Mr. Gaurav Dubey, the CEO of LivLong, embarked on this journey to empower the economy class of India for their preventive healthcare needs. Technology has always been the backbone of development. India’s healthcare infrastructure is experiencing dynamic growth, however, it’s still hard to access quality diagnoses and treatments in many parts of the country.Gaurav is an alumnus of Marine Engineering and Research Institute, and comes with the experience of more than a decade and a half, has been leading, evangelizing & representing the insurance sector across multiple podiums. With a vision of building a new age health-tech platform to improvise, especially the peripherals of OPD along with the frugal and transcendent healthcare services for millions of Indians, especially the bourgeois of the society, he stepped into the entrepreneur’s shoes with the launch of LivLong.
A while back, the need for healthcare services rose due to the pandemic. Many nations implemented precautionary measures that limited physical proximity and increased social distancing. Hence, COVID-19 created an opportunity for the rise of eHealth services that led to the establishment of new realities for receiving healthcare treatments through telehealth and telemedicine services.
What is eHealth?
A digital revolution has swept over the healthcare industry, integrating technology into every step of the process. The term “digital health” or “eHealth” was created to describe the application of digitization in the healthcare industry, providing it with tools to assure better patient care and more effective management. It covers advancements in a wide range of fields, including research, hospital administration, and doctor-patient communication.
Advantages of eHealth
- Lower costs: eHealth makes the key promise of lowering costs by improving the efficiency of medical care. Avoiding redundant or non-essential diagnostics and improving communication between healthcare organisations and patients, are some significant potential cost-cutting measures.
- Quality: eHealth contributes towards improving the quality of healthcare by enabling provider comparisons. Patients are free to judge and compare which health care service provider they wish to choose based upon a number of factors.
- Doctor-patient relationship: Encouraging the development of a new virtual relationship between the patient and the healthcare provider gives a better and repetitive service that benefits both involved.
- Increased reach: eHealth helps in extending health care’s reach beyond its geographical limitations. While living in New Delhi, you could easily connect with a Pune based doctor. Consumers can readily access health services even from international providers online, thanks to e-health. Hence, good health care is accessible to all. Since time and distance are no longer barriers to accessing healthcare, it is best to prevent unnecessary travel. Additionally, technology also expands access, particularly for individuals who are at risk of exclusion.
- Better communication: This new digital route makes it simpler to communicate, which helps close the communication gap between patients and doctors. The patient’s status and progress can also get tracked in real-time. To avoid having to continuously recount their full medical history, patients can choose to share all or some of their data with a healthcare professional. As a result, the healthcare professional can operate more efficiently, choose the best course of action more quickly, and reduce errors. Patients are able to manage their health in a better way, because they have a proper understanding of it, how this e-communication works.
- Health tracking: With applications and gadgets that monitor our eating habits, exercise levels, sleep duration and quality, and heart rate, new technologies are revolutionising the way we take care of ourselves. Additionally, operations are getting automated, and including approaches like big data.
- Ease in follow-ups: An effective course of treatment for any sickness requires follow-ups. To make sure the patient reacts to therapy and avoids complications or relapse during a specific time, clinicians must monitor patient rehabilitation, gather clinical data, monitor patient activities, and evaluate their day-to-day functionalities. These online applications make it simple for patients and doctors to stay in touch without the burden and delay of in-person hospital appointments.
Technology’s role in Healthcare
Utilizing modern technology is part of digitising health. Here are a few, along with the impact they have helped create eHealth services in the medical industry:
Big data
Macro data analysis using big data enables personalised therapies and aids in the identification of risk variables and probable pharmacological adverse effects. Understanding and preventing the spread of COVID-19 have benefited greatly from the insight it has provided.
Artificial Intelligence
Many healthcare companies increasingly accepted that technology, must be used with the right tools, talent, and partners. With AI at the forefront, they have become more proactive than reactive to difficulties. Healthcare practitioners can use artificial intelligence to assist them in making better decisions and administering better care. AI was employed during the coronavirus crisis to determine the antibody sequence and its suitability for potential treatments.
Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things contributes to more individualised healthcare, lower costs, a lower chance of incorrect diagnoses, and reduced waiting.
Blockchain
Blockchain enables secure access to a patient’s medical history, improving administration. Additionally, it enables pharmaceutical labs to maintain more accurate records of the process of making drugs.
Chatbots
Chatbots give healthcare professionals and patients a way to communicate more quickly and directly. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization established one of these channels.
AI doctors
Artificial intelligence-powered robot doctors provide medical advice. Healthcare technology is affordably priced. Many businesses are developing and testing technologies that would enable individuals to get medical advice from cutting-edge computers.
Technology accessibility
The versatility of modern technology in the healthcare industry is one of its many outstanding benefits. Here are some of the most well-known technologies that make digital health accessible:
- Telehealth: People in rural places with little access to healthcare can receive the necessary medical care, thanks to telehealth, which involves giving care remotely. Additionally, it helps doctors and patients save time, money, and travel expenses.
- Apps: With introduction of apps in healthcare delivery, both consumers and healthcare professionals are benefited. Mobile health apps, transforms our smartphones into personal trainers, sleep monitors, diagnostic tools, and more.
- Smart devices: The popular phrase “wearables” refers to smart accessories like wristbands, glasses, and watches that monitor and gather data on our physical and mental well-being.
- Video: Primary care doctors in rural locations can virtually consult with specialists thanks to tools like video conferencing. These consultations sometimes help overcome the need of physical visit to a specialist. Additionally, some remote patients can consult specialists from various location through video conferencing, while they visit their nearby medical centre.
- AR: Health providers can use augmented reality to view organs in 3D or instantly verify a patient’s information. Specialised AR headsets can even be utilised during surgical procedures.
- Digital record: With a digital health record, information can be kept in one location and made accessible from anywhere, allowing individuals to safely share it and healthcare professionals to access it whenever necessary.
Tools in healthcare are increasingly being recognised as a vital technology, for providing anytime, anyplace care. It is incredibly difficult to provide high-quality services at a larger scale, and at an affordable cost in a varied market like India, especially given the country’s sizable, under-served population, expanding illness burden, and disparities in care quality among public and private providers.
In such a situation, technology can be instrumental in overcoming the specific difficulties that arise throughout the healthcare value chain and enabling the modernization of healthcare practices in India.
Digitization is saving lives and assisting the medical sector in achieving its primary and most urgent goal—providing world-class services to everyone who needs effective and affordable healthcare as quickly as possible.