The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak that began in late 2019 has since then turned into a full-blown pandemic that continues to threaten lives and livelihoods across the world two years later.

To fully grasp the magnitude of damage caused by COVID-19, we must study it not only as a mere health crisis but also consider its crippling effect on the working of governments and industries and how it has affected mobility and the global economy. And yet, that would only be half the story. The unprecedented global health crisis has elicited an equally strong technological response that kept the wheels across sectors moving metaphorically. Moreover, going ahead, more digital advancements are expected.

The Healthcare Sector in the Past Year

This past year alone, India has witnessed great strides in telemedicine. In fact, despite physical healthcare infrastructure lacking in the hinterland, with improved access to mobile technology and concentrated government effort, teleconsultations helped Indians access timely medical help amid the pandemic.

According to a Ministry of Health and Family Welfare press release from July 2021, its flagship National Telemedicine Service ‘eSanjeevani’ initiative, currently operational in 31 states/union territories, has enabled 70 lakh patient-doctor consultations so far. The release also mentions another interesting statistic. The telemedicine service has served approximately 12.5 lakh patients in June 2021 alone, which is the highest since its launch in March 2020.

It emphasizes the initiative’s role in addressing the lack of medical professionals in rural India and lowering the pressure on secondary- and tertiary-level hospitals.

The telemedicine service is part of the government’s National Digital Health Mission initiative that intends to advance the digital health ecosystem in India. The initiative also aims at developing an integrated digital health infrastructure that brings together all related stakeholders, including patients, healthcare professionals and providers, administrators, policymakers, and allied private entities such as insurance providers.

Another promising development is the 2020 launch of the National Clinical Registry to collect data on clinical features, treatment, and outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in India. The data will help chart the natural course, medications, and the spectrum of Coronavirus as well as answer context-specific questions.

However, any talk of the government’s response to the present health crisis is incomplete without mentioning its digital contact tracing mobile application, Aarogya Setu, and the vaccination registration application, CoWIN. Although, these technological applications are not without fault. However, it is the short response time to resolve real-life problems with digital solutions that is commendable.

Another example of a timely digital response to resolving an urgent problem is the bed-finding application that some state governments launched during the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.

These applications also had their limitations. However, they arrived when an overwhelming number of patients were left without medical help or receiving medical attention late due to a lack of medical resources. Provided the learnings from the experiences during the second wave of the pandemic are used to refine these applications, they can continue to prove life-saving in the future.

Of course, the Indian government’s efforts to harness technology to improve its healthcare industry go beyond its pandemic-related efforts. For example, the Ayushman Bharat Yojana aims to provide vulnerable families with healthcare insurance coverage.

Beyond government efforts, healthcare-related start-ups addressing various healthcare needs, including preventive medicine, have further cemented the successful union of technology and medicine. Increasingly, people are familiarizing themselves with digital platforms to order medication and book diagnostic tests.

According to an IAMAI-Praxis report, E-pharmacies witnessed a 200% rise in the number of orders in 2020, and E-pharmacy adoption by households rose 2x more post-COVID. Meanwhile, online teleconsultations were up by 300% in 2020 because of the reluctance of doctors to consult patients in person.

The report mentioned another interesting statistic—80% of customers opting for teleconsultation were first-time users. Further, 50% more doctors joined teleconsultation platforms during 2020.

It is important to note here that the government recognized the delivery of medicines through e-commerce as an essential service last year.

Challenges

However, despite these positive developments, it is necessary to understand that healthcare in India continues to face significant challenges. Most importantly, there is an urgent need to improve the accessibility of healthcare facilities in rural areas, including the availability of qualified medical staff. Even for technological innovations in healthcare such as telemedicine to benefit the rural population, associated infrastructure such as internet access in these areas will have to be improved.

Moreover, there is a rising prevalence of lifestyle and chronic diseases among Indians because of a sedentary lifestyle, high-stress work environment, etc. Another issue, despite government efforts in this area, is that insurance adoption remains low, making healthcare prohibitively expensive and inaccessible for most of the population. Not all traditional healthcare businesses are profit-making, thereby making it a challenge to improve accessibility to healthcare for a large population of this country.

Way Ahead

Intrinsically, harnessing technology to improve the efficiency of the overall healthcare system can help make healthcare affordable for all. Furthermore, incentivizing collaborations between technology partners and traditional healthcare providers through supportive policy-making can also bring healthcare-related innovations to fruition.

This is a partnered post.