Healthcare Services Archives - InnoHEALTH magazine

Impact of COVID-19 on the global telemedicine market

InnoHEALTH magazine digital team — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 03:30:50 +0000

What is Telemedicine?

Telemedicine uses electronic communication platforms to provide healthcare services to patients across the world. Telemedicine is considered the most versatile technology utilized for health education, healthcare information, and healthcare in remote areas. Telemedicine has witnessed the largest market share over the forecast periods. It provides communication between the patients and doctors along with it reduces the extra cost burden to the hospitals as well as other clinics. While considering the benefits offered by telemedicine, the physicians and the hospitals are looking forward to encouraging use of telemedicine as a communication platform. The telemedicine market is gradually becoming highly competitive on introducing different platforms and the key market players’ entry into the market with high investment to develop the market standards.

Moreover, Telemedicine can minimize expenditure and maximize outcomes. According to the survey results, over 64% of the consumers are willing to adopt online consultations during the COVID 19 pandemic period.

Telemedicine Market Size (2020 to 2025)

According to the trending data, the size of the global telemedicine market is forecasted to worth USD 80.61billion by 2025 from USD 35.46% billion in 2020, registering a Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.85% between 2020 to 2025.

Market trends

The telemedicine market has witnessed a better market share over the forecasted years with the influential growth factors. Telemedicine has more advantages than challenges. The Telemedicine market growth is considered to be driven by the factors such as the telemedicine platform which provides various opportunities for the players in the market to improve clinical management; also, the telemedicine platform delivers effective care by enhancing the quality and access to healthcare services.

The necessity to improve the quality of care and to curtail the cost burden on the hospitals and clinics, health education, health information, and healthcare at a distance was made possible through versatile technology, which is the major driving factor.

However, despite beneficial factors, it also has some growth restricting factors which are restraining the growth of the market. The factors such as the telemedicine market require huge capital for the maintenance of such platforms, the primary concern for both the medical professionals and the patients is that the privacy on the data exchange, the doctors and the patient share confidential information using telemedicine platform, where there is a chance of getting breached. Moreover, the lack of security to the patient’s confidential data impedes market growth over the years.

Physicians and patients frequently lack familiarity with the introduction of new practices and lack of awareness in the older people. The older people may refuse the telemedicine services due to the unfamiliar technology, which was a challenge for the telemedicine market.

The Artificial intelligence(AI) and analytics applications in telemedicine services provide risk prediction and management therefore it also expands the efficacy of AI to offer various opportunities for the market growth in the coming years.

COVID-19 impact on the telemedicine industry:

The outbreak of COVID-19 has made a positive impact on the healthcare sector. It has created significant acceleration for the telemedicine market and helped them reach new heights in the recent past. The COVID-19 is providing immense opportunities for telehealth solutions. People around the world are opting for virtual consultation instead of physical presence to stay safe. The manufacturers are focused on developing virtual apps to make seamless communication between the doctors and patients; thus, telemedicine’s market growth had a positive impact during the pandemic period. However, the market is expected to have witnessed the largest market share in the coming years.

Geographical Presence:

The North American telemedicine market held the majority share in the global market in 2019 and forecasted the same to be continuing during the forecast period. The majority share is attributed to the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases to minimize the hospital expenditure and increasing geriatric population in this region.

The European market is anticipated to register the better growth of the TeleMedicine market during the forecast period. The influential factors such as the rising geriatric population in this region, increasing technology adoption, and rising investment activities are having an effect on the market growth over the years.

The Asia Pacific held the largest market share of the Telemedicine market in 2019 due to widespread chronic diseases and overcrowding hospitals. An increase in the need for Telemedicine platforms to communicate with healthcare professionals is expected to drive the market growth of the Asia Pacific region.

Middle East Africa held a large market over the years in the Telemedicine market, and it is expected to record a majority share in the market forecast period. An increasing need for Telemedicine and investment and advancing technologies are anticipated to hold the market share.

