PERSONA THEME TRENDS WELL-BEING ISSUES RESEARCH NEWSCOPE
Healthcare infrastructure is skewed towards Urban over Rural India; Disruptive & Innovative Technologies needed; Artificial Intelligence (AI) coming big way in Healthcare sector By (Hony) Brig. Dr. Arvind Lal, Padma Shri
T
he critical care environment has undergone significant alterations in the past several years. This has happened because our lifestyles in the fast-paced lives of modern India are ensuring that most people, in the age group of 30-50 years are falling prey to life threatening cardiac diseases and strokes, in addition to diabetes, hypertension, cancers, liver, kidney and lung diseases - these diseases being called Non-Communicable Diseases or NCDs. They are now responsible for killing more than 65% of our population says Dr. Arvind Lal, known for his diagnostic labs across the country. Flagging concerns on such trends, these patients need high cost intensive care, be it for complications of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, hypertension, cancer or lung diseases. This is where the importance of Point-of-care testing (POCT) comes in. It helps in almost diagnosing the patient instantly and improves physician’s ability to take immediate corrective action and decreases hospital stay. One such test is Troponin – that has revolutionized cardiac care by diagnosing heart attacks or myocardial infarction. This article is based on the keynote
address on the occasion of 2nd Annual International InnoHEALTH Conference 2017 – ‘Transforming Healthcare Through Innovation’ in New Delhi, said there are numerous promising diagnostic technologies. The key message is that in a country where 70% of the population lives in rural surroundings, ‘it is our duty to rapidly adopt disruptive innovative affordable technologies including telemedicine. Thus, our underserved population would be able to avail of the best treatment possible and bring in massive visible change’. He said the importance of bringing quality healthcare needs no reminder and the time has come for India to change the direction of healthcare for the masses. Healthcare is a right - and access to good healthcare should not depend on where one lives and how much he or she earns. But sadly, that is exactly what plagues India’s healthcare today, he lamented. India faces a severe shortage of both hard infrastructure and talent. With about one doctor and one functional bed per 1000 population, healthcare is truly underserved in India. Add to this the regional imbalances and variations in healthcare delivery. The healthcare infrastructure is skewed towards urban over rural India. Although rural India accounts for
about 70% of the population, it has less than one-third of the nation’s hospitals, doctors and beds, resulting in large disparities in health outcomes across urban and rural India.
British Medical Journal (BMJ) has observed that there is a remarkable saving of lives in India if good healthcare facilities consisting of operation theatres, surgeons, anesthetists, blood banks are available within 50 kilometers of the patient providing quality medical services within the ‘golden hour’.
Though there has been a sea change in the last five decades, India now needs to reinvent the field of diagnostics as laboratory tests are responsible for 70% of all clinical or medical decisions. In today’s life where internet rules the roost, the patients have become very knowledgeable, thanks to googlisation of healthcare, and are demanding very high-quality healthcare for themselves. They are insisting on a very wholesome and satisfying experience rather than being told that the ‘treatment is over’. Just a few years ago the patient after giving the sample used to
