Will be a shift in focus to autonomous, robotic healthcare assistants capable of working in people’s homes and hospitals: Dr Dharminder Nagar

Dr Dharminder Nagar, MD, Paras Healthcare

The healthcare industry is changing on several different fronts especially after the global pandemic of COVID-19. With the inception of new vaccines, treatments and breakthroughs enabled by innovation, the healthcare industry will continue to leverage ground-breaking solutions to attend to patients’ needs over the coming years. Virtualised treatment adoption has witnessed a surge after the COVID-19 pandemic. The trend is expected to continue over the coming years as it would allow physicians to fit in more patient consultations into their schedule as well as mitigate the risk of spreading infections. Other than that, there will be a shift in focus to autonomous and robotic healthcare assistants capable of working in people’s homes and hospitals. There is a significant burden on healthcare organisations in the form of decreasing revenue and increasing workload owing to the coronavirus pandemic. However, Big Data can address such challenges once digitisation of patient records happens and longitudinal patient records are developed and maintained. With global trends indicating a growing shift towards digital transformation, Big Data is expected to optimise patient experience further in the next decade. The healthcare industry at present is facing challenges with budget allocation and limited government attention. The government needs to focus on a specially designed fiscal stimulus that can be funnelled into policy bottlenecks and public health to make the sector the engine of GDP growth.