HArbor Says

Reimagining Women’s Healthcare: HealthTech’s Transformative Thread in Healthcare Systems

Have you ever seen a tapestry? A textile art created with an exquisite fusion of colourful threads interlaced with meticulous precision. Now, imagine a tapestry in which each strand portrays distinct facets of women’s healthcare – access to care, the influence of socio-economic factors, the impact of community healthcare practices, and disheartening realities of disparities in medical research and treatment. Also, view the delicate nature of tapestry as a symbol of their intricate health needs, which often stay overlooked or undervalued. However, just as a tapestry regains strength with care, attention, and collaboration, is our healthcare system correctly navigating the multifaceted challenges faced by women in the country? Let’s find out.

In India today, access to care has seen improvement through various government and independent organisation initiatives. However, socio-economic factors continue to cast shadows, creating financial barriers that limit women’s ability to receive the necessary care they need. Despite advancements in medical technology, women often find themselves marginalised within healthcare systems due to factors such as tech illiteracy, geographical remoteness, and entrenched community beliefs. This highlights the crucial understanding that long-term healthcare challenges cannot be solely addressed by technology-driven solutions alone. One notable example is the ‘JEEVAN BINDI’ initiative, which specifically targets rural areas in north-west Maharashtra to tackle iodine deficiency among women. Notably, such programs not only address nutrient deficiencies, but also shed light on related health concerns like Goitre, Breast Cancer, and Fibroids prevalent in these rural communities. However, the sustained success of such initiatives relies on continuous monitoring and regular patient follow-ups to ensure enduring positive outcomes.

The Way Forward with Assisted-Telemedicine & Real-time Diagnostics

According to the National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme – the alarming prevalence of iodine deficiency disorders among over 71 million Indians. Addressing this critical issue requires not only immediate intervention but also long-term monitoring to achieve optimal results. Assisted-telemedicine healthcare units emerge as a promising solution, ensuring that women can receive continuous care even after the conclusion of camps or health shivirs. These innovative platforms enable remote consultations, allowing women to access healthcare services from the comfort of their own homes. Furthermore, these economical, assisted care delivery units can also deliver Real-time Diagnosis Solution via Rapid Test Kits & diagnostic tools and quick referrals for specialised care.

“In the tapestry of women’s health, assisted-telemedicine units weave a lifeline of continuous care.”

In underserved communities, where daily practices are shaped by collective community beliefs, the integration of advanced medical care often progresses at a sluggish pace. Regrettably, this sluggishness extends to the realm of women’s health, where access to comprehensive prenatal and postnatal care is limited, leaving expectant mothers vulnerable to complications that can profoundly impact their mental and physical well-being. Although in the last few years, India witnessed an overall declining maternal mortality ratio, huge disparities still persist between different states.

Fig: Maternal mortality ratio in India from 2017 to 2019, by state (per 100,000 live births) Source – Statista

India has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios (MMRs) and neonatal death rates in the world. And, every year 77 000 women die due to pregnancy complications. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, parents often lack the knowledge and awareness, but the knowledge barrier is not the only concern. Rugged terrain, unpaved roads, lack of transport at the critical hour, poor communications, and poor health infrastructure are also some of the key barriers between pregnant women in remote villages in India and good quality health care.

Integrated EMR systems can ensure seamless information exchange, enabling healthcare providers to access accurate medical histories and make informed decisions, even in remote areas.
Quick diagnostic tests, designed for easy and rapid deployment, can aid in the early detection and management of complications, saving critical time and improving outcomes.
Healthtech platforms can establish telemedicine networks, facilitating remote consultations and enabling doctors to reach patients who are geographically isolated.
EMR and personal health record (PHR) systems can simplify the work of ASHA workers, empowering them to efficiently track and monitor pregnant women’s health, share data with healthcare professionals, and provide targeted interventions.

By harnessing the power of healthtech, India can surmount the barriers of rugged terrain, poor infrastructure, and limited transport options, elevating the reach of healthcare services and potentially saving thousands of lives each year.

HArbor Says:

In the intricate tapestry of women’s healthcare, technology emerges as a crucial thread, weaving together access, empowerment, and improved outcomes. As we navigate the challenges of socio-economic factors, geographic remoteness, and community beliefs, healthtech platforms offer a lifeline of care. By embracing the power of assisted-telemedicine and real-time diagnostics, we empower women to break free from the shackles of limited access. Together, let us stand up for women’s health and unravel a future of equitable care.

By Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Healthcare for Everyone: Striving Towards Healthcare Accessibility in Bharat

In matters concerning healthcare accessibility, individuals possess the right to hold their own opinions. Nevertheless, many are unfortunately constrained by inadequate access to healthcare, and their voices often go unheard.

However, HArbor has taken the initiative to bridge this gap by extending a platform for those who must articulate their views for a healthier tomorrow.

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Era of Digitalization in Healthcare: So much done, yet so much left.

Taking only the POSITIVE events into account – COVID-19 PANDEMIC has driven the digital transformation in the healthcare industry. We’ve seen healthcare units extensively adapting the workforce and technologies to mark up with the new-age care delivery standards. But, can we assume the transition to be equally easy for every healthcare stakeholder? In other words, what does the era of digitalization mean to you as a healthcare stakeholder?

As a supernatural fiction writer, H.P. Lovecraft once said – “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Similarly, the real world is scared of the extent of the digital world and their susceptibility to accept healthtech is no different. Simply put, even if the healthcare stakeholders could surpass the fear of trying something technologically innovative while delivering or receiving medical care, the digital care delivery ecosystem has its own perils, which cannot be left unaddressed being on a global mission to create affordable, acceptable and equitable healthcare for all.

Using technology in hospitals for diagnosis and treatment is not new, but when healthtech tools were introduced to deliver or receive medical care, chaos wasn’t far away. However, a little was done to ease out that crease and it has created a significant divide between the healthtech innovators and its users. A divide which was mostly caused due to the fear of not understanding technology. In other terms, this divide mostly entails stakeholders who are technologically illiterate. In India, despite a constant push towards a deeper penetration of the internet, digital literacy is almost non-existent in rural parts of the country. With almost 60 percent of the rural population still not actively using the internet. Although this population seems comfortable with manual practices, and for them conventional healthcare practices have worked so far. Unfortunately, this group also represents the population whose overall out-of-pocket healthcare expense is off the charts. As they end up spending for unnecessary care facility visits, poor referral systems and lack of definitive diagnostic tests.

Internet literacy index across India in 2021, by category.
Source: Statista

The graph represents digital literacy in India in terms of web accessibility, population’s literacy and more.

The above argument proves that manual to digital care delivery ecosystem shift can be challenging for medicos as well as patients, but a change in perspective can help the stakeholders to create a big difference. Potentially, assisting healthcare practitioners to expand their reach and patients to receive care efficiently. Here’s how?

1. One way to address the challenges in the transition to a digital care delivery ecosystem is to focus on improving digital literacy among healthcare stakeholders. Wherein, assisted healtech technologies like standalone assisted healthcare KIOSK and Diagnostic machines can be deployed to remote locations to provide medical care and educational campaigns. Gradually bridging the gap between ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’.

2. Addressing and eliminating the socioeconomic differences by using equally accessible and equitable healthtech technologies. Also, Collaboration between healthtech innovators, and healthcare providers can play a crucial role in ensuring that digital healthcare solutions are developed and implemented in a way that is effective, safe, and equitable.

3. Taking effective actions towards understanding, what are they worried about, what are their fears, what are they trying to do? If we don’t engage with them that way, it doesn’t matter what technology we use.

The Bling of Smartphone, Fitbands & Advanced Applications!

According to Deloitte’s 2022 Global TMT, the smartphone market is expected to reach 1 billion smartphone users by 2026. However, the roadblock is the lack of solutions for simple smartphones in healthcare, which is a significant challenge in providing healthcare for all. It is essential to have access to healthcare information and services on all types of devices, including simple smartphones, as they are often more accessible and affordable to a broader population. Moreover, Most health apps and wearables are designed in English, which is not the primary language of many Indians. This makes it difficult for them to understand and use the technology effectively.

One possible solution to this problem is to develop mobile healthcare applications that can work on all types of smartphones, including simple smartphones. These applications should be optimised for low-end devices and slow network connections, making them accessible to a wider range of users. They could be developed using technologies that require minimal storage and processing power. HealthTech solutions that can provide healthcare information(Patient records, Prescriptions and appointment notifications through downloadable formats and SMS.

To Summarise, the processes need to be simple, so that digital literacy can be enhanced!

HArbor Says:

A new age has dawn upon us, and digitalization offers immense opportunities for economic growth, innovation, and social development. However, it is essential to address the challenges of digital skills and literacy to ensure that everyone can participate fully in this digital era.