Key Market Participants:

AMD Global Telemedicine, Honeywell Life Care Solutions, Philips Healthcare, Cerner Corporation, Medtronic, Inc., GE Company, Lifewatch, McKesson Corporation, InTouch Technologies, and others are some of the notable players dominating the global telemedicine market.

Recent Happenings in this market:

In 2020. The Phillips had launched the Avalon CL Fatal and patch for remote monitoring in the United States. Australia. Europe, Singapore, and New Zealand to encourage fetal and maternal monitoring.
In 2020, the collaboration happened between the Koninklijke Phillips, American Telemedicine Association has helped increase the adoption of Telehealth and homecare settings.
In 2020, Bio-Telemetry, operated by Envolve people care, inc., acquired remote patient monitoring and coaching platforms to expand RPM and coaching solutions.

RatnaSri, currently working as a Research Analyst with experience in the Healthcare industry. She has firm knowledge of predictions and identifies trends that can impact the market and business growth.

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SYMHEALTH 2019 | 19 – 20 April 2019

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 09:46:34 +0000

National Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach to Healthcare

SYMHEALTH 2019
19th, 20th April 2019

SYMHEALTH, an annual mega event with an academically rich legacy attracts over 1200 delegates from all verticals of healthcare such as doctors, medico-legal experts, insurance & IT professionals, NGOs, hospital administrators & clinical research professionals from all over India and abroad.

SYMHEALTH 2019 is a two days’ event organized by the Faculty of Health and Biological Sciences (FoHBS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), SIU which is being hosted at the university campus, Lavale, Pune on 19th & 20th April 2019. It is an event that marks the significance of integrating ideas and information from across many disciplines. This is in consonance with our mission of contributing towards knowledge generation & dissemination. The conference provides a platform through which various stakeholder groups can discuss and proffer practical and workable solutions to the challenges of healthcare.

The Conference will provide an opportunity for stakeholders beyond academia and industry, to exchange insights, present emerging opportunities, make networking connections, and to share resources. The two thought-provoking days of the conference results in deciphering knowledge both in the sessions and during the many planned opportunities to build rapport and alliances, share advice, stories, case reports and socialize throughout the conference.

The highlight of this year’s conference is the incorporation of ‘Connexions’ – a unique event on the first day of the conference. Connexions presents an opportunity for students to attend grooming and skills transfer sessions which prepares them to face interviews. A placement assistance drive is conducted after Connexions which facilitates interested enrolled candidates to interact and get interviewed with prospective recruiters and employers in the healthcare sector.

Dr. Balram Bhargava, Secretary, Department of Health Research, (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) has kindly consented to be the Guest of Honor on 19th April 2019.

Dr. Sanjay Zodpey, Vice President Academics, Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi will enlighten upon the Public Health Agenda for India wherein the Indian government has adopted the National Health Policy to “attain the highest possible level of health and well-being for all at all ages through a preventive and promotive health care orientation in all developmental policies, and universal access to good quality health care services without anyone having to face financial hardship as a consequence”.

A panel discussion will be conducted on the perspective of varied stakeholders like Insurance companies, Hospitals & Govt. of Maharashtra on “Ayushyaman Bharat”.

The chairperson for this panel discussion will be Mr. Dinesh Arora, Dy. CEO National Health Agency, (NHA), representative of Insurance companies will be Mr. Bhaskar Nerurkar, Head, Health Bajaj Allianz ltd, Pune, representative of hospital will be Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, Vice Chairman, Managing Director & Group CEO, Narayana Health & spokesperson from Govt. of Maharashtra will be Mr. Jayant Kumar Banthia, Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra.

Dr. Simmardeep Singh Gill, Group COO CK Birla Group, Kolkata will shed the light upon the importance of leadership skills for healthcare professionals. He will explain how individual development, including communication skills, coaching, mentoring, negotiation, and motivation theory, works within a leadership role.

