Data Revolution in Healthcare and Lifesciences Industry

Well, offlate I received a Huge amount of Inputs from the readers on my blog, Thanks to Didar, Ajay, Pankaj, David, Nitin and all of you. I am hereby drawing certain conclusions out of those Case studies which I received and studied. Steps required for Such Conclusions: (1) Create a framework for country studies. (2) Identify focal points – regional and national (WHO and Member State). (3) Set up an interdisciplinary and interministry expert group. (4) Select/appoint a national consultant. (5) Carry out research on the basis of the framework. (6) Monitor, review and finalize the study. (7) Identify gaps. (8) Build capacity. (9) Devise strategies. (10) Establish task group to carry forward initiative. High-quality infrastructure is one of the most important prerequisites for fostering the growth of the e-health industry. (The main determinants of the e-business environment for health are technology, connectivity, bandwidth availability, telephone charges, power supply and real estate.) ...

ASSO/PR/527 May 26, 2008 MEDICAL TOURISM FOREX EARNINGS TO GROW RS. 8000 CR. FROM 2012 : ASSOCHAM Easy access of Visa facilities often permitted by India to overseas patients coupled with best emerging medical infrastructure facilities in its large and tertiary towns, prospects of India Medical Tourism becoming a lead foreign exchange earners will grow to an extent of Rs. 8000 crore by 2012. The above findings are arrived at The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) on Prospects of Medical Tourism for Higher Forex Earning' under the supervision of its Health Committee chaired by Chairman, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Dr. B K Rao in which other lead doctors from Medicity Moolchand, AIIMS, Max etc. are involved. Releasing the ASSOCHAM estimates, its President, Mr. Venugopal N. Dhoot pointed out that currently, the earnings accrued through medical tourism annually are estimated at Rs.3500 crore. "The primary reasons as to why medical tourism would flourish i...

SIZE Healthcare delivery is one of the largest service-sector industries in India Estimated revenue of about US$30 billion (FY 2006) Industry growth at over 12% p.a. in the past four years Large domestic market complemented by the inflow of medical tourists Medical tourists have increased almost twenty-fold from 10,000 in 2000 to about 1,80,000–2,00,000 in 2006 STRUCTURE The industry is fragmented with a large number of independent, privately-run hospital and healthcare centres Private healthcare providers account for almost 70%-80% of the total spend Government sector and corporate employers account for the rest Private sector corporate entities like Apollo Hospitals, Wockhardt Hospitals and Fortis Healthcare have aggressive expansion plans Indian hospitals are gaining reputation globally as ‘quality’ service providers Many Indian hospitals have secured accreditation from the British Standards Institute and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations NHS, UK has indi...

India's attempts to make a foray into the world of telemedicine has not made much headway, especially due to foreign data processing laws and difficulties in certification of qualifications of Indian telemedicine providers, the Planning Commission has said. Rising costs and dearth of medical personnel have created pressures for public health care providers in developed countries to explore the possibility of electronic delivery of services across the borders and they looking for opportunities to outsource diagnostic services to private health care providers. What is relevant is the emergence of opportunities for Indian service providers to supply telemedicine services to developed countries in such segments as diagnostics, dermatology, opthalmology and psychiatry, a high-level group of the Commission observed in a report. The group notes that a number of telemedicine centres are already operating in the country. In 2001, the Indian Space Research Organisation launched a pilot pro...

Our ancestors traveled to hot springs and other water bodies for their medicinal value. Rich and famous especially from developing nations have always traveled to advanced countries for the best treatment. But today, these journeys seem to have another purpose, holidaying, and are categorized as ‘medical tourism’. Another peculiarity is reversal of tourist traffic from developed nations to third world for cheaper treatment. But it is confusing how a sick person can be on a holiday and enjoy leisure like any other tourist. Ignoring this fundamental question, medical tourism is being promoted across the world.Medical tourism, an unexplored segment, is still in its infancy in India. About one and half lakh tourists visited India in 2003 for special treatment and/or advanced surgery, as compared to one million to Thailand, and they have mixed response and experience. This figure increased by about 30,000 in the following year in India. They prefer India because it is affordable as comp...

