Data Revolution in Healthcare and Lifesciences Industry

The big data revolution is here, on an aggressive growth path, and the patient might truly be the biggest beneficiary of next wave. But hey! Where is that data? 1. More than 65% of data across the globe stay non-digitized. 2. 68% of digitized data isn't integrated with channels or inter-operable systems. 3. 99% problem in delivering effective healthcare is in bad data, old data and No data. The health care system is filled with dreamers, from compassionate nurses and doctors to technology experts, researchers in the lab to people like us- mHealth experts. After careful evaluation of facts, we have arrived at this hypothesis: The need to fully engage patients as a member of the care team is fundamentally about encouraging individuals to become more involved with their healthcare, so they will be motivated to make behavioural changes that can positively impact their health status. Today we do it in 3 ways: 1. Public health programs- where we don't spend much on pervasi...

Healthcare On Mobiles: Featured post- mHealth fighting malnutrition :  Malnutrition is a byword in the forested hills of the Melghat region inhabited mostly by Korku Adivasis. Every year 400-500 children between the ages of 0 and 6 die in the region, comprising Chikhaldhara and Dharni taluks, according to official figures from 2005. The Problem: Thousands of kids die every year in the tribal area of Melghat (Maharashtra, India) due to lack of medical attention and nutritional support. Increased incidence and rapid spread of infectious diseases such as pneumonia, typhoid, and dysentery are primary cause of high child mortality. Situation worsens during monsoon when the food supplies are low and the communicable diseases are at their peak. Melghat is also a place known for high infant mortality rate. Some reasons for the health crisis in Melghat include lack of infrastructure, under-equipped and under-staffed public health and ICDS centres, the tradition of early marriages ...

From government officials to hospitals administrators to patient advocates, women are making an impact in health IT by leading innovation and change in all facets of healthcare. We asked our readers to nominate the most influential women in health IT for our second annual list. And boy, did they respond--it was tough to keep the list to 10. We received nominations for women who are changing the face of personal health data and patient engagement, advancing nurse informatics, promoting mHealth and tele-medicine, using technology to improve global healthcare, developing healthcare apps and more.  Read more:  10 (More) Influential Women in Health IT - FierceHealthIT   http://www.fiercehealthit.com/slideshows/10-influential-women-health-it#ixzz2es3FJS1D Subscribe at  FierceHealthIT

Tuberculosis- TB is caused by a bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, that the WHO says infects one third of the world’s population. Between five and 10 percent of infected people develop the disease and become contagious at some point in their lives. (For those with HIV or AIDS, however, the rate is much higher.) The Bigger problem- India is the highest TB burden country with World health Organisation (WHO) statistics for 2010 giving an estimated incidence figure of 2.3 million cases of TB for India out of a global incidence of 9.4 million cases. The WHO statistics also show that India is 17th out of the 22 high burden countries in terms of TB incidence rate. The estimated TB prevalence figure for 2010 is given as 3.1 million. It is estimated that about 40% of the Indian population is infected with TB bacteria, the vast majority of whom have latent rather than active TB. Compliance issues in Treatment- To treat TB, the WHO recommends the so-called DOTS (Directly Obse...

Read The real India- mHealth and beyond- part 1 here Doctor on Call Services- Rural India- The Doctor to patient ratio in Bihar is 1:3500, which is far behind the national average of 1:1700. Bhore committee, set up to recommend improvements in the Indian Public Health system, had suggested a ratio of 1:1000. It is felt that without addressing this problem, all promises made by the state government will remain a distant dream.  There are around 30,000 registered doctors in the state – both government as well as those engaged in private practice. The condition is more or less same in the state of AP (Andhra Pradesh)  as well. In AP, around 6 lac (6,00,000) people go untreated every day. Mediphone - A great example of 3 different stakeholders joining hands across the value chain in India. Medibank (Australia) ties up with Religare Technologies (A Fortis Company) and Airtel for launching the service to provide Medical prescription in less than $1 across India....

Mobile Health is going to be a 3000 crore market in India by 2017. (Source PwC). M-health (use of mobile phones) and E-health are all set to make an entry into India's primary health centres (PHCs) and sub-centres as the health ministry plans to go hi-tech. Healthcare industry is expected to show a strong growth of 23% per annum to become a US$ 77 billion industry by 2012. One of the largest sector in terms of revenue and employment has grown at 9.3% per annum between 2000-2009 with a current size at par with fastest growing developing country like China, Brazil and Mexico.Driven by various catalysts such as increasing population, rising income levels, changing demographics and illness profile with a shift from chronic to life style diseases, healthcare industry is expected to move to levels of US$ 77 billion in next 3 years. (Source: ASSOCHAM). Empowering rural India is of utmost importance and the government needs to do so by provisioning for broadband penetration and ...

Recent quote: “ In the years to come, mHealth applications will be distributed primarily through healthcare distribution channels like hospitals and specialized healthcare product vendors and not the app stores as is currently the case, and that traditional will become the predominant distribution channel . ”(Source: research2guidance) Well this sounds promising. However, we all know that the success of a mHealth business model doesn’t depend on the distribution channel but on what you give for the money you take and in turn sustainability of that service”. Positives: Growth of Smartphones market in India India is witnessing a rapid growth in the smartphones segment. India shipped 4.8 lakh units of smartphones during Q3 CY2009. The top three smartphone vendors during Q3 of calender 2009 were Nokia, HTC and RIM. Together, these vendors had a share of nearly 90% of the Indian smartphones market in terms of unit shipments during the period July-September 2009. All the major handse...

1. What are the major trends you’re noticing in healthcare mobility? In a country like India where Doctor to patient ratio is 1:900, Doctors are a few and work is like 24/7. Patient demands low cost, timely and quality healthcare coverage. For Healthcare enterprises, Patient Data is critical to collect and manage and hence mhealth is primarily aimed at bridging the economic divide in terms of healthcare. Mobility is the key here- Many Healthcare enterprises which are spread over 10-20 establishments in India are now using VPNs as the enabling technology which allows Doctors to use standard public Internet ISPs and high-speed lines to access closed private networks. A simple use case for this is to access Virtual Patient Health records and there are other wireless technologies designed specifically for use in the provision of healthcare, like: Standard Mobile enterprise services used by health-care workers, such as remote access to e-mail and health-information systems; Mobile Applicat...

The Technology Driven data channels offers a key opportunity for pharma companies to restructure their sales and marketing model, improving their relationships with physicians and increasing compliance among patients. At the same time, patients are demanding a greater role in treatment decisions and seeking information from a range of online sources, resulting in a new age of consumerism in healthcare. If you take a look at the screenshots below, you will realize the biggest problems for Pharma companies today where mhealth can be a solution. Courtesy- Businessmonitor . Potential areas where Mhealth can be of use and can be deployed to tap the captive market driving non linear revenue. As far as returns are concerned in the Pharma sector in India, India has one of the largest pharmaceutical markets in Asia, currentlyvalued at US$16.32bn. However, due to the country’s vast 1.17bn population, individual spending is actually very low. Pharmaceutical expenditure in 2009 was 1.24% of ...