Bruce Schwack, Director of Communications, Netmeds.com
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?
Our entire existence is predicated upon the integration of healthcare and ICT. Earlier, nearly 100 per cent of the retail prescription medicine business was conducted in brick-and-mortar shops, represented by more than 1 billion face-to-face transactions. The launch of Netmeds.com heralds a new paradigm in the pharmacy industry. Unlike any other purchase in the realm of e-commerce, only the purchase of prescription medicine requires “written permission” for a successful transaction. The new paradigm allows the uploading of handwritten prescriptions on the web and mobile app. In order to facilitate this process, it was necessary to train a staff of licensed pharmacists to decipher the uploaded prescriptions, vet them for validity and digitise them so that they could initiate the next step in the transaction process.
How are the telemedicine and m-health segments expected to evolve in the Indian market?
These segments will evolve to such an extent that they will become, by and large, the mainstay of medical practice. “Hands-on” physical examination is expected to reduce in importance while the physician’s ability to consult the patient via Skype and WhatsApp is likely to be enhanced with the advent of smarter apps and “home-owned” devices.
What are the key IT and telecom-related challenges faced by healthcare enterprises? How can these be resolved?
Lack of adequate telecom infrastructure, access to smartphones and other modes of connectivity are creating an inverse proportion, whereby the areas that could benefit the most, that is, Tier II and Tier III cities, and semi-urban and rural towns and villages, have the least access to both the devices and the bandwidth required to take advantage of IoT-enhanced healthcare practices. However, the government and NITI Aayog are working hard to increase both internet penetration and mobile adoption rates in the country. Further, public-private partnerships in the space are proving beneficial and hold a great deal of promise for improving the overall health profile of the nation.
“Our entire existence is predicated upon the integration of healthcare and ICT.” Bruce Schwac
What are the key technology trends likely to be witnessed by the healthcare industry in the next few years?
AI will become integrate into platforms where medical assistant chatbots will provide prompt medical information to millions of patients, including a variety of consultative and diagnostic services. We have already introduced a robotic “assistant” that will take the patient through a series of questions and answers and if certain “triggers” are initiated, the bot will transfer the patient to a live doctor. The physician may then suggest tests, which can be conducted at patient’s home or office by remotely dispatched medical technicians. Further, the very nature of medicine being practised online in a uniform digital manner is creating a database of prescription drugs and chronic ailments, which was not available before. This new deep data dive will allow an analysis of the nation’s health records, conditions and therapies, helping to predict trends in a way that has not been available until now. Since it is widely acknowledged that lifestyle diseases are on the rise, this new analysis modelling can help halt their rise through the demographic and geographic study of populations.