Mr. Sanjay Singh Nirwan, Healthcare Communication & Digital Strategist, Media Medic Communications, Mumbai will speak on the Digital Healthcare Advocacy. Digital technology has greatly contributed to improvements in patient care and monitoring, as well as patient communication with primary caregivers, general practitioners, and specialists. The digital world has revolutionized the accessibility of health information for people across the globe. Patients no longer must wait for doctors’ appointments to begin their diagnosis process.

Some of the other eminent national speakers include – Mr. Abhishek Agarwal, MD Strategy, MERCK, Mumbai. Mr. Badri Iyenger, MD, South Asia, Smith & Nephew HC Pvt Ltd. Mr. Vidhi Prasad K V, Head, Image Guided System, Wipro GE South Asia. Dr. Anirudha Malpani, Director & Founder, Malpani Ventures, Mumbai. Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar, Scientist G & Director-in-Charge, National AIDS Research Institute, Pune. Mr. Lalit Mistry, Director of Healthcare, KPMG. Mr. Kumar Krishnaswamy, Group Head- HR, Medwell Ventures. Dr. Col. Ajay Gangoli, Group Medical Director, Apollo Health & Lifestyle Ltd. Mr. HSD Srinivas, Head Health Portfolio Tata Trust, Mumbai. Prof. (Dr). Sudhir Kumar Satpathy, Director, School of Public Health, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Deemed to be University, Bhubaneshwar. Ms. Nishi Saini, Head- North, Clove Dental Clinics, New Delhi. Dr. Avinash Phadke, President, Technical & Mentor, SRL, Diagnostics, Mumbai. Dr. Clive Fernandes, Group Clinical Director, Wockhardt Group of Hospitals, Mumbai. Dr. Sanjay Gupte, Medico-Legal Expert, Pune. The valedictory ceremony will be held on April 20, 2019. Dr. Deelip Mhaisekar, Vice-chancellor, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences will grace the occasion as Guest of Honor. The session will be presided by Dr. S. B. Mujumdar, Chancellor, Symbiosis International (Deemed University).

SYMHEALTH 2019 will continue to bet on increasing the presence of organizations, exhibitors and visitors from around the nation to keep on generating synergies, sharing knowledge, provoking discussion, reflection and inspiring new actions. It will encourage all the stakeholders to expand their knowledge horizon as well as to forge collaborative networks across disciplines and professions. The attendees will benefit enormously from the event.

We hope that you will join us in, what promises to be, a ‘must attend’ event!
For Registration and further queries please contact: (+91) 88888-92258
Email: symhealthregistration@siu.edu.in,
For more details visit: www.symhealth.edu.in

Dr. Rajiv Yeravdekar
Dean, Faculty of Health & Biomedical Sciences, SIU

Read Press Release: SYMHEALTH 2019

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AI Engraving Footprints on Healthcare Transcontinental Canvas

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 07:22:38 +0000

SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING, the discoverer of Penicillin, shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945. But when he arrived in Stockholm to receive the award he had a bad cold. Throughout the ceremony, he used his handkerchief repeatedly. Later when he was leaving, his eyes were still watery, and he was still sniffing. One of the officials shook his head sympathetically and said, “No good for colds”. EE Edgar January 1965.

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But, it was a stunning discovery that changed the course of history. The active ingredient, which Fleming named Penicillin, turned out to be an infection-fighting agent of enormous potency. When it was finally recognized for what it was, the most efficacious life-saving drug in the world, Penicillin altered forever the treatment of bacterial infections.

Now, it is turn of AI (Artificial Intelligence) that is making fast forays in a broad-spectrum of disciplines, and medical diagnostics and treatment field is paving way for intrusion of AI.

Across the world, race is underway to exploit AI for good of patients. Many say it is not much away from tipping point: those who will take timely advantage of it or those who are set to miss the opportunity at the initial moments.

In India, AI ball has started rolling in the wake of the huge potential of the healthcare network and an ever-burgeoning population of 130 crore people. A discussion paper on National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence prepared by NITI Aayog team which included, Arnab Kumar, Punit Shukla, Aalekh Sharan, and Tanay Mahindru, came up for discussions recently and moves are afoot to proceed further.

