Covid accelerated adoption of tele-consultation: Report

The report “Healthcare hits reset: Priorities shift as healthcare leaders navigate a changed world’ said Indian healthcare leaders are supportive to the adoption of remote care solutions as 33% stated that a shift to virtual care is among their key priorities while 51% said that telehealth is currently a top investment area for them.

Investments in telehealth have also been accompanied by the accelerated adoption of digital health records (DHR). “The government’s efforts to make healthcare data-driven are reflected in the investment priorities among Indian healthcare leaders, with half (49%) citing digital health records as a top investment,” stated the report.

To create a more resilient, future-ready healthcare service, leaders are looking at new, technology-driven ways of improving care. While Indian healthcare leaders anticipate that investments in telehealth will decline 12 percentage points over the next three years, in the same time frame they expect the current level of investment in artificial intelligence to double, an increase of 28 percentage points, it said.

Indian healthcare leaders are confident that an integrated infrastructure of data and predictive analytics will enhance utilization of digital healthcare resources. “They have faith in their capacity to make use of the data at their disposal as 78 percent think their organization is capable of extracting useful insights, and 77 percent say they have the requisite technology to do so. The majority (76%) are also confident in the accuracy of the data that their facility has access to,” the report stated.

Leaders in Indian healthcare are also working to enhance data utilisation in their facilities even as they face infrastructure challenges.

To address these challenges, one of their key priorities is to raise the level of knowledge and proficiency among hospital employees.

The report stated that currently, 62 percent of hospital leaders concur that their organisation has part of the knowledge required to properly utilise data, but only 9 percent think they have all the necessary skills. “This suggests that there is room for improvement – 37% of leaders say more overall internal staff expertise is needed and would support their facility in making more comprehensive use of their data, while 20% want to see their staff trained in data usage,” it further stated.

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