| | November 20179For a country like India, there is a dire need to look at `technology leapfrogging' to build more efficient and scalable healthcare models, at a faster pacetelemedicine and IT-enabled health-care systems. Such solutions would be geared to address specific on-ground challenges in consultation, treatment and continuing education for health-care service providers. This has not only aided a shift to-wards greater patient empowerment and control over their treatment, but also supported healthcare providers to optimize their workflow and en-gagement for more efficient outcomes. For example, remote patient moni-toring systems are enabling real-time collaboration between doctors and patients. This is especially beneficial for the elderly and the mobility-chal-lenged, where primary healthcare can be shifted towards `home care' through e-prescriptions, e-consultations and treatment monitoring.Automation & Digitization: Healthcare management is lately wit-nessing a shift towards electronic health record systems. Moving be-yond the constraints of traditional patient care, this enables speedy and comprehensive access to all aspects of patients' health ­ ensuring reduc-tion in medical errors. The collected data can also be harnessed to drive analytics-based decision making and collaboration on similar cases among clinicians. Big Data Analytics: The use of In-formation and Communication Tech-nology (ICT) in healthcare has typi-cally worked well for surveillance and data gathering. However, it is also en-abling increase in health literature and education. For clinicians, this trans-lates into designing and delivering `precision healthcare'. For patients, it opens new frontiers by empowering them with information, enabling them to discuss best treatment modalities across the globe. At Max healthcare and other lead-ing medical institutions, several initia-tives are being undertaken to integrate different medical databases and facili-tate standardisation of clinical diagno-sis and procedures in Electronic health record systems ­ bypassing geograph-ic boundaries and enabling insights and access to information knowledge base. This knowledge base integrat-ed with digital and mobile delivery tools, leveraging analysis and care management protocols, will be built at scale, and support patient-centred, out-come-based delivery models for larger populations. Machine learning (Artifi-cial Intelligence) based analytics will also play a pivotal role in addressing the inherent need to have round-the-clock, omnipresent services at highest efficiency levels. Wearables & Biosensors: One of the most exciting mobility solutions in recent times has been wearable tech-nology lased with increasing sophisti-cation which is mapping numerous as-pects and parameters of patient health and tabulating the same in statistics. From fitness bands to unobtrusive in-gestible devices ­ the increasing adop-tion of these solutions has not only given patients control on their histo-ry and treatment but also allowed for more personalized care and precision medicine. Further evolution in this space will allow cloud-based syncing of patient information with hospital/ clinician databases, round-the-clock monitoring of vital signs which would facilitate holistic wellness and pre-empt any potential medical episode. On the other hand, gamification and competition based apps that encourage users to achieve goals, is an answer to tackle the `preventive' aspect by man-aging lifestyle diseases. Technology is at the cusp of rev-olutionizing outcome-driven care de-livery models. And for a country like India, there is a dire need to look at `technology leapfrogging' to build more efficient and scalable healthcare models, at a faster pace. A success-ful leapfrogging will involve coming together of more innovative and dis-ruptive technology solutions custom-ized to our country's specific needs, consistent iterations and develop-ments of `operating models' for better healthcare delivery, and `Behavioural change' measures for all stakehold-ers to build a cohesive and accessible healthcare roadmap.
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