Covid-19 has entered an unprecedented digital health ecosystem but, as a country, how should we accelerate this pace?
Digital health is now Healthcare’s default operating system. As a country, India is currently at the top in terms of digital health programs. The numbers speak for themselves. About two billion Covid vaccinations have been delivered and tracked through the digital system, about 180 million health records have been allocated, and more than 30 million digital consultations have been delivered by eSanjivani. This is a great achievement for any developing country. When it comes to digital health, we are matched with developed countries in size and space. Going forward, we need to take clear action for digital health, and we must avoid lobbying for vested interests, as it could derail our promising start.
When it comes to combining traditional healthcare models and digital approaches, how do we take the next step and help central government missions like Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), CO-WIN and Make in India?
Fortunately, India does not have many hereditary systems, and we will build a digital health embedded healthcare system in them. So, being late, we are lucky. The CO-WIN platform should go beyond Covid and be used as a mobile healthcare exchange (MHE) to provide many services. This should be both; Mobile and web-based (MDR-Longitudinal Health Record for every Indian) to serve as an exchange, patient portal and mobile digital record. CO-WIN could be the default template for digital health and show the way to see how India has embraced digitization in healthcare delivery around the world. NHA – ABDM has the right institutional structure and leadership to deliver digital health. It’s time to do a public review on various aspects of delivery so we don’t have to rollback expensive technology in the future. Half-yearly reviews with beneficiaries will ensure the construction of a future-proof system. Also, the time has come to be the Minister for Public and Digital Health.
How is the 2022 edition of the Global Digital Health Summit different from previous ones? What action steps do you expect from this summit? How do you think this summit will help move the digital health ecosystem forward?
The summit is truly global, with the world’s leading digital health associations joining hands to host the Global Health Connector Partnership Meeting in Delhi. This phenomenon is supported by the Americans Telemedicine Association, HLTH- USA, Digital Health Society of Ireland, Africa Health Federation, International Society for Telemedicine and Health (ISfTeH, Switzerland) And the Parliament of Health.
The summit will present the world’s first multi-stakeholder declaration aimed at ‘Digital Health for All’. We are drafting the declaration, which will be released at the summit. The purpose of this is to ensure that all stakeholders deliver digital health to all and reduce inequality in health care.
The report of the results of this summit will prepare a roadmap for the future of digital health. This is not just another summit; It will answer some of the critical questions that have accelerated the adoption of digital health on a large scale such as return on investment for digital health, digital health in practice / clinics run by small healthcare providers and physicians that make up the majority of providers. For healthcare in developing countries and how 5G, gaming and metavers will transform healthcare. The summit will have participants from major regions around the world. The global awards will recognize and celebrate ‘Transformers’ in healthcare and will be decided by an international jury chaired by Brian O’Connor, President of the European Connected Health Alliance.
We are talking about building a strong digital health ecosystem, I want to ask about it IBM Watson Which was to bring about a change in health care. However, with a series of high-profile shocks, the company was sold to a private equity firm. Where do you think Watson missed health?
Even if AI is 95 percent accurate it is a failure. Would you go to a surgeon who says I’m 95 percent accurate? The hype about taking advantage of its full potential remains until we sit down and reject the basics and set a clean practice baseline. Otherwise, Garbage In and Garbage Out (GIGO) will ruin the AI party for healthcare in the long run. So, why is AI failing in clinical practice? We have had prescription, diagnosis and treatment malpractices for decades and these data have been used as a basis for creating AI-ML based solutions. So, if the primary data is corrupted or inaccurate, how can you build a reliable solution on it? First, we need to address the three I’s of data – ‘integrity’, ‘integration’, and then ‘intelligence’ will work. We need to ensure CMP (Case Management Protocol) based healthcare practice, and then the AI applied to these CMP-based healthcare data will lead to 99.99 percent accuracy, which will disrupt healthcare.
However telemedicine became a critical tool during the epidemic, and the National Health Policy (NHP) lists it as an essential objective. However, there is a gap in the proper implementation of health technology as there is no guideline available or standardized format to qualify patient-physician interaction or no accountability framework for resolving issues of medical-legal negligence. So what are your thoughts on this?
If we review page 23 of NHP Point 12.1, it refers to the mandatory announcement of treatment and success rates in private and public healthcare facilities. This will be a game-changer to improve healthcare quality, which needs to be implemented through the NHA Digital Dashboard.
NHP-2017 is radical in many ways and has faced all such challenges. I think it’s time to review NHP’s progress, as it’s been five years since it was approved. In the Health Parliament, the think tank has begun reviewing the NHP, and we will make a detailed review available in early 2023.
As India moves towards a $ 5 trillion economy by 2024-25, how important is the health sector for India? Why should it be seen as a national priority? What are the top priorities that should be planned and targeted?
India should think beyond the 5 5 trillion economy because by 2045 every fifth Indian senior citizen will lose our demographic opportunity. Therefore, we must move towards becoming a $ 32-40 trillion economy by 2047, which calls for laying a strong foundation for health and skills. Within health, we need to move from a three-tier healthcare system (primary, secondary and tertiary) to a four-tier healthcare system (digital, primary, secondary and tertiary), and we need to embed digitalisation in the continuity of care. In the Health Parliament, we have completed the scoping document for digital health to be submitted to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) for phased proceedings and investment areas. We need to be asset-lite and, nonetheless, pre-effective in our approach to governance, financing and healthcare delivery; Only digital health can help achieve that. Therefore, digital health will be a top priority action item for healthcare and the $ 32-40 trillion economy.
