Abhimanyu Bhosale, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, LiveHealth
The Indian healthcare sector has so far had a conservative approach towards adopting IT and telecom solutions. However, of late, it has increased its uptake of information and communications technology (ICT), realising its potential in delivering better healthcare. Going forward, m-health, telemedicine and the increased adoption of big data will help in extending healthcare services to remote pockets of the country. Senior executives of enterprises operating in this space talk about the emerging IT trends in healthcare, the status of technology adoption and the future outlook…
What role do ICT solutions play in the healthcare industry? What are some of the ICT initiatives undertaken by your organisation?
The world we live in today is powered by ICT. Every interaction and transaction is directly or indirectly powered by ICT. In healthcare, we have seen a significant rise in the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. As of now, diagnostic centres and laboratories have the highest adoption of and need for ICT technologies. For instance, technologies like TeleRadiology enable radiologists to view and report on radiology reports remotely, saving a lot of time and cost. We are a product technology company, so almost all our work entails the use of technology to enable seamless transactions in healthcare. We help medical laboratories and hospitals in digitalising and automating the management of medical records, as well as provide end-to-end solutions for report management with offerings for all stakeholders in the ecosystem.
How are the telemedicine and m-health segments expected to evolve in the Indian market?
Telemedicine is already big in India, though m-health is still catching up. The most important question actually is, how pervasive and accessible are these technologies? Many hospitals have a mobile app nowadays, but it is not being utilised for the right purpose. Mobile apps should exist to improve convenience, make the patient experience more user-friendly and ensure personalised care. Most healthcare mobile apps are not usable due to their end-user experience. In addition, mobile technology in healthcare faces challenges like privacy and capability. Further, only basic functions such as booking appointments or checking results online are possible at present. Therefore, m-health has a long way to go, but once it is up and running, I believe it will disrupt telemedicine.
What is the scope of big data analytics, cloud and IoT in the healthcare industry?
Cloud is and will continue to be one of the biggest game changers in healthcare. Cloud deployment is making interactions, management and systems more accessible and cost effective at the same time. Big data will, however, still take a while to gain ground and will find increased uptake when the cloud becomes more pervasive and is adopted by many service providers. For some large enterprises, big data is already adding up, but it will take some time to make a significant difference.
What are the key IT and telecom-related challenges faced by healthcare enterprises? How can these be resolved?
India is still struggling with telecom infrastructure, due to which connectivity remains a major hurdle. Although competitive costs have made it more accessible, reliability will only come from good quality telecom infrastructure. Most enterprises still struggle with connectivity, scale and data management issues. We already have solutions for the last two problems on the list, but bad connectivity is hampering increased adoption of ICT in Indian healthcare.
What are the key technology trends likely to be witnessed by the healthcare industry in the next few years?
The next few years are going to be dominated by m-health. Artificial intelligence (AI) is also catching up very fast but, after a certain point, data is going to be the largest limitation. Every data point needs to be available for machine learning to make a marked difference. Therefore, in my opinion, the Indian healthcare industry will be dominated by m-health and AI in the next few years.
“The healthcare industry will be dominated by m-health and AI in the next few years.” Abhimanyu Bhosale