The paper delved at length on various dimensions of AI. It said NITI Aayog is working with Microsoft and Forus Health to roll out the technology for early detection of diabetic retinopathy as a pilot project. 3Nethra, developed by Forus Health, is a portable device that can screen for common eye problems. Integrating AI capabilities to this device using Microsoft’s retinal imaging APIs enables operators of 3Nethra device to get AI-powered insights even when they are working at eye checkup camps in remote areas with nil or intermittent connectivity to the cloud.

The resultant technology solution also solves for quality issues with image capture and systems checks in place to evaluate the usability of the image captured.

AI-based healthcare solutions can also help in making healthcare services more proactive – moving from “sick” care to true “health” care, with emphasis on preventive techniques.

AI solutions can augment the scarce personnel and lab facilities; help overcome the barriers to access and solve the accessibility problem; through early detection, diagnostic, decision-making and treatment, cater to a large part of India.

Cancer screening and treatment, the paper says, is an area where AI provides tremendous scope for targeted large-scale interventions. India sees an incidence of more than 1 million new cases of cancer every year, and early detection and management can be crucial in an optimum cancer treatment regimen across the country.

NITI Aayog is in the advanced stage for launching a programme to develop a national repository of annotated and curated, despite the obvious economic potential, the healthcare sector in India remains multi-layered and complex and is ripe for disruption from emerging technologies at multiple levels.

It is probably the most intuitive and obvious use case primed for intervention by AI-driven solutions, as evidenced by the increasing activity from large corporates and start-ups alike in developing AI focused healthcare solutions.

Researchers said the Adoption of AI for healthcare applications is expected to see an exponential increase in the next few years. The increased advances in technology and interest and activity from innovators provides an opportunity for India to solve some of its long-existing challenges in providing appropriate healthcare to a large section of its population. AI combined with robotics and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) could potentially be the new nervous system for healthcare, presenting solutions to address healthcare problems and helping the government in meeting the above objective pathology images. Another related project under discussions is an Imaging Biobank for Cancer.

In US, Viz.ai, Inc., an applied artificial intelligence healthcare company a few months back announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a De Novo request for the first-ever Computer-Aided Triage and Notification Platform to identify Large Vessel Occlusion (LVO) strokes in CTA imaging. This regulatory clearance compliments Viz.ai’s recent European CE Mark for the product in January 2018.

“The Viz.ai LVO Stroke Platform is the first example of applied artificial intelligence software that seeks to augment the diagnostic and treatment pathway of critically unwell stroke patients,” said Dr. Chris Mansi, Neurosurgeon and Chief Executive Officer. “We are thrilled to bring artificial intelligence to healthcare in a way that works alongside physicians and helps get the right patient, to the right doctor at the right time.”

Stroke is a serious and time-sensitive medical condition that requires emergency care and can cause lasting brain damage, long-term disability, and death. A stroke occurs if the flow of oxygen-rich blood to a portion of the brain is blocked. When this happens 2 million brain cells die every minute. “This software device could benefit patients by notifying a specialist earlier thereby decreasing the time to treatment. Faster treatment may lessen the extent or progression of a stroke,” said Robert Ochs, Ph.D., Acting Deputy Director for Radiological Health, Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

The Viz.ai LVO Stroke Platform was developed using deep learning, a revolutionary technique where algorithms learn how to identify patterns in data from millions of prior examples. The Viz.ai system connects to a hospital CT scanner and alerts the stroke specialist that a suspected LVO stroke has been identified, sending the radiological images directly to their smartphone.

In a 300-patient performance study, the Viz.ai LVO Stroke Platform obtained an AUC of 0.91, identifying LVOs and alerting the relevant specialist with 90% sensitivity and specificity and a median scan to notification time of under 6 minutes. In over 95% of cases, the automatic notifications demonstrated faster notification of the specialist, saving between 6 and 206 minutes, with an average time saving of 52 minutes.

