'Technology Not An Expense, An Investment In Healthcare'

Healthcare has transformed since the last 5 to 10 years. In 1999, a health report by WHO stated 'To Err is Human'. The data highlighted that over the last decade, 9.5 per cent of all US deaths occurred due to medical errors. In contemporary time, the scale of deaths due to medical errors has reduced substantially thanks to the emergence of technology in healthcare.

Dr Garima Singh, Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Max Healthcare said, "Highest quality at lowest cost is expected today which becomes a challenge today. Choosing the right technology helps to save time, cost and also build trust among the three components of healthcare; patient, doctor and healthcare system by sharing information on them."

But that is not the only challenge. "Integration of technology remains a challenge today. Ambiguity and Awareness across the healthcare ecosystem have to be addressed and the smart application of technology can help minimizing confusion and generate information," said Vivek Tiwari, Director and CEO, Medikabazaar at the fourth edition of BW Businessworld Healthcare Summit and Awards.

Elaborating about the usage of technology in healthcare, Dr Sanjeev Bagai, Vice Chairman and Director, Manipal Hospital said, "The patient needs to be tracked from his first step in the hospital. The new concept of Artificial Intelligence today has helped healthcare reach immense scale. AI generated Watson technique has made it possible to virtually navigate through the body parts like a test drive. Technology is no longer an expense but an investment."

Virender Kaushik, Chief Information Officer, Metro Hospital said that there have been deaths due to unavailability of data in past. To overcome this, technology can accumulate and transfer the data to doctors and hospitals. The paperless society would help save time, cost and ensure the patient's health doesn't deteriorate over time due to unavailability of data, medical reports.

Today, there is technology that can measure a person's water and salt consumption on a daily basis. E-health, telepathology, monitoring ICUs, transferable data, digital reports, GPS enabled ambulance has all been possible due to the emerging practice of technology in the healthcare ecosystem.

"Time is an important factor in healthcare. More the delay, worse the condition of the patient becomes. The technology in medical care has minimized delays. There has been a major transition of information and healthcare ecosystem since the last 5 years," said Rajiv Chawla, Medical Director, GB Pant Hospital.

Adding to this, Dr Sandeep Chatrath, Central Regional CEO, Apollo Hospital said, "In today's time, travelling is time-consuming. In India, it is a struggle to get the reports and the process of getting reports, assimilating and analyzing them by specialists is also time-consuming. All this time can be saved by m-health (mobile health) and right application of technology."