HArbor is making strides towards a better tomorrow where healthcare is ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE & EQUITABLE for all. Let’s talk, if you can relate to this vision.

https://harborvision.in/contact.html

Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Have you ever been a victim of identity theft while seeking medical attention?

Identity thefts due to leak of medical patients record.

At first, it was only money that cyber criminals were after, but this isn’t the case anymore. In 2017, when data breach incidents started to affect businesses, banks weren’t the most impacted — it was healthcare providers, their staff, and even patients. Fast forward to 2021, the year ended with the reports of a ransomware attack on India’s foremost government hospital. The breach was detected in the internal systems of AIIMS, which led the hospital to shut down most of its digital patient care systems and move to manual means. Undoubtedly, this must have caused the entire staff and patients a great deal of chaos, which we can’t even possibly fathom!

However, have you ever wondered about the repercussions of such incidents on an individual’s life?

Mr Amit Rajan’s case is one of many such victims whose life took a spin after being sent home from a successful heart operation. Mr Rajan, a middle-aged man from Mumbai, had undergone heart surgery at one of the city’s leading hospitals. After the surgery, he was discharged and went home to recover. Much to his dismay, his troubles were just beginning. A few weeks after his surgery, he received a call from his health insurance company about the medical loan received by him. The company claimed that all his medical documents were verified and the account transfers were made 3 hours prior to the call. Mr Ranjan froze to the ground as he had never claimed any medical loan in his life. And, what else could he have done? The account transfer was already done and the thought of paying back 5 lakh rupees to the bank was beyond terrifying. In response to this incident he filed a complaint and hoped that the investigation would bring him some better news. This identity theft took a whole new level when he was informed of suspicious transactions made using his credit card. He immediately contacted the bank and blocked his card, but the damage was already done. The cybercriminals had managed to steal his credit card information during the data breach at the hospital where he underwent surgery.

Note: India has reported over 4000 online identity thefts in the year 2021. The states of Karnataka, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand are some of the countries with leading registered cases in India.

Source: Statista

Upon investigation, he found out that his personal information, including his name, address, phone number, and even his government identification card details, had been stolen during the data breach at the hospital.

Mr Rajan’s case is not an isolated incident. Identity theft has become a growing concern due to the increasing number of data breaches in various sectors. Cybercriminals can use stolen personal information to open bank accounts, apply for loans, purchase goods and services, and even commit crimes in the victim’s name. The consequences of identity theft can be devastating, ranging from financial loss to reputational damage.

Did you know – Patient data is 10 to 15 times more valuable than credit card data when sold on the dark web?

Individuals need to be vigilant and take proactive measures to protect their personal information. This includes regularly monitoring bank and credit card statements, checking credit reports, using strong and unique passwords, and avoiding sharing personal information with untrusted sources. But, crucial for businesses and like in this case healthcare facilities to prioritise cybersecurity measures and ensure the protection of their patients’ personal information.

The situation of identity theft for Mr Rajan has not just caused financial loss but has also pushed him emotionally and psychologically from which he might not be able to recover soon. Worst case scenario, what if he decides to skip his further treatment? Which might get dangerous as he is a recovering heart patient.

After a few months and further investigation by city’s cyber branch experts, Mr Rajan was informed that a minor software breach in his primary care facility’s system was responsible for the identity theft and it’s possible that his personal details were already sold on the dark web a few months before the incident.

No system is breach-free, but Mr Rajan’s story and several other identity theft incidents indicate that even as a primary healthcare provider, one must be certain of the OPD Management Solutions or Facility Management Solution, they are using to manage the care facility.

Primary healthcare facilities can take several steps to reduce data breaches and protect their patients’ personal information. Here are some of the key steps:

Conduct regular risk assessments: Primary healthcare facilities should regularly assess their cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities.
Implement strong access controls: Access controls such as multi-factor authentication, password policies, and role-based access controls can help protect sensitive patient information from unauthorised access.
Encrypt sensitive data: Sensitive patient data such as health records, pan card numbers, and insurance information should be encrypted to protect it from unauthorised access in the event of a breach.
Use secure communication channels: Facilities should use secure communication channels such as encrypted email and messaging services to ensure that patient information is protected while being shared among healthcare providers.
Regularly update software and systems: Primary healthcare facilities should ensure that all software and systems are regularly updated with the latest security patches and updates to prevent known vulnerabilities from being exploited.

Or, if you want to practise stress-free, upgrading your care facility with HArbor’s Practice Management Solution is the best possible solution.

