In the Indian market, as with most technology-driven sectors, healthtech and healthcare analytics is largely only relevant in the urban context. With only 5% of the total healthcare infrastructure coming under the recognised and supported data reservoirs, an Asean Chambers of Commerce and Business report suggested last year that the government start collecting and structuring medical data from hospitals across the country to better treat illnesses.
Further, the impact of structuring and organising healthcare data can be seen in online consultations in the western markets, where the doctor gets remote access to a patient’s history and profile, to support their diagnosis. In particular, this is seen as the solution to bridging the infrastructure gaps in the Indian market between urban and rural areas.
Inadequate and unorganised healthcare data is not the only challenge faced by the country’s healthcare system, high cost of quality healthcare, inefficient processes, and lack of doctors in remote semi-urban and rural regions of the country also proves to be a death blow to many each year. In India, the doctor to patient ratio in the allopathy sector stands at 1:1596 (far lower than the 1:1400 WHO standard) and the country is ranked 145 among 195 countries on the healthcare index.
Tapping the urgent need for improved healthcare data and quality access to doctors, telemedicine startups have sprouted in many cities in India. Practo, mFine, Lybrate, DocsApp, MedCords and others help bridge the access gap in healthcare even in rural areas, where telemedicine is the need of the hour.
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Speaking to Inc42, Prasad Kompalli, cofounder and CEO at mFine said that since doctors are inclined towards urban areas, the access to rural areas is constrained. Further, he said that the common thing is that there is a lot of wait time, travel time, and patients often struggle to find the right doctor, be a paediatrician, gynaecologists, neurologists etc.
In addition to this, most doctors are not available at the rural hospitals as they have to travel 300 Km making it hard for patients in rural areas to access healthcare, he said.
However, in recent times, the state of quality healthcare and access to a proper diagnosis is evolving in India because of the various efforts in healthtech and remote care, including the recent step towards legalising telemedicine that the government has been putting in place. “A lot has been changing in that direction and it is a good start and a long journey to go ahead,” said Ayush Mishra, founder and CEO, Tattvan E-Clinics.
Today, there is a growing demand for healthcare facilities, especially advanced healthcare in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. However, more than 80% of specialists and super-specialist doctors live in metros or in big cities. Mishra said that even people in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities who have disposable income and are willing to travel, move to metros for better healthcare facilities.
Further, he said that if we consider the present day scenario, India is rapidly becoming urbanized. Also, it is assumed that by 2030, around 40% of the country’s population will start living in urban areas. If we look at urban India, it has a high concentration of healthcare providers, but now everyone has easy access to healthcare. Rural areas, on the other hand, have limited or fewer healthcare facilities available.
Healthcare experts said that the major issues behind this unavailability and limited access to healthcare facilities are due to lack of empowerment and financial barriers to accessing healthcare. Therefore, it becomes crucial for the government to help those in need and educate the rural masses.
Source: inc42