“Timely LVO stroke identification and transfer to a specialist hospital that can perform mechanical thrombectomy is the top priority for LVO stroke patients,” said Dr. Raul Nogueira, Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Radiology at Emory University and the Immediate-Past President, Society of Vascular & Interventional Neurology. “This software is designed to help identify appropriate patients earlier and more often, and enable faster transfer and treatment, which, ultimately may result in improved patient outcomes.

Noted Cardiologist ERC Topol, who is Professor of Genomics and holds the Scripps endowed chair in innovative medicine, has now written a book that calls for the “creative destruction” of the current medical paradigm, which he believes has failed to keep up with the digitized world of interactivity, social media, computers, apps, and advanced engineering and electronics.

In his book, he lambasts current day medicine as being archaic and wasteful, making his case with a compelling blend of statistics, anecdotes. Prof. Topol believes that consumers teaming up with innovators in the med-digital world are the key to forcing change, which is certainly true. But how exactly will this work?

The NITI Aayog discussion paper says AI is a constellation of technologies that enables machines to act with higher levels of intelligence and emulate the human capabilities of sense, comprehend and act. Thus, computer vision and audio processing can actively perceive the world around them by acquiring and processing images, sound and speech.

The natural language processing and inference engines can enable AI systems to analyze and understand the information collected. An AI system can also act through technologies such as expert systems and inference engines or undertake actions in the physical world. These human capabilities are augmented by the ability to learn from experience and keep adapting over time. AI systems are finding ever-wider application to supplement these capabilities across enterprises as they grow in sophistication. The paper says healthcare is one of the most dynamic, yet challenging, sectors in India, and is expected to grow to USD 280 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of upwards of 16%, from the current ~USD 100 billion.

Adoption of AI for healthcare applications is expected to see an exponential increase in the next few years. Technology disruptions like AI are once-in-generation phenomenon, and hence large-scale adoption strategies, especially national strategies, need to strike a balance between narrow definitions of financial impact and the greater good. NITI Aayog has decided to focus on five sectors that are envisioned to benefit the most from AI in solving societal needs: a) Healthcare: increased access and affordability of quality healthcare; b) Agriculture: enhanced farmers’ income, increased farm productivity and reduction of wastage; c) Education: improved access and quality of education; d) Smart Cities and Infrastructure: efficient connectivity for the burgeoning urban population; and e) Smart Mobility and Transportation: smarter and safer modes of transportation and better traffic and congestion problems.

Yet, it faces major challenges of quality, accessibility, and affordability for a large section of the population:

A: Shortage of qualified healthcare professionals and services like qualified doctors, nurses, technicians and infrastructure: as evidenced in 0.76 doctors and 2.09 nurses per 1,000 population (as compared to WHO recommendations of 1 doctor and 2.5 nurses per 1,000 population respectively) and 1.3 hospital beds per 1,000 population as compared to WHO recommended 3.5 hospital beds per 1,000 population.

B: Non-uniform accessibility to healthcare across the country with physical access continuing to be the major barrier to both preventive and curative health services, and glaring disparity between rural and urban India. With most of the private facilities concentrated in and around tier 1 and tier 2 cities, patients have to travel substantial distances for basic and advanced healthcare services.

The problem is further accentuated by lack of consistent quality in healthcare across India, most of the services provided are individually driven rather than institution driven, and less than 2% of hospitals in India are accredited.

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Tele-Medicine System to Strengthen Healthcare Services in India

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Thu, 10 May 2018 09:43:02 +0000

Till date, the Indian Government has taken various steps to strengthen the telemedicine network. Healthcare services take in the country, especially in rural India. Some of the efforts in this direction which need a mention are:

National Medical College Network (NMCN): With the purpose of e-Education and e-Healthcare delivery, 50 Government Medical Colleges has selected to interconnect, riding over NKN (National Knowledge Network). For this, one National Resource Centre (NRC) requires to centralise infrastructure and 7 Regional Resource Centres (RRCs) has established.

