Theme

India will need to invest in a resilient information infrastructure, healthcare spending, and 2022 onwards will see massive healthcare transformations.

Digitally-enabled care is at the heart of this transformation. AI supports clinical decision making, improves care orchestration and efficiency, and powers workflow automation. Digital healthcare transformation presents opportunities for a greater shift to remote patient care through telehealth. The increased focus on digitalisation has helped in accelerating contactless healthcare and faster decision making. Technological innovations have further helped patients and consumers to understand diseases better and subsequently, demand higher-quality healthcare services. The following changes have been identified across the healthcare framework during the pandemic. India’s strengths as a digital powerhouse have yet to be harnessed by the health system to accelerate its progress towards a high-quality, affordable, comprehensive, accountable, accessible and inclusive healthcare for all.

Reengineering business models

The pandemic put a magnifying glass on another global crisis: health inequity. Systemic socioeconomic, racial, geographic and even generational factors all contribute to reaching – and maintaining – good health. We must step-up to close the gaps, particularly with the rise in chronic disease posing a significant public health threat. Barriers to education, diagnosis and treatment must be urgently addressed. The pandemic has resulted in the development of more holistic models of healthcare delivery. At the same time, there has been a preparatory shift across the healthcare value chain that is aimed at improving not only business but also health outcomes.

The healthcare industry has been growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 22% since 2016. Healthcare has become one of the largest sectors of the Indian economy, in terms of both revenue and employment. In 2015, the sector became the fifth-largest employer, engaging 47 lakh people directly. According to estimates by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), healthcare can generate 27 lakh additional jobs in India between 2017 and 22 — over 500,000 new jobs per year.