ENGLISH
SHORTHAND DICTATION – 105
Indian
healthcare is one of the largest sectors in terms of revenue
and employment. The healthcare market is worth USD 100 billion. By 2020, this
is expected to grow to USD 280 billion that is a compounded annual growth rate
of 22 per cent. Healthcare industry comprises hospitals, medical devices,
medical applications, clinical trials, telemedicine and health insurance. Indian
healthcare system includes two components- private and public. Public
healthcare involves primary healthcare centres in rural areas and
scant secondary and tertiary care institutions in cities. Private sector
players provide majorly secondary and tertiary care facilities with more
focus in Metros, Tier I and Tier II cities. Private sector has emerged
as a burgeoning force accounting for almost 74 per120 cent of total healthcare expenditure.
The growth in healthcare industry is growing due to its extensive coverage and
increasing140 expenditure by
Government and private players. Rising income levels, increased health
awareness, growing incidence of lifestyle diseases and better access160 to health insurance are the key
contributors to growth. However, Indian healthcare system currently has
insufficient infrastructure to meet the healthcare demands, particularly in
rural areas. The public healthcare system is underfunded with
overcrowded hospitals and clinics and inadequate rural coverage. This
has resulted in supply-demand imbalance. There is an increasing incidence of
age-related and lifestyle-related chronic diseases resulting from sedentary
lifestyles and increase in carbohydrate-rich diets. Moreover, our county
has one of the world's highest numbers of diabetes cases and is cited240 as the diabetic capital of the world.
In India,
the demand for specialty, super-specialty and tertiary care
hospitals is very high. During spurt of seasonal disease, there is a broad gap
between availability of hospital beds and required beds.280 Global healthcare organizations have
opened their subsidiaries in India, for the reason of cheap labour
availability. There is an enormous scope in the sector, but the
sector has a slow growth; any new innovation needs extensive testing and
regulatory approvals. 320 The Medical
Council of India Code of Ethics Regulations, 2002 prohibits naming doctors
or their credentials on any platform, thus preventing healthcare aggregators
spreading their tentacles in open market. Challenges of funding, incubation
and regulatory environment hamper their growth. Digital
healthcare360 is one of the key drivers for reaching
the unreached. Technology has revolutionized the delivery of healthcare models
by increasing the quality of delivery, reducing the cost and also reducing the turnaround
time of workflows. Less accessibility of physicians in semi-urban
and rural areas results in limited healthcare facilities for masses in
these regions. Telemedicine is the effective solution420 for these people by providing access to
an extensive range of medical services. Information Telemedicine is a
fast-emerging trend and many major Indian hospitals have started telemedicine
services and ventured in public-private partnerships. Telemedicine services
in our country are valued at USD 8 million currently. This is expected
to grow at compound annual growth rate of 20 percent. India is slated480 to become a global healthcare hub with
the conglomeration of world-class hospitals and skilled medical
professionals. It is now the preferred destination for medical tourism. With
the advent of increased technology penetration, Startups will increase medical
tourism business. Startups are playing a predominant role in giving
access to information to global patients about the multispecialty hospital
services and the cost of treatment. India's competitive advantage is in
its vast pool of skilled healthcare professionals. India is also
cost-competitive560 compared
to Western and Asian countries. The cost of healthcare services
like surgery is about one-tenth of that in the United States or Europe.
This has given immense opportunities to the multispecialty hospitals
in the medical tourism space. As per600
a sectoral outlook by Accenture on India, India hosts 150,000 medical
tourists. This number will see a rise of 15 per cent every year. Affordable
cost of medical innovation is attracting investment in domestic sources
as well as foreign companies.
Blockchain
technology640 uses interoperability
in healthcare organizations and creates decentralized record systems
with multiple locations. This can be shared with relevant stakeholders
in the healthcare system. Specific set of standardized data can
be stored directly on the blockchain for immediate access, when required.
Patients' details like medical history, immunizations, procedures, services
rendered and other preliminary data can be captured through blockchain700 technology. Blockchain can solve
healthcare industry's problems by shared data-sharing and enabling an industrywide
shift to value-based care. This has enormous720
potential. Blockchain provides proof of existence for every stored
document. Patient health information, electronic health records and medical
insurance claims are crucial for ensuring appropriate healthcare intervention.
