Healthcare in India – 2022 and beyond

Healthcare delivery is moving outside the four walls of traditional health system. Health care providers have realized that products or services alone, no matter how strong they are technically, will not be enough in future. They should look into the future to engage with their users across the health care value chain, whether that be physicians or patients, and deliver to them not just a better care product or care service, but a better care experience. Also, one needs to keep an eye on developments coming from non-core sources like technology companies which could further help in diagnosis or early detection and aid the healthcare ecosystem.

Hence, as health care organizations consider to move ahead, creating the right data environment to support a more human-centered approach to health care is an urgent need. Five key trends in data will bring about:

• A new ecosystem built around the needs of the individual: The explosion of health care data requires a new ecosystem to be built around the needs of an individual enabled by technical standards, open data models and empowered by governance systems that deliver trust.
• The rise of digital remote care supported by data liquidity: These rising technologies generating data will need equally powerful tools to organize, interpret and draw insights from them — AI is critical in this journey to turn complex information into usable insights, including individualized wellness solutions and show how to efficiently provide care across the ecosystem.
  
• Interconnecting broad-based data for highly personalized care: To keep up with the velocity and variety of health data generated today, the health information infrastructure must enable providers to connect, combine, analyze, and share health and social data.
• Trusted intelligence drives participation and engagement: Trusted intelligence systems will emerge to secure confidence and participation of consumers and other stakeholders.
  
• A future-ready culture and workforce that embraces digital: Clinicians will need to leverage medical, data and behavioral science knowledge and skills in the near future to deliver a personalized care demanded by patients. To support this shift, healthcare entities must decide now where to invest in education, training and recruiting.
  

Healthcare delivery in India witnessed a renewed focus on leveraging digital technology during the pandemic. The sector, predominantly recognized for sick care delivery, has looked at building next-gen capabilities that will be a differentiator in the decade ahead. Several reforms launched before and during the pandemic such as National Health Digital Mission (NDHM), teleconsulting guidelines combined with burgeoning health tech start-up ecosystem enabled by innovation, have evolved to make the healthcare journey better for Indian population. It is good that the PE/VC funding is also coming to support the health tech start up eco system.

Maximizing the clinical, financial, and operational value of these new digital offerings and services requires biopharma, medtech and other health care stakeholders to reinforce digital as an entirely new business model and ecosystem to deliver better outcomes and drive stakeholder awareness, adoption, engagement, and growth.