This pandemic has altered two main aspects of mankind, commerce, and healthcare.
Healthcare as a segment in India, till the pandemic, became a global phenomenon had not evolved to digital formats since it was a belief that healthcare involved a Healthcare professional and a patient who had to be evaluated physically for an accurate line of treatment. The pandemic required healthcare organizations to become agile, resilient, and innovative through digital adaptations.
Healthcare came up with resolutions even, remotely. One of the advantages of this, amongst many was healthcare becoming patient-centric wellness and offered a patient lifecycle support.
As per recent reports, the health-tech market is pegged to see a CAGR of 39% through FY23 from FY20. In addition to this, it is expected to clock $ 50 Bn 2033.
GOI INITIATIVES
Government of India (GoI) recognized the need and has taken steps to leverage technology as healthcare enabler. Although, HealthTech is not new in India, it has been in existence since 2001, it received the much-required acceleration with the pandemic. It was first introduced by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). In 2005, ISRO and NASA played a major role in setting up the National
Telemedicine taskforce by the health ministry of India in 2005, which paved way for success of various projects like the ICMR-AROGYASREE, NeHA and VRC’s. In 2017, the GoI launched the National Health Policy (NHP) which gave extensive recommendations on the usage of digital health tools and the setting up of a National Digital Health Authority.
The National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) aims to develop integrated digital health infrastructure of the country with Digi-doctor, Health Facility Registry (HFR), this will enforce remote health services at scale.
According to a recent report by KPMG on “India’s Healthcare Sector Transformation in the Post Covid Era”, to legitimize telemedicine, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare along with NITI Aayog has unveiled new guidelines Telemedicine Practice Guidelines 2020. It allows registered medical practitioners to provide healthcare services using telemedicine. GoI’s policies such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, e-Hospitals and eSanjeevani telemedicine service, assist health tech startups. To monitor the performance and quality of the health services being provided hospitals have now moved on to Health Management Information System (HMIS) to maintain all service details and medical records and a Lab Information System (LIS) for the lab department.
HEALTH CARE STARTUPS
To support digi health initiatives, the
- Union Budget 2018 allocated INR 3073 Crunder NITI Aayog to set up a digital economy with emerging technology.
- Additionally, GoI’s investment promotion agency anticipates that health-tech claims to be creating 40 Mn jobs by 2030 along with 3000+ health-techfocused startups
India currently holds the fourth position in attracting venture capital funding for start-up to the health-tech sector following US, China and the UK. Since 2016, these health-tech start-ups have received USD 4.4Bininvestments and are expected to grow at an annual rate of 39% over FY20-23.
In the recent Mergers and Acquisition Flipkart acquiring SastaSundar, Tata Group acquiring 1Mg and Reliance Retail buying majority stake in Netmeds, and many health-tech start-ups are testaments to the future potential of the industry.
GLOBALLY HEALTHTECH IS PRIME
UNITED STATES
United States of America has been global leader in health technology development with a market size of $120 Bn. United States has also invested $10.4 Bn globally on health care companies in the first quarter of 2022.
UNITED KINGDOM
UK is pouring a huge amount on research and development into biotech industry and the country has committed investment of GBP150 M to develop the health care sector in order to help the startups. In, 2019 the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) launched an online resource, health-Tech connect, which supports the development and adoption of health technologies in the UK.
CANADA
Canada is the second largest centre of biotech companies in the world. Country’s biotechnology strategy provides a framework to synchronize public private partnership in research and development. Canada’s health tech industry has a market size of nearly $90 Mn which is committed to rise.
SWEDEN
Indian Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre (ISHIC) a tripartite collaboration between, the Sweden Trade Commissioner’s office AIIMS Delhi and AIIMS Jodhpur. The Innovation centre is an initiative under the MOU of health between India and Sweden and works under the strategic guidance from Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR),
Government of Sweden’s Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and Embassy of Sweden in India.
ISHIC is envisioned to develop an ecosystem of open innovation that start-ups and the healthcare stakeholders can use to collaborate future challenges in the healthcare sector in India. Over 7128 health-tech start-ups populate India digital health care ecosystem.
CHINA
Within the last two decades China healthcare sector has made significant strides as it has benefited from large scale reforms of its medical infrastructure. In 2014, China introduced a new law allowing foreign investors to hold a 100 per cent ownership of private hospitals. Currently China is the third largest global market for pharmaceuticals expecting an annual growth of 30 percent fostering huge investment in research and development and manufacturing.
CHALLENGES FOR INDIA
India’s current doctor patient ratio is, 1:1596 which puts India at 145th position out of 195 countries. Health-tech is scattered and fragmented with demographic and accessibility issues.
The digital transition is slow and rural, and to a degree urban Patients too, believe in traditional clinic consultations and purchase of medicines from physical pharmacy stores.
The online repository of the patient’s data is not structured, which makes it cumbersome to understand and address the patient’s history of medical record.
However, the regulatory policies in India surrounding health have evolved very quickly over the last year. The use of technology to gather and make data more accessible is one of the biggest changes in the Indian healthcare system. It has incorporated wearable devices and digital apps that directly upload data to secure cloud platforms so that patients in clinical trials can participate from home. 69% of healthcare organizations are piloting or adopting AI. However, AI based Technology platforms aren’t allowed to prescribe meds to a patient or counsel them.
Telemedicine Practice Guidelines prepared in partnership with NITI Aayog have been issued under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 and allows technology and Appsthat can be chosen by the doctor to deliver telemedicine consultations and services (Guideline no. 1.4.1 & 2). With specific guidelines preparation, maintenance and preservation of the patient’s records along with copy of prescription and proof of tele-consultation are compulsory under the Guidelines. These guidelines are binding and are deemed to be issued under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019.
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Sources: niti.gov.in, makeinindia.com, mea.gov.in, futurelearn.com, freepressjournal.in, bloomberg.com/news/newsletters, digitalauthority.me/resources/state-of-digital-transformationhealthcare/, hunimed.eu/news/10-ways-technology-is-changing-healthcare/,
economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech, timesofindia.in