Rating agency Fitch recently revealed that the Indian healthcare sector would reach $100 billion by 2015 from the current $65 billion, which is 20% year-on-year growth. The government of India too has decided to increase healthcare expenditure to 2.5% of the GDP by the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), from the existing 1.4%. The Fitch forecast and the government?s decision have two major implications: the medical industry will demand innovation to lower cost and improve the quality of healthcare services as it reaches out to a very large and geographically dispersed population; and systems will have to be created so that the poorest of the poor have access to government medical schemes and services. Mobile technology has a central role to play in creating those innovations and addressing the shortage of trained medical doctors and nurses, ensuring that medical services are available to everyone.
To provide an idea of the possibilities presented by telemedicine, i2iTelesolutions unveiled a tele-ophthalmology solution on the BlackBerry PlayBook to Sachin Pilot, minister of state, communications and information technology, at the International Telemedicine Congress in 2011. Amongst the solutions developed by i2i
Telesolutions is one that reduces the cost of delivering medical services, improving diagnosis and delivering faster reporting. As an example, a team of technicians visits remote villages taking pictures of children with suspected retinal detachment on a tablet. Specially developed algorithms rapidly analyse the images. Only the images that suggest an eye problem are sent wirelessly to a remote hospital where qualified ophthalmologists examine the images, provide their diagnosis and subsequent course of action.
Recently, Advanced Micronic Devices? healthcare division (AMDL Health) launched an application for the BlackBerry PlayBook that allows doctors to remotely access multiple patients? physiological parameters, helping save thousands of lives through pro-active real-time medical intervention.
Modern mobile technology is redefining healthcare through better prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of patients.
The changes that mobile technology is forcing through the medical system are indeed revolutionary. Patients in rural areas do not have to make long, tedious and expensive journeys to hospitals where doctors are busy attending to high-paying patients. And doctors don?t have to invest their time in visiting remote locations. As regulation around healthcare gets more stringent, these systems will allow medical institutes to meet regulatory guidelines.
However, the change being driven is deeper. For the last 60 to 70 years, medicine has been focusing increasingly on acute interventionist clinical care that is hospital centric with antiseptic surgery to provide precise and reliable outcomes. This development, although welcome, has been at the cost of home and community care systems. Mobile technologies are helping return the balance between the two approaches.
In addition, over the years, medical care has become increasingly centralised with concentrated specialisation (cardiac, neurological, dermatology, etc) making use of scale of operations to bring down costs. The centralised facilities saw massive capital investments in heavyweight technology.
To gain deeper insight into what affordable mobility is enabling, it is worth looking at how it pushes the very edge of the innovation envelope. As patient care moves from clinical environments to homes, the need to develop low-cost diagnostic and self-medication/ monitoring tools grows higher. An example of this is the development of pregnancy tests. Earlier, it was necessary for pregnant women to visit hospitals to get a test done. Home pregnancy tests have changed the action from a doctor?s clinic to home. The result of this apparently simple shift can be colossal: while doctors still need to be consulted, it has ensured that women have more access to information about themselves. We are about to witness an explosion of such innovations in medical care thanks to mobile technology moving health care closer to home.
The writer is managing director, India, Research In Motion
