Tag Archives: HealthCare

3D Printing – Future of Healthcare

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This is the second post on this series of what I think will be the future of Healthcare. In the first post, I talked about Personalized Medicine.

Joint replacement, Prostrate legs etc are gaining acceptance worldwide. 3D Printing definitely brings down the cost and hence more and more people can afford them. However, this is just one piece to the puzzle. There are other components which are required for 3D printing to become more affordable and acceptable.

There are two companies which are working on pushing the need for Joint replacements. Stryker Corporation and Zimmer Biomet. They using 3D Printing along CT Bone Scans to develop personalized designs.

This is a long way to go, but organizations like these are changing the game.

Remember how Aravind Eye Care changed the game for Cataract operations by producing lens which cost $5? Aravind Eye Care played a crucial role in bringing down the costs of Cataract surgeries and making it affordable for many people.

Personalized Medicine – The future of Healthcare

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This is one common question which comes frequently in my conversations. What is the one big thing which will change the landscape of Healthcare in the next decade or so. With my experience, I personally feel it is going to be Personalized Medicine.

Recently, I met a founder who is working on this idea at a different level. Their idea is to combine various forms of medicine to personalize the treatment. For instance, if you have a backache (common in today’s world), just popping a pill might give you instance relief, but what is the long term treatment? In the long term, one should be sincere in developing a discipline to ensure this is proactively taken care. Doing Yoga and sitting in proper posture while working and sleeping are certain ways of dealing with this kind of a problem.

What I foresee is that the regular medication which you take also will be personalized based on your DNA and other vitals.

In summary, I might not be taking Vicks Action 500 for my cold and headache, but I might walk into the pharmacy, provide my vitals and other information required and I will get personalized medicine which will address the issue much better and also ensure I develop some kind of resistance to the ailment.

Innovation in Healthcare – How India is thinking different?

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In an interview someone asked Dr. Devi Shetty, the Founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH) as to why the Healthcare costs are increasing in India and he said “Over a decade ago, a heart surgery costed over Rs. 2 Lacs; and today it costs a little over half”.

Over the last decade, the Healthcare landscape in India is considerably changing. Healthcare is reaching to more people than before and many are benefitting with the new and innovative models Healthcare organizations are adapting.

One of the innovative models Healthcare organizations are adapting is the Hub and Spoke model. In this model, the central facility is situated in the urban area with all the specialists available. The Spokes are the smaller centers which are situated in smaller towns with connectivity to the Hub.

With this model, Specialist Hospitals are able to provide quality Healthcare to a larger population.

This one illustrates how India is innovating in its Healthcare reach. There are numerous data points which illustrate how India is behind in Doctor to Patient ratio, Number of beds to population, shortfall in the number of nursing staff etc. We are behind in most of the WHO metrics when compared to the United States and even with China.

Even though traditional methods are helping, reaching the over Billion population in the country needs different thinking.

Hospitals are increasing their reach and this does not mean we are compromising on the quality of the outcomes.

To add to these innovative models, startup’s in Healthcare are helping to bridge the gap even further. Over the last two years, there are more than 200 startup’s which have been addressing this problem. More than $500 million has gone into funding these startups. What also gains our attention is that these startups are not only focusing on care, but also building systems which connect anyone with a smartphone to the best of the care.

Solving the Healthcare maze

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When India got Independence in 1947, average life expectancy was 47 Years and today, average life expectancy is at 66.21 Years (we rank 139). Japan leads the list with average life expectancy at 84 Years followed by Spain, Andorra, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Singapore and San Mario at 83 Years. The country with the least life expectancy is Sierra Leone at 49 Years.

Previously, technological solutions in Healthcare have been focusing on advancing the care (how to provide better solutions), but now, we are focusing on advancing the care process (how to deliver better solutions).

In the Indian context, Tech startup’s focusing on Healthcare have increased over the last few years. This is good and it will help bring Healthcare to the fingertips.

Most of the startups are focusing on providing “services”, meaning, connecting the consumer to the service. Apps for finding Doctors, finding Services available, e-Commerce, Wellness etc. This is a good approach. All of us have an inherent fear for Health. We are over cautious and we generally tend to avoid visiting the Doctor/Hospital and also at times go with self-medication. The technology today is focusing on providing introductions to the end user to managing Health proactively. With the advent of apps for monitoring nutrition, work out’s, doctor appointments, enrollments into wellness programs, the common person is now getting to understand how to manage and monitor his/her health.

Also, with Health programs getting advertised, many who did not have an understanding of various health scenarios are now getting educated. If you are someone who is born after 1990’s, chances are that your parents are maintaining your health record with all the vaccinations were given and the history of your well-being.

