India is paving the way for digital health ecosystems, and it is needless to say that the pandemic has enhanced the rate of adoption of digital care practices. However, the Indian healthcare system needs to implement certain bold, strategic actions to get to the road of sustainability.
The Indian healthcare industry has been preparing for the rapid healthcare change, driven by rising consumer expectations, technological innovations and a vision to create healthcare for all irrespective of their demographic locations. Further, not only India but the consumer-centric digital health ecosystems are now seeded across Asia.
Today, digital health impacts more than a billion lives, and its estimates show that digital health in Asia could collectively create up to $100 billion in value by 2025, up from $37 billion in 2020.
But, now the real question is, can healthTech platforms boost the sustainability of complex service systems such as healthcare?
There are 2 basic elements of a healthtech system; people and technology. People include the stakeholders of healthcare who can be further categorised into psychological, emotional, cognitive and cultural elements. On the other hand, technology is known to boost stakeholder interactions while offering accurate data management.
Here are certain points that will help you to place digital health and the Indian population on a single view:
- In the healthcare market, several software are functioning towards the agenda of personalization of health-related services. These software/applications may have provided relief to a section of society, however, in a country like India, digital platform designers would also have to consider the age, social background, demographics and financial capacity of the application users for digital care sustainability.
A well-thought healthtech platform not only is able to deliver the healthcare services but would renew and offer a more efficient process lying at the core of health service delivery. This will assist the care provider as well as the patient due to the real and the ongoing active participation of empowered patients, who can now access, mainly via digital platforms. Also, such practices will nourish patients’ ability to self-manage their disease.
2. Another aspect of a digital healthcare platform is its ability to act as “interaction enablers’. This enables activating specific and dynamic relationships between the medicos and patients, while mutually sharing patient data and updating the earlier medical records and, in so doing, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the whole healthcare system.
This implies that digital platforms have boosted access to information resources. Hence, doctors and patients, along with the other stakeholders can individually improve their understanding and awareness of medical issues. Which will eventually lead to better resource sharing, cooperation and networking.
3. Medical information systems are crucial for strong health systems and while discussing the sustainability of health information systems, it is essential to address that even though the EMR systems show great possibilities, in India, the chances of fully transitioning from paper-based systems may take years. Also, since complete transitioning is necessary for sustainability, the healthtech platform must overcome the challenges faced by the stakeholders while handling electronic record systems.
This suggests that, although the sustainability of electronic record systems faces challenges, easy-to-use design and a little stakeholder coordination could be promising to enhance the usage of EMR/EHR systems. And hopefully in the near future simple, template-based EMR modules will be widely adopted in every healthcare facility.
HArborSays: The above discussion proves that sustainability is essential for the healthcare system and the most convenient way to rely on the healthTech platform that will pave the way for ongoing value co-creation.
HarborSays 