We need user-friendly tech to truly transform healthcare: Dr Randeep Guleria

Soma Tah 

The healthcare sector in India was lagging way behind many other industries in terms of embracing transformative technologies for many reasons, but predominantly due to the reluctance of health professionals to adopt technologies. Many a time it's just that the solutions are not very user-friendly, and people feel that they are hard to use.

“I feel that technology needs to be user-friendly so that onboarding users becomes easier. Doctors or health practitioners, who are going to use those technologies need to be comfortable with them. This will also help the allied professionals including the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers in providing care to the patients in rural and remote areas,” said Dr. Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS, New Delhi, during his special address in the PCQuest HealthTech Forum.  

COVID: A game changer for HealthTech adoption 

But things changed drastically in the COVID era. COVID pushed the frontiers as far as HealthTech or technology in healthcare is concerned. “Government initiatives and programs such as e-Sanjeevani and Ayushman Bharat are instances, where technology has been used to provide care to a large number of Indians. This actually led to a lot of advances to build on further,” said Dr. Guleria.  

When COVID cases surged AIIMS New Delhi started a video consultation program, e-ICU for doctors treating Covid-19 patients in different parts of India. Dr. Guleria, himself had interacted with more than 550 hospitals, talked to doctors there, discussed case management of COVID patients in the ICUs and came out with proper guidelines, support and advice to people. 

Dr. Guleria believes that e-ICU would really be useful even in the post COVID era as well. “This e-ICU concept holds great promises, as medical resources are scarce. In the absence of any critical care specialists, the e-ICU can be used effectively to treat a sick patient in an ICU even with the help of a general physician. By seeing the patients virtually, specialists can give comprehensive advice to the physicians in terms of patient management.” 

Similarly, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Neural Networks became very useful, when healthcare experts started looking at various ways to predict whether a person has COVID or not, whether it is turning into a more severe illness, etc.

Digital Health ID holds great promises for Indian healthcare  

Dr Guleria also believes that the Digital Health ID proposed under Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission promoted can be a game-changer for the Indian healthcare system, as it will allow everyone to carry their digital health record like an Aadhaar card. And if we can get the private sector and the public sector together on board, then no matter where the patient goes, his health records will go with him. A lot of duplication can be avoided also this way and this can make the overall health management process even better.  

Digital health records will become crucial for managing non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, etc. also. These diseases need constant monitoring and close observation so that they don’t lead to other complexities like diabetic retinopathy or diabetic nephropathy or heart failure, etc., he hopes. 

HealthTech will turn the focus on Preventive Healthcare 

We haven't really focused much on preventive care and early diagnosis so far, but going forward, technology can make a huge difference in that also, feels Dr Guleria. “60-70 per cent of cancers are preventable, and they are curable too if detected early. But unfortunately, in our country, most of the cancer cases come to us at a late stage. Smart wearables and smart devices can be used to monitor patients remotely and AI and algorithms can be used to predict an event before it happens. If a person’s heart rate goes up suddenly, or his oxygen saturation starts falling, or there is some irregularity noticed in the ECG, it can be predicted whether it can lead to an acute event or not. It can save lives by sending an alert to the patient, to the doctor, or even to the nearby hospital,” explained he.  

COVID has taught us a lot as far as the utility of health technology is concerned. “The lessons that we've learned during the pandemic should get translated into long-term sustainable solutions that our country needs in terms of healthcare. There’s a lot of inequities in healthcare currently, in terms of access and affordability, which can be bridged through HealthTech. People should get good healthcare, irrespective of socioeconomic status or where they live,” said Dr Guleria. 

Check the Special Address here: