India has been doing its best to take long strides in digital healthcare ever since the Union government’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched its e-health initiatives across all states over a decade ago.
Adoption of digital technologies in the country, however, has been relatively low. Even e-pharmacy players, which comprise the most scaled up segment of the digital
health space, comprise only 3-4% of the overall retail pharmacy market. India has a large number of digital health start-ups, but few have managed to scale up and even fewer have created a path to profitable economics.
The issue has been limited adoption by physicians and patients, and an even lower propensity to pay and to be loyal to a platform.
Covid-19 has helped spur India’s adoption of digital healthcare. In the Indian context, this acceleration is far more significant than it might be elsewhere. India has eight doctors per 10,000 patients, in addition to wide regional and urban-rural disparities in healthcare. While Covid-19 has wreaked an immeasurable toll, the acceleration of digital uptake could well be the silver lining for which the industry has been waiting.
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Considering the paucity of healthcare infrastructure, including doctors, hospitals and testing labs, India is a country tailor-made for digital disruption.
Indeed, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the critical need for cutting-edge technological tools and innovation in the areas of public health, medicine and wellness. It has expanded the scope of digital health in the policy and public discourse.
Consumers too are becoming increasingly aware of the wide array of wearable gadgets, mobile health apps and artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
Readiness for change among physicians and patients
While the pandemic has accelerated the trend toward digital, the winds of change have been blowing for a while. On the physician front, there is increased complexity as doctors feel that they need to be aware of a broad range of diseases and treatment protocols, while managing the care of their chronic patients and handling the heightened expectations of an increasingly informed and demanding public.
According to a recent pre-Covid-19 physician survey conducted by Bain & Company, a majority of physicians expect to adopt telemedicine, remote patient monitoring and digital technology in patient diagnosis and profiling.
Such openness to adopt is likely to translate into action and potentially lasting behaviour change with the curtailment of physical visits during Covid-19.
The importance of in-person visits from a medical representative (MRs) is fast-diminishing as more doctors turn to digital sources. Used by 83% of doctors, digital channels are now their primary source of information.
Furthermore, about 90% of doctors expect to increase their adoption of digital sources in the next three to five years. Even typically physical means of engagement, such as MR-to-physician and physician peer-to-peer learning/CME, are being brought online through digital platforms and webinars.
Pharma companies are not alone on this journey. They are supported by a host of B2B health start-ups that provide a range of services, from doctor-MR engagement platforms, to real-world data specific to local markets, to EMR-plus services.
One such company is THB, which is partnering with pharmaceutical companies to help them engage more meaningfully with physicians. THB leverages anonymised data from diagnostic labs, enables digital delivery of content and provides digital modes of doctor engagement for a range of use cases, from new drug launches and brand detailing to doctor upskilling. Differentiation and being able to break through the clutter will distinguish the winners from the losers as doctors get increasingly inundated with digital reach outs.
Meanwhile, we are seeing the evolution of a new type of patient-consumer: one who is curious and well-informed, who seeks to take control of his or her own health and demands the convenience of on-demand digital delivery.
The emerging digital ecosystem can help solve several of patients’ key pain points – from long wait times in hospitals and clinics, to high costs associated with current models of care, to inadequate information on healthcare providers and physicians – and allow them to make more informed choices.
Source: LaingBuisson News
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