HArbor Says: Cyber security researcher Ehraz Ahmed once said – “No system is 100 percent foolproof. If humans have built it, humans can enter it, but there are checks and balances to secure the systems” and we stand by it.

Want to know how HArbor manages to keep data breaches at bay?

Let’s talk.

HArbor Says

Early Diagnosis: A Key to Better Healthcare!

A lancet report published in 2018 highlighted that around 3.6 million people in low and middle-income countries die from not having access to care. And, the situation today is still the same.

HArbor Says

Are You Really Upgrading Your Practice or Getting Swayed by FOMO?

In attempts to stay relevant, healthcare professionals have been trying a hundred different things starting with social media awareness reels to listing their practices on aggregators that supposedly are helping patients to find doctors. Truth be told, if care practitioners want to connect with their potential audience via social media magic wagon, it is not a bad idea. But if they have mistaken listing websites as their fairy godmother, sadly the spell will not last long. On the contrary, they might find themselves amidst pointless competition that did not not even exist before the boom of new age aggregators.

However, not all hope is lost, and with the right tech healthcare practitioners still have a chance to upgrade their care practice for the better.

Telemedicine is one of the most compelling fads that has recently surfaced. Undoubtedly, it has played a significant role during COVID, but as a future perspective, its ingenuity is still in question. Let’s take a step back to understand this. According to a study by Nielsen, digital literacy is almost non-existent among more than 90% of India’s population. Although rural India has 352 million internet users, possibly because of low digital literacy, nearly 60% of the rural population is still not actively using the internet. So can a telemedicine tool be enough to reinforce a better primary healthcare ecosystem in the country, especially in rural areas? Evidently, NO!

Now, maybe a mere tech tool may not be efficient to assist medicos in extending their bandwidth, but several successful assisted healthcare models like ICMR-AAROGYASRI, NeHA and VRCs have proven their competence in the past. This implies that an assisted-telemedicine OPD clinic functional in a doctor’s chosen locality has the potential to harbor similar or even better results.

Speaking of the choices, medicos often bow to the fear of staying unnoticed by their potential clients. As a result, they end up registering themselves on several different listing websites without realising the consequences of such a step on their current state of business in the long run. Here are all the more reasons adding up to the disadvantages of listing practices on websites –

Listing a business can involve additional costs such as paying for a listing or advertising and the cost of maintaining the listing.
Conflict of interest, as it must show the paid listings higher than the better-rated listings.
Listing a business creates unnecessary competition among doctors, especially when the world doesn’t have enough doctors to treat everyone. As a result, one may find their patients swayed by premium account holders with dashing profiles.
Listing a business can subject doctors to additional legal and regulatory requirements, such as providing certain information to patients or adhering to strict advertising guidelines.
Listing a business can put doctors’ personal information at risk from hacking or phishing.

Like other businesses, healthcare is also in the age of personalization. Delivering on the promises of personalization of care, healthcare practices are persistent in their effort to create a holistic ecosystem for patients to tailor care to their unique needs and preferences and in this technology plays a significant role. However, patient-centric care, which is being delivered on the wheels of data analytics is somehow getting in the way of medical data privacy. You see, if healthcare data is exposed to a third party for analytics, it falls under the breach of doctor-patient confidentiality. Moreover, healthcare practices are falling prey to the lure of ‘free’ practice management software which accumulates data through the system’s back door and later auctions it to highest bidders.

Do you know – On the dark web, a complete medical record easily sells for $60. Moreover, in terms of data theft – In 2019, hackers reportedly stole data of 68 lakh patients from an Indian healthcare website allegedly for cancer research.

Even if the data is acquired by the existing loopholes in the systems and if care customization for patients is happening via ‘snooping’ on their private healthcare data, it would still be a theft. Thereby establishing that often the data analytics run to enhance the personalization of patient care in a clinic has more to do with the benefits earned by software sellers than to patients and doctors. The real solution here is to run “case-classified” analytics with anonymized inputs not only to ensure privacy and safety for patients but also to enhance clinical decision making for medicos by building disease patterns. A simple but in depth study that will be based on symptoms, diagnosis and treatment and not the patient’s demographics and personal information.

On the other hand, the tougher challenge for technology is to build an ecosystem to deliver personalised care with better data security, healthcare practitioners can adapt integrated OPD management solutions.

How?