State Telemedicine Network (STN): The States/UTs have been supported under National Health Mission (NHM) under Program Implementation Plan (PIP) for strengthening State Telemedicine initiatives under STN & to create reliable, ubiquitous and high-speed network backbone, all available and future networks. So far,10 states have financially supported.

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) in collaboration with Department of Space has setup Telemedicine nodes at some pilgrim places for health awareness, screening of non-communicable disease (NCD) and for providing specialty consultation to the devotees visiting holy places like Maa Vindhyavasini Mandir, Vindhyachal Dham, Mirzapur (UP), Sheshnag, Amarnath Pilgrimage (J&K), Pampa Hospital, Ayyappa Temple at Sabrimala (Kerala) and Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

Tele-Evidence: The tele-evidence facility streamlines the process of doctors appearing in courts in response to the summons. And saving their time not only for patient care but also for medical education and research. The project is operational in Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh since March 2014.

Also Read: An Interaction with J.P. Nadda on Health Plan

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Medical tourism needs systematic structure

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 07:21:05 +0000

The Medical Tourism Industry, poised to be a whooping USD 8-9 Billion Industry in India by the year 2020, is highly unorganized & unstructured. According to various reports of Industrial bodies, Indian Medical Travel Industry or Healthcare services is growing at a compounded rate of 20-25 per cent.

The Medical and Wellness Industry in India, being a highly unorganized and unstructured industry, is currently driven by limited market players and requires a systematic structural presentation, according to an in-depth study titled “Medical Tourism Opportunities and Challenges”.

The study, conducted in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR), found if structural development of the sector is ensured, it will facilitate creation of a level playing field for the medical & ancillary service providers which in turn will put the country as one of the most premier Medical Travel destination in the world.

Jitin Kapoor, Joint Secretary at International India Medical Tourism Congress (IIMTC), who spearheaded the study along with a team of researchers, told “Inno Health” in an exclusive interview that the Medical Tourism Industry is undoubtedly one of the most promising sector for the country’s economy, and shall be one of the major source of revenue generation, as well as job creation in near future.

The study finds positioning India in the world market as a bigger and valued prospect for medical travelers from around the world. Mr Kapoor, also a chartered accountant, recommended that there is a dire need to improve the local travel and accommodation facilities for the medical tourists. The available ancillary services need to be adequately marketed and showcased for the medical travelers as a lot of difficulty is faced by them due to lack of awareness.

According to him, the payment security for service providers as well as medical travelers needs to be developed through a dedicated digital payment platform.

A common organizing platform, integrating all the medical service providers, along with the related service providers is highly desirable. They are required to be brought on single digital platform which will assist in providing transparent and conducive environment leading to a positive feedback and in turn help the industry to flourish.

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Medical Tourism, also known as Health & Wellness tourism, in recent years, has been coined as a term to represent the movement of people from one place to another for their medical treatment care, and wellness needs. People from across the world travel to other countries for their surgical, medical, dental requirements, etc.

And at the same time make some time for family vacations, tours & travels to experience the local attractions of the destinations. Such movement has in itself evolved as one of the most rapidly growing industry integrating travel & tourism sector with healthcare and wellness sector; both being the most revenue generating sectors for an economy.

India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Greece, Peru, to name a few are some of the major Medical Travel destinations. This phenomenon has been actively prevalent in the healthcare sector across the globe for last one and half decade and is growing tremendously.

With high cost of treatment in the West, to the long waiting time for treatment in the EU Countries, the people from developed and industrialized nations are looking for destinations that have a ready availability for treatments with the facilities that are at par with their own country. The countries like Africa, Oman, Afghanistan, etc. are also looking for better healthcare infrastructure as compared to their own.

India can serve as an enormous potential destination for all the international medical travelers owing to its healthcare facilities that match the best in the world, along with a vast number of West trained medical practitioners. Another major factor is the cost effectiveness the Indian Healthcare sector provides viz-a-viz the International healthcare costs. People travelling for medical processes can get the treatment readily available and that too with a 5-Star Hospitality (in a fraction of the cost they incur in their own countries). Travelers also have an option to explore the country with amazing picturesque destinations, backed with rich heritage culture.

