The Indian healthcare sector is growing at a rapid pace and is expected to reach $ 280 billion by 2020. What kind of opportunities would this growth open up for those seeking to make a career in this sector?
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S R Dugal
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Healthcare is one of the biggest career generators of this century. The healthcare industry will employ more people than the IT industry of this country. The IT industry is worth $100 billion today and could touch $110 billion or so whilst the health industry will be double the size. We would expect that this sector will generate hundreds of thousands of jobs and apart from doctors and nurses, there will be a big requirement for masters in health administration (MHA) graduates to handle business development, health counselling, TPA processing, insurance, operations management, HR, finance maintenance etc. At another level there will be a requirement for caregivers, ward boys, ambulance drivers, assistant pharmacists, pharmacists and people in the health support services. These are going to be the new growth areas for websites catering to health issues, wellness companies, fitness companies, spas, physiotherapists, psychiatrists etc. To give you an idea, in the US close to 15 per cent of the workforce is in the health area, the single biggest employers. The other thing we must all realise is that over 60 per cent of the staffing is non medical. This is a major opportunity for engineers, accountants, economics graduates and life science students as well.
What are the steps that need to be taken up on the national front to ensure optimum utilisation of opportunities?
As a nation we have the doctors and there is a huge ongoing expansion capacity taking place for more doctors and nurses, but we also need to recognise the need for MHA graduates to take on the various positions in medical tourism, training of care givers, ward boys, customer relations executives, business development executives, accounts and HR which looks at how to manage highly qualified specialists. New institutions are needed to fill these gaps, we have to borrow this knowledge from UK or US since prior to early 2000 there was no emphasis on management of health as it was in the public sector or the charity domain.The corporatisation of healthcare is recent, less than six or seven years. Hence it is necessary to adopt practices which are efficient, effective and health centric for which a number of new institutions catering to this sphere would have to come up, IIM Bangalore has taken some initiatives, so has ICRI but many more such institutions are required.
According to you, what are the healthcare verticals which would see maximum progress? Why?
The healthcare areas which will explode are day care centres, super-speciality hospitals, old age and care homes for recovery or for the chronically ill, ambulance services (these are today rudimentary) and health insurance. We can expect a complete revolution in the healthcare sector as 7-star hospitals, 5-star hospitals, budget hospitals and the super low budget hospitals as well as day care centres come up. The central labs and the diagnostic centres will be big chains spread across the country, we should get ready for corporate giants in these fields. The other explosion which will take place is over the Internet, which alongwith mobile telephone will be a major marketing, diagnostic and consultation tool. It would also help reduce patient visits with a large majority of consultation, diagnostics and prescriptions being carried out digitally. Large companies will enter this space, not unlike online retail companies. Thus we may see a huge number of new entrepreneurs being born.
What changes are required on the education front to create healthcare professionals who would be equipped to deal with the metamorphosis of Indian healthcare sector?
A complete new set of institutions are required to train managers, marketing professionals and HR personnel in this sector as healthcare has very different needs from other industries. It is necessary to bring best practices from outside India, particularly from UK and US where the health sector is well developed and has been evolving over time. Our current management schools do not cater to this sector effectively. Allied health is a separate area and there are specialised institutions in both UK and US. It is not part of the medical school or the MBA School and this is what has to happen here.
How does ICRI plan to play a role in propelling the growth of the sector?
ICRI is in the area of allied health and has a separate school of health with specialisation in that area. It has brought MHA and a whole host of programmes for different levels of personnel in the allied health area. It has also tied up with one of the best schools in the world i.e. Cranfield University. ICRI has been a pioneer and leader in clinical research and it is now continuing on the same track with health .It has partnered Cranfield University for over seven years in CR and is now partnering it in health. We are following the model that health is a specialised area and must be dealt with in that fashion.
What kind of results are you envisaging from plans that ICRI has set in motion?
In the next five years, we expect health to become a major part of our business alongwith clinical research. We aim to pioneer and lead this revolution in India. We are now working with Cranfield University to bring manufacturing techniques in the areas of QC and QA with regards to healthcare. This would lead to not only improvements in productivity but also lead to higher rates of survival due to superior ward management, care management, maintenance etc.
What are the pitfalls that could hinder the growth of the sector? How would ICRI’s moves help to tackle these hindrances?
The pitfalls in this area of health will be non availability of sufficient funds. The health sector has to be differently handled by the banking sector and RBI guidelines have to be different for this sector since it has its own problems in terms of high investments. A lack of understanding by the government agencies in insurance legislation and tackling of issues such as current insurance plans will prevent the growth of the day care centres and the pharma industry. Lack of availability of trained manpower is another issue. Another major problem is the failure to develop facilities to deal with various market segments. Ethics again will be an area of great concern
What are ICRI’s future plans and how would they be beneficial to Indian healthcare?
ICRI hopes to play a major role in manpower development. It also hopes to be a catalyst in the growth of this sector. It hopes to bring in best practices from the globe to this sector. An example is the application of manufacturing techniques to healthcare.
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