Integrating an OPD management solution with homecare, EMR, and telemedicine can help reduce data theft by providing a secure and centralised platform for storing and managing patient data. By centralising patient data in a single location, it becomes easier to monitor and protect against unauthorised access or breaches. Additionally, integrating EMR and telemedicine can enable healthcare providers to securely access and share patient data remotely, reducing the risk of data breaches that can occur with paper records or unsecured networks. Moreover, OPD management solutions can also include advanced security features such as encryption and role-based access control, which can help protect patient data from unauthorised access.

In addition, it is required to ensure that the OPD management solution being used is compliant with regulations such as HIPAA, which sets standards for protecting patient data.

Being a healthcare practitioner, FOMO can hit you in a million different ways, but it’s crucial to evaluate your healthcare needs before all.

HArbor Says

When value is the key to relevancy, you would want to enhance your care quality with the healthtech solutions that are easy-to-use, break the barriers of low tech-literacy and elevate your patient experience.

Interested to know how? HArbor can help. Let’s talk.

HArbor Says

Essential but Underskilled: Healthcare Workforce is still Living with Tools from Ancient Times.

Healthcare facilities have finally acknowledged the necessity for upgradation to enhance care-delivery worldwide. However, it still wouldn’t be too irrelevant to ask – how can we upgrade healthcare systems when one of its crucial pillars is still functioning or perceiving healthcare in the same old fashion? Most importantly, is the medical fraternity aware of the challenges that their staff have been experiencing after the introduction of technology?

According to the studies – the Indian healthtech market is expected to grow to $5 billion by 2023 and to $50 billion in another ten years, suggesting that healthcare technologies are gradually moving to the core of healthcare processes while implying that the care delivery patterns are evolving and we are finally heading towards a new age of renaissance in healthcare. But, is our workforce strong enough to sustain the change, let alone flourish in the light of development?

Today, as the state of affairs between nurses/work staff and technology continues to influence the quality of care, patient safety, staff efficiency, and job satisfaction, these two have been viewed as being in a love/hate relationship.

HealthTech and Nurses – A mismatched duo!

According to the Head of Staff for Nursing Department, Mrs. Gayathri Iyer from Government Medical Hospital, Nagpur, nursing and technology have a complex relationship. Technology can improve the efficiency and accuracy of nursing care, but it can also introduce new challenges and stresses for nurses. Electronic medical records, for example, can make it easier for nurses to access patient information, but they can also add to the workload and take time away from direct patient care. Additionally, new healthtech tools are not easy to learn, which can create additional barriers for nurses. Overall, while technology can be a powerful tool for nurses, poorly designed software will bring nothing but chaos to a care delivery system. Further in the conversation, Mrs. Gayathri highlights the relationship dynamics between healthcare professionals and technology while telling us why the healthcare workforce is still underskilled to adapt HEALTHTECH!

Tech Literacy and Adaptability Issues.

The future of the healthcare systems is poised to bring better & more fulfilling work responsibilities for the healthcare workforce only if care facilities adapt to healthtech swiftly. However, with a low tech literacy headcount within the healthcare organisations, the adoption is not as easy as it was anticipated. As a result, the care facilities that fail to fuse their workforce and healthtech systems are not only missing out on great leaps in patient engagement and efficiency, but, in the worst-case scenario, it can also lead to a loss of position as a patient’s provider of choice.

So to bring your workforce to speed, here are a few strategies that can help:

Provide training and education: Training staff to use a healthtech platform efficiently is one thing and helping them understand why it is important is another. It’s more about the perspective they have regarding technology. Figure out a way to change the perspective of healthcare force towards the way they perceive healthtech, and reap the benefits of automation in healthcare.

Choose your tech partner wisely: Given that your healthcare workforce wouldn’t be pleased while functioning with multiple healthtech tools for different operations, opting for an integrated healthcare management suite will encourage smooth workflows. Integrated Management Suite comes with an all-in-one solution platform making your inter and intra-departmental processes easier while creating a balanced ecosystem for your patients and staff.

Regularly evaluate and update the technology: Updating healthtech platforms is necessary for several reasons. First, it ensures that the tool is functioning properly and is free of bugs or glitches. Second, it allows for the incorporation of new features and improvements that can enhance the user experience and make the tool more effective. Third, it is crucial for maintaining compliance with industry regulations and standards.
Opt for a healthcare system that does not require tech support: Having a tech-admin team is an added benefit, but if your practice management software doesn’t need a tech-support, in a way it implies that the system is easy-to-use and you won’t have to worry about all the hassles that might come while managing a tech-support team.