This exceptional combination has already made the Medical Tourism Industry worth 2.5 Billion USD in India, growing at a compounded rate of 20-25 per cent, as per various reports of Industrial Bodies.

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BIG DATA IN HEALTHCARE: MIRAGE OR MARKET OPPORTUNITY?

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 06:05:37 +0000

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Big Data in Healthcare: Mirage or Market Opportunity?

Manishankar Prasad is the principal of the healthcare practice at BIS Research. A National University of Singapore Alumni; he is a prolific contributor to knowledge platforms in the area of public health, sustainability and social change.

Shiv Sharma is a project manager with the healthcare practice at BIS Research. A BITS Pilani Dubai Campus Alumni; he is passionate about mainstreaming data science.

Esha Bhatia is a research analyst with the healthcare practice at BIS Research. A SRCC Alumni; she has lead research projects in the knowledge domain of Big Data and IoT Security.

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This paper enumerates the structural and cultural challenges of Big Data implementation in Healthcare organizations in the hierarchy of numbers, juxtaposed along the binary of the developed and developing world, which depicts the inherent digital divide which reflects in the adoption of emerging technologies.

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Introduction

Big Data is the currency of the digital era, as oil was for the twentieth century. This article maps two major concepts; Big Data and Healthcare. Defining these two terms will help in informing the reader to comprehend the epistemic origins of the application, which in turn will help in unpacking the technological black box. Big Data is defined as;

“An evolving term that describes any voluminous amount of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data that has the potential to be mined for information.”[1]

And, Healthcare is defined as;

“The act of taking preventative or necessary medical procedures to improve a person’s well-being. This may be done with surgery, the administering of medicine, or other alterations in a person’s lifestyle. These services are typically offered through a health care system made up of hospitals and physicians.”[2]

Healthcare is a public good, as it is a social justice issue inter twined with our fundamental human rights. Big Data is a byproduct of twin drivers, Information Communication Technology (ICT) revolution and globalization. Data in the healthcare space is generated furiously at every node of the value chain: Payer, Provider and Global Health. The Internet of Things paradigm generates multitude of data points per second as well with numerous tracking health indicators on their smart phones. Hence, from electronic Emergency Health Records to Insurance, Data in the Healthcare space is notionally ‘Big’.

The Opportunities

Medical Practitioners decide upon the course of treatment on the basis of data which is gathered from monitoring instruments to gauge various parameters and the outcomes of diagnostic tests. Doctors leverage data to extrapolate health trends to recommend treatments to their patients particularly while treating oncological ailment. Electronic Health Records are the basic unit of medical information which needs to be stored. There are hundreds of millions of such records in federal health system architectures in the developed world.

In contrast there is unstructured, fragmented data in the medical services market in the developing world due to the standard practice which is mostly handwritten prescriptions and hard copy filing of medical reports. These data points often get lost in the complex web of files and a comparative cannot be drawn at ease between two longitudinal data points which is the basis of medical decision making. Digitization brings benefits of on boarding this enormous data set on the mainstream decision making grid such as on the enterprise architecture or on the cloud.

This treasure trove of data is an incredible opportunity to mine consumer insights for healthcare service providers. According to a research study released by BIS Research in 20153, the growth rates are in double digits for the big data analytics market across its financial, clinical and operational segments. The clinical analytics pie of the healthcare analytics market is growing at 22.54% CAGR from 2015 to 2020 while the financial slice is more than half the overall market space as depicted in figure below.

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Challenges

Big Data in Healthcare as argued in the previous section is a huge opportunity to improve decision making capabilities through enhanced data storage and enabling sophisticated enablers to make sense of the data. In this section, it is our endeavor to cut through the market rhetoric and ask some hard questions regarding the actual acceptance rate of Big Data as a critical lever to leverage value in the healthcare space.

