Ankit Kedia, founder of Caremont, a Bangalore based medtech start-up, discusses the presence of connected health within the medtech sector in India.
Connected health is a term which has become increasingly important, especially during this Covid-19 pandemic. Perhaps connected health is one of the most likely forms of technology to change the way people look at healthcare. Providing care remotely using devices, smart sensors, Artificial Intelligence (AI), imaging techniques, and integration with smartphones, is how I would best define connected health.
Connected health in the medtech sector in India
In the medtech sector, connected health has received worldwide attention, especially in densely populated countries like India, where the ratio of doctors to patients is highly skewed. While there are several notable telemedicine applications and consulting platforms available, connected healthcare devices are yet to take off due to a lack of awareness, education, and the overall mindset of the patient to trust technology over the psychomotor skills of a doctor.
Examples of connected health
Currently connected healthcare apps like Mfine and Apollo 247 are some of the telemedicine apps that are making physicians available remotely, as patients are reluctant to take trips to clinics and hospitals due to fear of contracting Covid-19. In fact, many private practitioners who have regular patients with chronic issues, have also employed simple practices like phone calls or video calls to provide consultations. The use of AI and Internet of Things (IoT) will help bridge the gap between caregivers and care receivers in a country like India, which has a fast emerging rural economy.
Several examples of connected health solutions include:
- TriCog, which provides ECG devices to doctors and a mobile app for patients to find these doctors in case of emergency.
- An AI-based early-stage breast cancer screening device is currently being developed by Niramai- Bangalore.
- Caremont have partnered with a company that makes spirometers connected with smart phones to provide asthma patients with data on their lung function values, as well as a rehab device for Covid-19 patients to improve lung health.
The benefits
Connected health could help India meet the needs of increasingly educated patients. It will be very beneficial to doctors and hospitals by cutting costs through real-time access to patient data, and improving workflow. It also helps insurance companies to reduce claim payments and provide assistance to deserving critical patients. In some cases, it will help pharma companies by allowing patients to begin medication sooner due to early detection of illness and diagnosis, and could also help to ensure compliance with treatments. In my view, one of the best uses of connected health technologies will be in rural areas of our country to provide remote health monitoring and enable patients to consult with their doctors in urban speciality hospitals from the comfort of their homes.
Challenges
One of the challenges with the use of connected health is two-way awareness between the doctor and the patient. Inherently, our population is used to receiving care with a face-to-face interaction with doctors, and changing this mindset will take time. Companies offering connected health technologies have to work towards integrating technology through continued persuasion and building a trust-based relationship with the patients. Other challenges, of course, lie in the regulatory framework of the country which will definitely get a facelift once the pandemic dust settles down. The biggest challenge with connected healthcare is the cost of developing these solutions and subsequently deploying them in the most cost-effective manner to be available to the masses. One also has to keep in mind that the government needs to fully advocate and endorse this connected health technology for it to coexist with some of their existing healthcare infrastructure and plans.
The future
India will witness a complete spectrum of the healthcare ecosystem, wherein small clinics will coexist with home healthcare, as well as large sophisticated hospitals. The focus is clearly shifting towards a preventative approach from a curative approach, with several connected healthcare solutions like ingestible pill monitors and nutrition sensors. AI doctors will become more common and personal IoT-based monitoring devices will change the way we track the health of individuals. AI will never replace the emotions of a physician entirely, but it will surely take over their work including certain decision making powers. Going forward, AI will evolve from doctors versus machines to doctors and machines!