HArbor Says: The healthcare industry is facing major challenges such as healthcare accessibility issues, chronic disease, and a shortage of skilled professionals. In order to meet these challenges, it is essential for the healthcare workforce to be equipped with the latest knowledge and skills, including digital literacy and the use of technology. This will not only improve patient outcomes but also increase efficiency and reduce costs. It is time for the healthcare industry to embrace the digital age.

If you are looking for a practice management platform that is easy-to-use and would assist you and healthcare staff in everyday operations, feel free to reach out to HArbor!

By Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Telemedicine, Its Challenges And, Their Solutions with HArbor

Using Telemedicine on HArbor’s integrated platform is super easy and can be easily managed without IT support. Moreover, HArbor’s assisted-telemedicine can assist patients to cut down on their costs for in-person and ER visits, thereby proving to be a good investment for medical practitioners.

Today, HealthTech is the only solution for some of the age-old healthcare issues, but we can’t ignore the fact that every technology comes with its own drawbacks. With #Telemedicine picking up the pace of healthcare delivery, here are some of the issues that #medicos face while operating with it.

Here are the major barriers to health integration and how HArbor platform solves the problem.

1. Just a Telemedicine tool, not enough!

TeleMedicine, Its Challenges And, Their Solutions with HArbor

2. Believe it or not, Tech literacy is a thing!

3. Medical Data security is priority!

4. Affordability is the first step to accessibility.

3 Lessons that Every Healthcare Practitioner must know from the Year 2022

Has the COVID-19 pandemic reached an end? Maybe not. But, the reality check experienced by the healthcare systems across the globe since Janauary 2020 is on the centre stage. Significant enough to impact patients’ idea of care delivery, healthcare systems are gradually adapting to this change, and the ‘newfound revolution’ in the healthcare industry may even fill the age-old gaps in medical caregiving.

But the real question is – Are we really stepping towards the long-anticipated healthcare transformation?

Back in the day, when technology was not a substantial part of our lives, healthcare demonstrated a pestle-and-mortar stage of care delivery. From consultation appointments to invoices, everything was super slow and manual. It is one of the prime reasons that has restricted patients from receiving advanced healthcare even in emergencies, let alone visiting a care facility for preventive and palliative care. For them to access healthcare from an equipped medical facility was primarily inaccessible, costly and time-consuming. Imagine – spending dreadful hours in queues for appointments and bill payments while constantly worrying about the cost of care. To be honest, we all have experienced this at some point in our lives. Every year, around 55 million people in India are still grinding on the same slab, distressed over the current healthcare system and worried about their future generations.

This vicious cycle has affected every stakeholder in healthcare, and the nightmare came alive in the last two years, suffered by millions together. So what can we do about it? If you find yourself searching for the answers, lessons from 2022 will guide you to build a better healthcare delivery environment for your patients. And, the road to better healthcare starts with the accessibility of care.

1. If your care services are accessible to patients, it’s half the battle won!

Image Source: worldbank.org

We know primary healthcare professionals function at the forefront of the healthcare system. In India, where maximum care practitioners are functional in cities, the rural and remote populations are still struggling for good quality primary care. With no early detection, chronic disease management, preventive and palliative care, the mortality rates in India are high in response to poor healthcare quality. As evident in a report published by The Lancet- Every year approx. 2.4 million Indians die of treatable conditions, implying that Bharat is not just in need of skilled primary healthcare professionals but a redefined system to connect patients to the medicos.

As impossible as it is for medicos to build a full-fledged infrastructure facility, it is feasible to connect with your patients from different parts of the country via technology. Yes, healthTech. However, in order to benefit the mass population, rural populations need a little more than just Telemedicine. The assisted-telemedicine module is one such advancement that will equip medicos with seamless connectivity while enhancing their patient reach. In addition to this challenge, emergency cases suffer the most.

Patient perspectives: At times, patients with chronic care management and preventative care prefer short-term consultations instead of the recommended long-term treatments. Studies by NCBI have shown that patients often misunderstand their primary doctor’s approach and think they lack the skills to facilitate required medical care. As a result, they end up substituting inaccessible care services with ER services. And, now that the locality’s ER units are all occupied with non-urgent cases, the emergency patients suffer. But, if patients could access primary care at their doorsteps, compounding pressure on emergency room(ER) admissions could be tackled efficiently.

Ever wondered why do patients restrain from reaching out to primary care practitioners in other locations?

While some are under the impression that every healthcare facility is supposed to provide care for all health ailments, for the majority – cost efficiency is the other barrier on the road to care accessibility.