The major structural barrier in the implementation of Big Data platforms in the developing world are the following three factors:

Capital: The initial deployment of capital in order to digitize paper records and have systems which can present the data in a format which is conversant with the end user; the medical practitioner is prohibitory for small players. The consumer in the global south is cost sensitive and the back end enablers to improving decision making is not a priority for the patient. If the infrastructure up gradation costs is passed on to the patient, then it is a discomforting factor.

Skills Barrier: Medical school education pedagogy has not evolved for decades in the global south and seems to have frozen in bureaucratic and intellectual stasis. The data analytics paradigm has not seeped in to the medical school curriculum in the developing world, and there is an evident skills chasm between the potential of the market as seen from the technology industry perspective and its adoption on the ground by the healthcare service actors.

Service Providers are ‘Tech Laggards’: Doctors consider additional data entry work into electronic database systems for medical records as a ‘burden’ on top of their existing medical duties.

The recent changes in the regulatory landscape in the Unites States compulsorily mandated electronic medical records as per The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and Obamacare, the landmark legislation expanding medical coverage in the United States has made electronic medical records a part of the health services conversation. The quest for documentation from a cultural perspective is an effort to leave a paper trail in lieu of any legal action. The big data intervention here does not create greater efficiencies; rather it adds a new layer of bureaucracy, which has a negative externality.

Big Data in the Healthcare space is an opportunity from a techno-deterministic standpoint as it is a data rich environment, but in order for Big Data to become a tool for performance improvement; structural and cultural barriers need to be resolved.

The Market Scenario

There are numerous small, medium and large healthcare providers which are utilizing big data depending on the availability of skills and infrastructure. Pharmaceutical research organizations with well-equipped infrastructure and domain expertise are leveraging on big data in oncology and other clinical trials for the toxicity and safety analysis of the medicinal products [4,5]. Big data analytics is enabling value based future for the healthcare organizations which helps them prioritize healthcare outcomes for patients through precise data. Healthcare payers are implementing predictive analytics to detect fraudulent claims. Medium scale healthcare providers are not able to benefit from big data analytics despite of established infrastructure because of technical expertise scarcity and lack of cultural perspective as explained above. Small healthcare organizations still rely on decentralized data for decision making, making big data analytics implementation strenuous due to the paucity of spare capital.

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The Big Data phenomenon is well underway in developed economies. Increasing healthcare expenses and focus on value based care are driving the demand of big data analytics in the healthcare domain. Healthcare providers are moving towards evidence based medicine for systematic clinical data analysis. Meanwhile from 2010, many new innovative health-care applications and smart devices have been developed with 40% of the lot rendering predictive capabilities.

In low and middle income countries, presence of advance IT systems is limited or non-existent which end up health data on paper records. The growing and ageing population is acting as a key driver for this market which demands value based metrics for enhanced healthcare outcomes. As the healthcare infrastructural spine gets digitized, the opportunities for big data in healthcare are manifold, but this will take time as the digital inequities are symmetrically mapped in the healthcare space as in the financial inclusion sphere.

Conclusions:

Healthcare operates at the intersection of socioeconomic variables, public service delivery, demography and technology. Big Data if the correct questions are asked, this paradigm has the potential to better create decision making tools for medical professionals across the board. The attempt of the authors in this paper has been to identify the gaps in the wide scale implementation of Big Data vis-à-vis the ticket size of the players in the healthcare arena which in turn is the intellectual anchor of the paper.

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Refernces:
[1] http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/big-data-Big-Data, 8th August 2016
[2] http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/health-care.html, 8th August 2016
[3] BIS Research Industry Report on ‘Big Data in Healthcare’, August 2015
[4] Bertsimas D, O’Hair A, Reylia S, Silberholz J (2013) An Analytics Approach to Designing Clinical Trials for Cancer. MIT Working Paper.
[5] https://www.hpcwire.com/2016/05/18/machine-learning-fighting-cancer , 16th August 2016)

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