science that is becoming less affordable to the common man.
A 2014 Decision Resources Group (DRG) Report states that the Indian diagnostic imaging system market will grow strongly through 2022, fuelled by favourable demographics and under-penetration of the market; increasing procedure volumes and government investment in healthcare will be important factors supporting market expansion.
Another 2014 DRG report finds that global markets for diagnostic imaging systems – including computed tomography (CT), general radiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound systems, will be driven by demand from emerging markets, as mature European and US markets are currently characterised by slow or stagnant growth because of market saturation, leading to low incremental sales.
As emerging markets increase their capacity to pay, and evolve to premium systems offering improved clinical outcomes and diagnostic accuracy, the speed breaker to this growth will be the lack of trained doctors to perform such advanced procedures. Hence, medtech companies able to facilitate this training will have the opportunity to build strong relationships with hospitals in these regions, says the DRG report.
These predictions are playing out as per script. As the representative body of radiologists in India, the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA) will be holding its 70th annual meet from January 5th – 8th, 2017 in Jaipur, Rajasthan. IRIA 2017 will no doubt bear out these projected growth figures as medtech companies go all out to woo radiologists with the latest technologies.
But across the world, governments are examining the costs of healthcare and are looking for ways to cut costs. India is still under-insured and most patients pay out of pocket, especially for diagnostic tests, which put a huge dent in their savings. The public image of healthcare, be it pharmaceutical companies, corporate hospitals and diagnostics service chains, is thus viewed with increasing suspicion. The angst against representatives of this community, who are seen as self serving opportunists instead of selfless healers, may be true for a few bad apples but unfortunately, the entire fraternity is being tarred with the same brush.
One hopes that IRIA 2017 will introspect on ways to project a more inclusive rather than exploitative image of the imaging fraternity.
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