2. Because The Overall Medical Expenditure Matters!

Health expenditure is one of the crucial determinants of health status. It determines a patient’s ability to obtain basic medical facilities, continuity of treatment, and access to preventative and palliative care. According to a BMC report, The average cost per episode of outpatient care is around INR 400 for public providers, INR 586 for informal private providers and INR 2643 for formal for-profit providers. This cost is marginally above almost 55% of households in India. It is no wonder that quality healthcare is a luxury that only a few can afford.

While considering the factors responsible for rising healthcare costs, one can easily conclude that the patients’ needs have evolved, but our healthcare system is still running on wheels from the 90s. And, it is not sustainable at all.

Here are a few ways that can assist you, unburden your patients of the (un)necessary out-of-pocket expenditures.

Facilitate online/in-app appointment scheduling.
Encourage Telemedicine appointments for follow-ups or diagnostic report evaluations.
Opt for standalone-OPD satellite centres with integrated assisted telemedicine and Point-of-care-testing(POCT) in remote locations.
Encourage preventative care plans for your patient to avoid any future chronic ailments.

3. Developing a Sustained Partnership with Patients

With change comes opportunity. The COVID-19 Pandemic phase stimulated just the same response wherein granular levels of responsiveness and interoperability within healthcare departments pushed the slow and careful healthtech adopters towards intuitive and agile healthcare systems. As a result, doctors were seen providing care to patients from anywhere, anytime. Somehow, perfecting the age-old challenge of doctor-patient connectivity.

The doctor-patient relationship plays a crucial role in trust-building and treatment proceedings. However, nurturing this relationship is not as easy as it looks, especially when medicos have just enough time to interact with patients. Today, healthcare practitioners are dealing with mainly 2-sets of patients. It includes tech-savvy patients who prefer technology-mediated care instead of spending hours using conventional care delivery modes. The other kind is comfortable with years-old established healthcare care delivery methods, who are currently paying the price for the outdated system.

The new-age millennials who prefer tech-savvy caregivers are redefining and encouraging a transparent and convenient healthcare delivery. On the other hand, it facilitates the caregivers to connect with their patients efficiently and to convey that their doctor is just a click away. This is as simple as getting a text from your care provider – “ How are you today?” or “Did you confirm your appointment slot for the follow-up session this month?” Moreover, patients usually get annoyed while keeping track of their medications or vitals, and in this case, an integrated medication reminder and a periodic vital management module can work wonders. Similarly, using different modules such as EMR, Patient Health Monitoring, Telemedicine and more integrated into a clinic management software can boost doctor-patient relationships.

However, people who prefer the less fancy, age-old ways of treatment – driven by experienced yet, old-schooled doctors, often lack faith in healthtech. For them, it is one extra thing to take effort on, while missing the point that integrating one healthtech tool into their lives will eliminate the ten time-consuming and tiresome practices they perform every day. Manual functioning may have worked in the past for the care practitioners, but in order to meet the required healthcare needs and to keep a steady patient flow, conventional care practitioners need to meet them halfway. And, Kiosk-based remote satellite-clinic center is the right foot forward.

With the surge of another COVID variant(BF.7), we are likely heading towards another fight, but nonetheless, the lessons and challenges unravelled need a stronger healthcare system. Which is impossible without widely adapting technology in healthcare delivery operations.

HArborSays

We’ve been given a wonderful opportunity to learn from the past to re-evaluate, redesign and rebuild our healthcare systems. Let’s make it better and widely accessible, cost and people friendly this time via healthtech.

Want to know how HArbor is in stores for healthcare practitioners?

Visit us at www.harborvision.in

By Vishakha Katekhaye

HArbor Says

Practice of Medicine: Story of Two doctors, Two Realities & One Profession.

Two dynamic young doctors – Dr Jay & Dr Keshav, got admission in a renowned medical institute in the old city of Vellore for their post-graduation studies. Growing up in different parts of the country, Dr Jay & Dr Keshav had different approaches to their patient care methodology. While Jay grew up in the suburbs of South Bombay, Keshav saw his family struggle with electricity supply in their agricultural field in the remote areas of Gadchiroli.

These academically brilliant minds found solace in each other’s company while in medical college. Fast forward to 2022, both have completed their Masters in General Medicine and are ready to take on their lifelong mission of helping people in dire need of their skills.

