Leon Barretto

Health care in India faces several challenges including inadequate access, low insurance penetration and a growing chronic disease burden. India's healthcare infrastructure metrics is amongst the lowest in the world. There are many examples of digital innovation that are proving to be the new frontier in medical treatment have demonstrated success in screening, prevention, and treatment in India. India’s health care sector has a lot going for it on several fronts. The last decade has also seen some great examples of dedicated hardware and technology that is engineered for the unique challenges of Indian health ecosystem

Nurses and doctors who are working on the frontline are now routinely using hand-held computers to record important real-time patient data and then sharing it instantly within their updated medical history. Patient-centric biomedical devices are wearable gadgets with unlimited health care applications are becoming the new frontier in medical treatment. For example, diabetics can use them to monitor their blood glucose levels. This technology will soon be able to automatically self-administer insulin as needed.

Apps like Aayu, a MedCords app, is striving towards streamlining the supply-chain for  Tier-II and Tier-III cities, by digitizing the local pharmacists and providing them with a wider prospective customer base. Such hybrid models, where regional players are provided with an avenue to expand their scope of the business can also help solve the issues of India's fragile logistics sector. Despite its shortcomings, India’s health care sector has a lot going for it on several fronts. A government-led push to get health care providers to embrace electronic medical records is enabling artificial intelligence (AI) to extract insights from patient data to deliver better treatment.

The Indian government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative is encouraging domestic manufacture of medical devices and helping lower the prices patients pay for products such as stents and implants, which in the past were imported

A new frontier for medical technology