Imagine the hospital of the future where unnecessary expenses will be cut and more patient lives will be saved. Say goodbye to the inefficiencies of the old hospital and welcome the new, highly cost-effective system of asset and personnel tracking, patient care, and billing, the keystone of which will be radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. RFID envisions such a world. The applications for the healthcare industry are several, asset tracking, patient tracking, staff location, baby monitoring, blood bank distribution, etc. Here I define two such applications: Asset Tracking:Healthcare facilities invest CRORES of Rupees in upgrading and maintaining expensive equipment that aid the healthcare professional in the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of patients. It is incumbent on these professionals to maximize the use of such machines to maintain cost controls and yet meet the ever evolving and extremely dynamic needs of the patients. When the equipment needed is not readily a...

What new business models in health care, based on the Internet, are rising to the fore? What do they do that's different? And how do they address some eternal issues of patient care: not only good health, but also quality, choice and trust? Here is the Discussion- "Reshaping Markets and Industries." For the following ,I alloted six hat thinking to my friends.. RED HAT = Emotional analysis, White Hat = Facts n figures, Black Hat = careful , Yellow hat = positive, Green Hat = creativity, Blue hat =Cool Hat, an Organising hat. Yellow says - Most health care marketing in the past was centered around physicians. The basis of competition in the near future would shift to one driven by consumer satisfaction and quality. White says - "It's really incredible when you compare [health care] to other industries, and ask what information is available to consumers that influences choice: choice of physician, choice of where to have procedures done, ability to access meaningful...

If you need profits..if you really want to make it big in the top line...Read ON... It is important to differentiate between current visitors and target audience. If your stats are able to, the important information is return visitors and where they come from. There will always be random visitors from all over the world, arriving via search engines. They add to visitor numbers and page views, but what you need are visitors that bookmark your site and use it as a resource. They are the visitors who travel through many pages each visit, who read the content, and who are in a better mood to notice relevant advertisements. Many search engine visitors will only visit for a few seconds then go somewhere else. The advantage of Google Ads is that you get paid per click-through, regardless of whether the visitor ends up buying anything. From this point of view, it doesn't really matter where they come from - if they can read English there's a 1-3% chance they'll click on an ad. It i...

Creating support groups is a good Idea. The final destination should be linked to form the body of the page people originally arrived at, and given a much better impresssion of the depth of information your site contains. I suggest that the Support Group section be merged with Conditions section. The visitor should be able to visit your home page, click on Conditions, click on Epilepsy (See Epilepsy Journals from The Lancet as well), and reach a page that links to all the info your site has on the topic. When I get to the Epilepsy page, I would like to see a menu prominently displayed in the center of the page, that links to: - Introduction - Definition - Causes - Charateristics - Diagnosis - Treatment - Tips for living with Epilepsy - Articles - Myths surrounding epilepsy - Do's and Don'ts - Epilepsy & Women - Famous people with epilepsy - VNS Therapy - Support Groups Fixing the Navigation --------------------- What needs to be done is this, for each ailment, remedy or gen...

Revenue-------Your focus should be on advertisements. Web users don't mind qualityPortals having a banner ad at the top of the page, and Google Ads havethe ability to provide ads relevant to page content. Getting doctorsor hospitals to pay for inclusion in a your directory only becomesviable when they sense they *need* to be listed. Consider how longYahoo took before they charged for inclusion as the correct model. Which is the better option, from your visitors’ point of view? 1. A complete directory, supported by ads2. A patchy directory, supported by submission fees Revenue by section------------------In general, I do not think any gain can be made from dividing yoursite into sections for revenue purposes. Although there may be theoccasional section of your site worthy of special attention, it is notcommon for large sites to complicate their advertising in this way. If an individual page receives a lot of visitors, then a staticadvertisement that ties in well with the topic of t...

The IT and dotcom revolution has given the people a chance to explore business opportunities that never existed in the past. And they have taken those opportunities with both hands. Among them have been those looking for opportunities in the healthcare market. The absolute increase in population argues automatically in favour of a growing market for health care and health care products. The increasing levels of literacy and eduction argue likewise. The dissemination of information through the internet makes health care as a dotcom proposition sound more than a remote business opportunity. The rest of course depends upon individual business acumen and the ability to convert a chance into an opportunity and an opportunity into a viable business. Among the better known health care portals now up and running in India are: healthlibrary.com apollohealth.satyamonline.com 3. goodhealthyou.com 4. webhealthcenter.com 5. mdspeak.com 6. indmedica.com 7. doctoranywhere.com 8. healthcarehouse.com ...

Creating a successful company in any industry is a challenge, but the unique characteristics of the Internet make it particularly difficult. Still, e-health is considered by many to be the most promising hope for the information- and service-driven healthcare industry. Due to its sheer size, even a small increase in efficiency can produce billions of dollars in savings. Since the Internet has only existed in its current form for about 7 years, there is tremendous uncertainty about how to create a profitable Internet business. Popular trends wax and wane, and a company lucky enough to catch one can see tremendous, albeit temporary, success. What will support a start-up in the long term are its fundamentals. We have identified 4 fundamental factors that seem to be the most important in predicting the success or failure of an Internet company. These are: (1) a compelling value, (2) an unambiguous revenue model, (3) competitive barriers to entry, and (4) organizational structure for cost c...

Provide interesting and meaningful content. The single most important element for an effective e-health portal is relevant and meaningful content. If the information on the site isn't interesting; if it doesn't encourage members or employees to visit a site, the employer or health plan sponsor will not be able to secure the benefits an e-health portal strategy can provide. Integrate the information with important benefit information. While people go to Internet sites to research healthcare information, as many e-health firms have discovered, content alone is not enough. The best sites today integrate meaningful educational content with pertinent health plan information and services involving claims, benefits, enrollment, provider directories, member services, and medical management programs. Provide a variety of information. A comprehensive and effective e-health portal allows health plan members to access the latest healthcare news and articles from consumer magazines and clin...

The majority of the population of the country is excluded from any statutory recognition of right to health. Constitutional recognition can, at the highest, only provide the framework for further statutory inroads. Judicial pronouncements, then, acquire significance. With the advent of public interest litigation, a large number of issues concerning the poor and marginalized are being agitated in courts across the land. It is important to follow the thinking of the courts on these issues. Even though judicial pronouncements may not have the same breadth as statutory laws, they constitute the law as applicable in given situations. Besides, these pronouncements give legitimacy, recognition and social acceptance to various ideas and constructs which can be used for strengthening rights based campaigns around issues.This Reader mainly looks at the Constitutional recognition and judicial pronouncements. These case law form the foundation of the right to health care and can support any furthe...

The idea of providing health information on the Internet never really went away, it just had a little relapse. One of the Web's most well-known health sites -- DrKoop.com, founded in 1997 by former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop -- set a bad example when it had a much-publicized heart attack. The site went public in 2000 and at one point had a market value of more than $1 billion. But the company foundered and was delisted by Nasdaq only a year later. The site name was purchased for $186,000 by Vitacost and the brand is now operated by a group called MDchoice. The good news for health consumers -- which ultimately includes all of us -- is that reliable health-care information is becoming more widely available than ever. The upshot of this may be of great significance to you or your company. New Entrants Offer Expanded Health Info Three sites typify the new wave of health portals that are changing the way people get information about diseases, medications and treatments: • Pat...

.....Even though the Indian health insurance market grew by 38% in 2006-07, only ... were no third party administrators operating in India, and there was no direct settlement of claims between health Insurer and hospital. There were therefore issues concerning... Even though the Indian health insurance market grew by 38% in 2006-07, only 1.08% of India’s billion plus population has medical insurance. The general perception is that the prospects for growth in this sector of the insurance market are good. Background Health insurance policies were first introduced in 1986 at a time when the Indian insurance industry was nationalised. The policies on offer were complicated to read and offered limited cover. There were no third party administrators operating in India, and there was no direct settlement of claims between health Insurer and hospital. There were therefore issues concerning claims servicing, which involved an Insured following cumbersome procedures to get claims authenticated a...

Smart card technology holds great promise for the healthcare industry The Smart Card Alliance has formed a Healthcare Council to bring together payers, providers and technologists to promote the adoption of smart cards in U.S. healthcare organizations. Smart card technology is increasingly being used in healthcare applications to enable secure access to patient information to improve both care-giving and administration. "Smart card technology holds great promise for the healthcare industry," said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "The Healthcare Council provides a forum where all the stakeholders can collaborate to educate the market on how the smart cards can be used and to work on issues inhibiting the industry." Dr. Paul Davis, Council co-chair and CEO of Uniliance Health, outlined the priorities for the Council. "There are numerous initiatives around the world using smart cards for a variety of secure healthcare app...