Biggest health problems cannot be solved in one day and the approach is painstaking. Governments should focus on building the infrastructure and organisations (startups and the big one’s alike) should help support the initiatives by connecting people with the care providers.

There is no short-cut’s especially in managing Health of individuals and the nation alike. Connecting the dot’s proves pivotal in creating a healthy nation.

In the next decade, I am sure India would be in a much better place in creating a healthy environment for all of us. With initiatives like the Aadhar (UID) slowly gaining popularity, am sure solutions would stem out connecting people to Government (to prioritise their health initiatives), Insurance firms coming forward to provide better Insurance assistance and Hospital’s connecting to communities to provide better proactive care.

Personally, I think we should look at various models across the globe and adapt what worked well into the new system we are creating. India being the world’s second most populated country, if we create a system which works, then the entire landscape of Healthcare in the world would change.

Landscape of Wellness

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Wellness has gained attention in the last few years. With proactive health care management gaining attention, fitness centers, food monitoring apps and health management centre’s have gained a lot of attention.

It is estimated that the Wellness industry is a $3 Billion Market in India.

What is the landscape of the Wellness? Even though the definition is broad, primarily the industry revolves around Weight loss, Nutrition Management, Workout monitoring and sports. Home care and post operative care is also becoming part of Wellness.

The concept of wellness has gained importance in today’s context when people are looking for ways to maintain health and being proactive to managing their wellness. Organisations are adapting to provide proactive wellness management facilitates to their workforce to ensure the productivity levels increase.

Is wellness new? Didn’t we need it earlier? We needed them. With the changes in globalisation, changes in the work style, travels and the basic living, being proactive to manage health not only requires effort but a little of education too.

There are various kinds of medicine systems and understanding and utilising them to better our health would be very good. How do we get there? Startup’s are focusing to bridge the gap. In India, Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy are various kinds of medicine systems and today, we have technology helping people utilise the benefits of all the systems. Recently, I met a founder of a startup who is focusing on bringing a collaborative approach to proactive health management. They understand the persons medicine history and help connect them to a combination of medicine formats through their doctors and also help the person monitor their progress through their technology offering.

This is a very good start and with the growing awareness, the concept of wellness is moving upward from just sports tracking apps to health management apps.

Market Opener’s

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The key problems in this world are solved. Other not so high priority problems have undergone various iterations and almost settled now. The remaining problems are left for us to be solved.

Today’s innovations are mostly focused on enhancing usability and bringing technology more closer to people.

Each of us have varied definitions of Innovation. In their book on Innovation: 5 Disciplines for Creating what Customers want, authors Curtis R Carlson & William W. Wilmot summarize Innovation as the process of creating, producing and delivering value to what customer wants in the marketplace.

This absolutely stands good for today’s Innovations.

When we look at technology adoptions around the globe, each region/country has its own limitations and opportunities. Certain markets are mature and others are far behind. Can we truly bring the Innovations from the mature markets to the beginner markets? It might not work straight forward, but will create opportunity for competition. When there is competition, market slowly opens up.

The first true e-Commerse market place for India has been FlipKart. Slowly competition came up, and today, India is a mature market for e-Commerse. One company gave opportunity to many others – Amazon, Urban Ladder, PepperFry, Big Basket are just to name a few who are delivering anything and everything to the Indian consumer.

HealthCare is also opening up. With the painstaking effort’s of startup’s like Practo HealthTech market has opened up. Today, we have more than 200 startup’s focusing in the Healthcare space in various segments – Healthcare e-Commerse, Appointment bookings, Home Care, Searching for Doctors and Hospitals, maintaining Health records, Wellness, Specialized care etc.

In a country like India, opening a market might be easier said than done. What we need to work for is the acceptance of the solution. Breaking the barrier for customers to accept and engage themselves is the key; along with the Government regulations to “enable” the innovation and take it closer to people.

When the Aadhar Card (UID Project) came into existence, it is not made mandatory. Even today it is not, but for most of the important needs – Gas connection, Opening Bank account, applying for Passport etc, if you have an Aadhar Number, it becomes more easier. What happened here? Even though it is not mandatory, organizations have started to embrace this. In the similar way, technology needs to be accepted by hospitals and Doctors. This will pave way for acceptance in using technology in HealthCare.

This is a tough nut to crack. The approach of HealthCare startups has been to provide solutions to customer. When customers start using, Hospitals and Doctors might also start using. This approach will work, but will need commitment to understand the true needs of the customer and doctors to make this work.

A long way to go, but definitely I am being optimistic.