Digital Healthcare System in India- Pushing the Limits
Weathering this century’s deadliest encounter that wreaked havoc while encompassing the whole world, the pandemic laid bare the stark reality of India’s underdeveloped healthcare system at the ground level.
As the ground reality of the country’s half-baked healthcare services aired out during the COVID-19 outbreak, the tall claims of India’s flourishing healthcare system were smashed to the ground and the people were forced to rethink their option to opt for private healthcare services in the long run.
Facing the scorn of millions of residents, the Government of India has made ambitious plans to revitalize the primitive healthcare system of India and instill new life in the backward ways of providing full healthcare services to the masses at ground level.
And the primary key to the onset of this rapid succession of innovation in India’s healthcare system started soon after the pandemic got stabilized at some level in most parts of the country.
Digital Healthcare Market in India is the gamechanger in upbringing the next step to reinvigorate the country’s dwindling healthcare system.
However, before talking about several policies and key changes introduced as well as the future goals to rejuvenate the Digital Healthcare Market in India set by the government of India, let’s find out how this immense change came to happen in such a short period.
Road to Digital Healthcare Market in India Renewal
According to a previous WHO survey done on the impact of COVID-19 on the healthcare systems of around 105 countries, 90% of countries around the world reported about the disruption in providing the best health services since the pandemic struck.
Though India has made definite progress in the development of the healthcare system in the country over the past few years with the introduction of the National Digital Health Mission, the emergence of COVID-19 highlighted many prevailing gaps in the existing delivery of the health care services that were sidelined over the years.
The first stone of laying the foundation of the Digital Healthcare Market in India came with the announcement of the launch of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) under Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, which was supposed to bridge the existing gaps in India’s Healthcare ecosystem through digital means.
Several other features include Digi Doctor, Health Facility Registry, Electronic Medical Records and Personal Health Records,
Enveloping all states and Union Territories, the expansion of this large-scale mission is heavily dependent on the final evaluation of this mission’s result during Phase 1 of the project.
The testing of NDHM was first done in union territories as it is currently rolled out in seven union territories excluding Jammu & Kashmir.
Onset of Digital Healthcare Market in India
Though talks about improving India’s flailing healthcare market were going rounds for several years. To elevate the latent potential of the Digital Healthcare Market in India, the catastrophic pandemic came as the trigger point.
On September 27, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had finally rolled out the Digital Health ID project (DHID), to renew India’s broken health system with innovative technological practices.
The key objective of this DHID project is to boost the quality, affordability and easy access of healthcare services to the common man by making these services delivery a lot quicker, less expensive and more robust.
Also, the DHID project aims to reduce the burden of storing and carrying one’s health records for every visit to the doctor.
The launch of this latest project adorns another gem under the government’s belt after the much-hyped 2018 launch of the world’s largest state-funded health insurance scheme offered to 500 million below poverty line people of the country.
Achieving another milestone, the National Telemedicine Service, i.e., eSanjeevani had completed around 70 lakh consultations as recoded till July 2021.
Thus, bolstering the fastest-growing Digital Healthcare Market in India to new heights.
Entry of Hordes of Healthcare Start-ups
Acting as the much-needed spark, pandemic paved the path of encouraging the rapid launches of numerous start-ups in the e-pharmacy and teleconsultations fields.
As the Telemedicine market, discussed in detail in my previous article, thrives in India after the post-COVID-19 times, e-pharmacy portals bloomed as the Digital Healthcare Market in India reached around 30 million to 35 million households.
Sensing the need of the hour, numerous Health tech startups have gained momentum in the recent five years.
Backed up by the government’s push towards digitization and the sudden emergence of wide health care applications, India is looking forward to the boom of Digital Healthcare Market in India that includes, telemedicine, Digi-doctor and e-pharmacy facilities at a wide scale.
Final Words
Surging forward in the uncultivated fields of the Digital Healthcare Market in India, some of the technology security analysts have forewarned the government of the upcoming breach of privacy that will soon show its presence if the government fails to install a robust data protection law to prevent these new projects possible misuse.
Still in the long run, with coordinated and combined efforts from both central and state governments along with a gentle backing of the private sector, India has the potential to achieve the unthinkable.
