The Inside Story- e-Health

The scale of e-health services in India has been very small so far, mostly limited to health awareness through portals, telemedicine and customer service using the internet. Even with such a small scale of operations, some significant changes are being made nationwide that will strengthen telemedicine initiatives and the healthcare industry as a whole. The most important initiative being, the standardization of exchange of health information between different entities within the healthcare sector.

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology are jointly creating a national health information infrastructure, for easy capture and dissemination of health information. To support this infrastructure, necessary steps are also being taken in creating a legally safe environment that will protect the privacy and confidentiality of health information. Steps are also being taken to educate various stakeholders of the healthcare industry about the need for complying with health information standards The above-mentioned initiatives of the government are indirectly going to bolster the growth of cross border e-health services. Healthcare is becoming more and more regulated in developed countries such as the USA. Healthcare payers and providers are willing to outsource work easily to countries/companies that comply with health information standards and have a robust legal framework for privacy and security of health information.

In principle, telemedicine has bridged the urban rural divide by taking healthcare to interiors of India. There are more than 150 telemedicine initiatives today. On an average close to 6 (range of 2-10) telemedicine encounters take place per day in each of these centers. These figures are very low considering the dearth of healthcare services in the same areas of India. However, a start has been made. These figures are only going to increase, as the technology costs are falling regularly. Eg. Telecommunication costs have reduced by 3 times since the last two years.

Financing

In the domestic arena, e-health services are being offered by existing healthcare provider organizations such as hospitals. They have e-enabled their services to offer either better customer service or increase their access to rural areas. The average investment for a telemedicine center has been close to 25 lakhs. Healthcare portals and corporate websites do not cost more than 5 lakhs to develop.

In the international e-health services arena, the funds invested are much larger. There are currently close to 50 stable healthcare service providers, of which close to 30 offer medical transcription while the remainder offers medical billing, coding and health insurance services. Considering an average investment of Rs. 2 crores4 for a medical transcription company and an average of Rs. 5 crores for other healthcare services providers, an amount of 160 crores has been invested in companies that offer cross border e-health services. Domestic e-health services have not resulted in any savings of foreign currencies by reducing the need of domestic patients to go abroad for treatment. The purchase of health services also hasn’t been affected very much. But there are enough indicators to indicate that it will increase. Healthcare concepts such as “preventive healthcare and disease management”, which are also offered via the internet, are catching up in the urban markets.

PDAs in Healthcare -Passe or in Vogue

The PDA is a very small and portable, handheld computer, which has many more functions than a calculator, and the capacity to store information much like a Personal Computer (PC). Basic functionality available on most PDAs includes an address book, schedule, calendar, note pad, and e-mail. The PDA is convenient to use in clinical and field situations for quick data management, and the information can be synchronized with a PC . By means of a wireless network, information can be exchanged anytime from anywhere to and from a PDA, and the network will provide immediate access to all kinds of necessary clinical and administrative data . Health care professionals need access to information several times a day, and the PDA has the potential to provide this. For the PDA, there are numerous documents and medical software applications available, with a wide variation in quality. A large number of medical students take advantage of the PDA for educational purposes and patient care with great sa...

A New Dawn in Healthcare: How AI and LLMs Are Transforming Patient Care – A Story of Hope and Healing

It was a crisp autumn morning when John, a 45-year-old father of two, first felt the sharp pain in his chest. Like many, he brushed it off as stress or indigestion. But when the pain persisted, his wife, Sarah, insisted he see a doctor. Little did John know that this visit would mark the beginning of a transformative journey—one that would redefine his understanding of healthcare and how technology could seamlessly blend into the patient experience. John’s story is not unique. Millions of patients navigate the labyrinth of healthcare systems every day, often feeling lost, overwhelmed, and underserved. But John’s experience was different. It was a glimpse into a new era of healthcare delivery, powered by Large Language Models (LLMs), generative AI, and advanced analytics—a world where technology works silently in the background, guiding every step of the care process with precision, empathy, and efficiency. The First Encounter: A Seamless Entry into Care When John walked into his ...

The real India- mHealth and beyond ICT

After spending 20 days on-ground with PHCs and while supporting some of the major initiatives in India, I was tempted to do some cut-throat analysis. I realized that 25% of the total Income generated in India is in the hands of mere 100 rich families. What's more! this huge gap is increasing day by day. After independence, the valley has only widened up between the rich and the poor and the growth that we envisage is still miles away from the hands of a common man. Photograph courtesy @ Shashwat Nagpal Over 72% (that would be over 620 million) of India’s population lives in its 638,588 villages. It is hard to believe but in India, a common man is most indebted to healthcare after dowry. Most families earn less than $1/day and some of the major initiatives by NGOs suffer as there is so much distrust about Government policies and efforts in the country. In villages, healthcare in India still starts from Security, clean drinking water, better sanitation facilities a...

Data Revolution in Healthcare and Lifesciences Industry

Search This Blog