By Zia Askari
As information technology and communication is becoming more and more integrated inside the way healthcare is delivered – it is opening up new doors for solutio0n providers to look at this segment as a critical area of focus and enable technological transformation for hospitals and other healthcare institutions in India.
When it comes to healthcare providers, today’s quality healthcare is not confined to the traditional ways anymore and it is increasingly getting about catching hold of the right advances in nanotechnology, internet of things, 3D printing, personalized medicine, genomics, and big data.
All these when clubbed together – are creating a unique opportunity for the solution provider community who can team up with global vendors to create unparalleled value propositions for the healthcare providers in India.
Moving forward, more and more convergence of IT and communications will allow lower-cost, more effective, and more convenient medical practices to become the norm over the next few years and this is where healthcare service providers would require vertical specific services to be delivered at their door steps.
And hence, these advances in healthcare will change the medical landscape and create large opportunities for those who can integrate enabling and underlying technologies.
What are the opportunities?
- The Internet of Things (IoT) and 3D Printing is creating a revolution in innovation for devices where the cost of prototyping a new device has dropped over 75% in the last 3 years, with a similar drop in cost of end user healthcare devices. 3D printing has also allowed for the creation of customized health care, such as custom prosthetics. This can be a big opportunity for designing solutions in this space.
- Low cost remote devices will allow better follow-up and post-procedure compliance on the part of patients. ISVs can develop software that can utilize both in-hospital and once the patient is home – data integration, to design home care products that provide reporting and alerting on everything from outpatient activity levels to pharmaceutical consumption, allowing for far more comprehensive and effective follow-up care and significantly better outcomes. This is where solution providers and ISVs can move to design unique healthcare solutions.
- Electronic Health Records (EHR) is another area which is rapidly getting standardized, and devices are beginning to interoperate more effectively with these systems. This allows big data analysis and patient monitoring automation at levels not previously seen and this is again a big area for SPs to closely look where they can add value in terms of analyzing data or providing services around these offerings.
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