After Fintech, it’s time to revolutionize healthcare in India

Digitization across sectors, flows and processes defines India today. It has revolutionized delivery, and in a very short time has adapted the vast Indian population to a digital lifestyle. Now is India’s time to reap the benefits of this change to reform healthcare across the country.

With deeper penetration of technology and internet, big data is helping to shape India’s future. With its clear mandate, the government has accelerated efforts to ensure that even the marginalized segments are not left untouched by digitization and are able to utilize the benefits to the fullest.

After a series of political changes and the introduction of digital technology, both at government level and with models such as a public-private partnership, the positive results are already visible on the ground. They are experienced and appreciated by the citizens as they have not only eased life to a great extent but also provided the much needed freedom of time. An example of this is the digital financial transactions and the introduction of digital wallets, UPI and other financial/banking apps that have not only replaced our physical wallets but also changed the way we pay today. While the critics may have their views, digitization has a long-lasting impact on everyone’s life today.

Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission: UPI for the healthcare sector

After the introduction of India’s biggest game changer in the healthcare sector, the Ayushman Bharat Health Scheme, the government has given the right impetus to the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). This promises to be a giant step towards digitization of healthcare services and medical records and many are even calling it as UPI for the healthcare sector which is going to transform the sector forever. This takes the first, and extremely important, step towards standardizing the process of identifying an individual across healthcare providers. At the same time, this is seen as the only way to ensure that the records created are issued to the right person or access to health information user through appropriate consent. Provision of UHID and maintenance of detailed digital health records that are updated accurately and easily, across multiple systems and stakeholders, will be key to the program’s success.

India can showcase how data interoperability can help heal the world

Data interoperability has been an obstacle that has stared governments around the world for a long time. It is very obvious to experts that this crucial challenge must be solved in the most innovative way. This is where Ayushman Bharat fits in like a glove. The open participation of both the private sector and government departments and the introduction of new technologies will not only make the system seamless, but also one of the most credible and reliable in the world. As a leading stakeholder in the space, we are really excited about how the Indian government has envisioned this data exchange platform. We must develop innovative products that provide state-of-the-art solutions to help physicians embed and have real-time access to patient records. This standardization of real-time paperless data and patient health records will enable a doctor to have a 360-degree overview of the patient and provide better treatment.

Transform the patient and doctor experience

Being integrated into the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, through the technical stack that has been built, technology platforms can show a complete patient profile to the doctor even if the patient has visited multiple facilities, or has a very varied medical history.

By ensuring constant focus and going beyond pilots, the government is now putting a sharp spotlight on the adoption of new age technologies that can scale up the project and help achieve benefits beyond expectations. With the use of technologies like EMRs, we can enable data entry and information retrieval from the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission technology stack, thereby providing a strong foundation and means to accelerate adoption phenomenally. The usual assignment is to drive EMR (Electronic Medical Record) adoption in India, which involves a lot of data entry and therefore requires a seamless and excellent voice user interface experience.