‘Healthcare in India – Transforming through innovation’ Report
Recently NASSCOM has released the report ‘HealthCare in India – Transforming through Innovation’. This report focuses on the changes in the Indian healthcare system due to emerging technologies and innovations.
Key findings of report-
- The Indian healthcare market has registered a growth of 2.5 times in 2016-22. It is expected to reach over $370 billion by the end of 2022.
- There are currently over 2,000 healthtech startups in India. These include 4 unicorns as well.
- There has been an increase of 35% in medical colleges between the years 2016-21. Along with this there has also been a sharp increase in government health expenditure.
- Apart from this some other initiatives have also been taken like- E-Sanjeevani, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, Ayushman Bharat Yojana etc.
Factors driving growth and innovation-
- With the increase in life expectancy (70 years by 2025), the share of senior citizens in the country’s population is projected to reach 16% by 2041.
- With the increase in income, 70 million more people will join the middle class by the year 2032.
- Non-communicable diseases may increase the cost of treatment.
Other Factors-
- Access to health insurance is still low. About 30% of the population needs insurance.
- Further growth is expected in telemedicine and distance medicine.
- The hospital infrastructure sector is expected to witness a massive boom due to increase in per capita income and demand for healthcare in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
- More modern technology such as; Wearable devices, robotic surgery, etc. are likely to bring about a massive change.
Key recommendations
- A National Health App should be created for all health services.
- There is a need to train more work-force to meet the shortage of health care workers.
- Easy norms should be set for public procurement.
- There is a need to digitize primary health care and adopt a sandbox (less regulation) approach.
Source – The Hindu