Dr Jay & Dr Keshav had an immense influence on each other’s lives, so much so that when Dr Jay wanted to open his first clinic, he chose a remote area in Gadchiroli, not far from Dr Keshav’s childhood home. His motto was simple: nobody should suffer to get healthcare as much as his dear friend Dr Keshav did in his early days. Meanwhile, Dr Keshav, inspired by Dr Jay’s lifestyle, moved to Bombay to bid goodbye to his financial worries; once and for all.

Practicing in his new clinic in the well-educated suburbs of Bombay, Dr Keshav was astonished to see how well-read and aware people of the city were, yet they would abuse their health intentionally or unintentionally with their city-based lifestyle. Most of the time, his patients in the city would have a pre-consultation with Dr Google before meeting him. For the first time in his professional life, Dr Keshav recognized the importance of online brand creation and digital awareness about his clinic amongst patients.

On the other hand, Dr Jay struggled to give necessities like continuous electricity in his clinic. He was in pain to see patients around his clinic, taking their health so lightly. His proposition of creating awareness amongst the people for “wellness living” has failed miserably.

Against popular belief and trying various platforms to keep his clinic lights on, Dr Keshav understood that all such platforms gave a temporary boost to his patient flow and eventually, the inflow decreased to a marginal level unless he paid to “Advertisements” in these marketplaces. Moreover, most of his patients who came via these platforms were prompted with too many details about the disease to sell devices or other services, which made his patients self-aware and forced them to internet search their issues before coming to him for consultations. Dr Keshav almost faced legal action once when he signed up for a cheap and free clinic management platform to manage his patients, and the software-cum-advertisement company sold the private data of his patients to the highest bidder for their own profit greed.

All this while, Dr Jay recognised the major health issues in the region were very different to what he saw his friend Dr Keshav deal with. Dr Jay had his own set of issues. While he had a very active Instagram page with more than 45K subscribers, found no impact of that on his clinic business. In the rural location, his patients struggle to find the correct pills from the medication envelope he was used to giving them, himself. He saw most of his patients going to the old Ved Ji near the old Bazar road in his village for all health ailments instead of coming to his clinic. Yet, all these problems did not even bother Dr Jay. His main concern remains the fact that patients near his clinic found his consultation fees to be very high, and for every step, his rates & fees structures were being compared to the wrong side of the governmental institutes, many of which did not even come close to the quality of services he provided.

Later that year, while both struggled to keep their work-life balance intact, their alma mater invited them to the annual alumni meet. Unaware of their individual struggles, they both confided their care giving problems to each other. That evening was the awakening moment for each of them. They found their old long lost passion for care giving. It was like walking back to their college days, where they used to talk about fixing healthcare issues in India. Even though their challenges were different because of their practice locations, their collective goals were the same – Better Healthcare for All. The eureka moment was when they discerned that their most problems could be solved with technology. They both skipped the alumni dinner party, rushed to the old dormitory stairs, sat with pen & paper and decided to conceive a solution to their every problem.

They both were stunned to see the solutions were ever so simple. To build patient trust, Dr Keshav suggested Dr Jay write prescriptions in local languages so that the people around his clinic would understand better, while Dr Jay advised Dr Keshav to give timely medicine and appointment reminders to his patients. Furthermore, Dr Keshav was happy to find that the only way to beat Dr Google at his clinic was to keep in touch with his patients even outside his clinic, as suggested by Dr Jay. On the other hand, Dr Keshav strongly advocated Dr Ram use much more affordable rapid test kits for quicker and cheaper diagnosis instead of much more expensive and hard-to-run pathological tests.

Collectively, while Dr Jay needed satellite clinics in remote locations to create awareness about his care giving methods and reduce travel costs of the patients in that area, Dr Keshav needed these satellite clinics in various locations to increase his patient reach in the competitive urban setup. However, they both agreed that these satellite clinics would only work if they were manned by paramedics and connected to their central locations, facilitating assisted telemedicine to everybody. It was a fun night for these two medicos who were divided by their needs and environment of practice but connected by the end goal.

From studying the existing fragmented healthcare system to modern-day data breach issues, these young professionals concluded that only an integrated healthcare system would lead them to a better healthcare future. A single-platform system to equally benefit every stakeholder in care and thereby take responsibility for their roles. An integrated platform that will not only enhance the personalization of care with better care coordination but will also curtail the manual processes to keep their staff busy in patient care and not in documenting and managing paper records.

The next morning, both left that passionate ‘TED Talk’ between themselves, hoping to find a one-stop solution to each of their problems. Probably, one day they will be able to achieve their dream of providing equitable health for all.

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