Blockchain technologies come in useful as the information is recorded and
encrypted. With blockchain there is one single record thus reducing duplication
or tampering of data. There is no third-party intervention or an administrator;
this reduces overhead costs. Blockchain technologies can also be used in
pharmaceutical supply chain. Each medicine throughout the entire800 supply chain can be traced, thus the counterfeit
drugs will be eliminated. Data is the new fuel. Valuable algorithms
can be made to find better therapeutics, clinical research and clinical trials.
A permissioned blockchain could collate data and studies840 across different research organizations
which can be accessed by every researcher on the ledger. A real-time access to
data will remove data reconciliation process and end-to-end connections of the
research can be established.
Healthcare
services are unorganized in India in terms of patient's connectivity to
doctors, laboratory services, disease management, medicine
delivery etc. Currently, healthcare sector has witnessed many Startups;
most of them have created a platform for patient and doctors. India being a
large and diverse county, there is a tremendous scope for penetration
and innovation. Our healthcare services are largely skewed towards urban areas.
We are short of doctors as there are just 0.6 per 1,000 inhabitants, and many
medical disciplines lacks specialists. The fact that rural India960 accounts for over 70 percent of the
population, is a potential demand source. Healthcare Startups have large scope
to revolutionize980 healthcare
services in rural areas by providing affordable and accessible
healthcare solutions via innovation and technology. The trend has moved to
more segments. Startups are now evolving in areas of fitness, health
monitoring, medical device suppliers, hospital management systems,
delivery of medicines, and of late, they are also in home healthcare
services. Many Startups are providing personalized services to the consumers.
The aspirations of consumers are increasing in terms of value with quality-driven
care. Many Startups are providing solution via wearables and mobile
devices enabling data collection for better health management. With the
emerging digital technologies, health parameters of1080 the patients like blood sugar levels, blood
pressure, heart rate, etc. can be monitored on a single click. As
consumers are becoming more aware of lifestyle diseases, preventive healthcare
is the new feature. Large numbers of Startups are venturing1120 in this domain and there is
greater adoption of preventive healthcare using technology-based devices. Many
of them are working on building a central infrastructure by connecting
consumers, physicians and hospitals with diagnostic labs chain and link
data, communication and payments.
There is
an investment opportunity of USD 25 billion as our country requires 600,000 to
700,000 additional beds over the next five to six years. With this demand
for capital, the transactions in healthcare industry will witness an
exponential increase.1200
Startups are going to be a game-changer in this space by providing
innovative solutions for accessibility and affordability. Of
late, India has emerged as the hub of Startups, as many entrepreneurs
have brought new technologies in different sectors. Healthcare Startups
are showing traction guided by innovation and disruptive thinking in healthcare
delivery models, technology-enabled online healthcare services and diagnostics. 1260 India serves as the fastest-growing
Startup base worldwide with ever-growing Startups in the health technology
sector. With increasing1280
number of seed funds, incubators and other PE funds, the Healthcare Startups
are on the growth trajectory and will be boon for the healthcare sector. Many
incubators are supporting Startups that solve problems like practice
management, drug discovery and medical technology devices. With increasing
number of consumers in healthcare and increasing cost of healthcare services,
India with its young tech-savvy entrepreneurs has emerged as a pivotal
centre for Startups for frugal healthcare innovations. Startups use existing
infrastructure and networks of people to reduce capital investments and
operating costs. Nonetheless, Indian healthcare is witnessing an
increasing trend towards innovations. Many more initiatives are required to
solve the healthcare issues faced by large and diverse population. There is
an urgent need for a1400
unified strategy that fosters sustainable innovations for encouraging innovative
technologies and Startups to enter and flourish in this sector. This is
the only solution to serve the last-mile customer.
On the
occasion of National Sports Day on 29th August1440
this year, Prime Minister launched the Fit India Movement. The objective
of this initiative is to make fitness the lifestyle of the people of
the country. It endeavours to bring about behavioural change and
introducing basic fitness practices in the daily lives of Indians, a majority
of whom lack access to sports or fitness infrastructure in their
neighbourhoods. Some of the essential features of the movement
are walking 10 kilometres daily, focus on curbing cardiovascular disease
and laziness, decreasing hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol and
decreasing cancer level, and to unite and set a common goal for whole country.
The movement is a joint effort of the various ministries including Ministry
of Sports, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Panchayati
Raj and Ministry of Rural Development. The Prime Minister said that 'Fit India
Movement' should become a national goal and its aspiration. 1581
