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The Future of Healthcare: How AI is Revolutionizing Patient Care

Khushi Khandelwal — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 06:30:00 +0000

Dr. Priyanka Bajaj

In the rapidly evolving landscape of healthcare technology, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a transformative force that promises to bridge critical gaps in healthcare delivery, from hospital systems to primary care. Dr. Priyanka Bajaj, a health technology expert at PATH, shares her insights on how AI is reshaping healthcare delivery and improving patient outcomes across all levels of care.

Revolutionizing Healthcare Delivery

AI’s integration into healthcare systems is occurring at multiple levels, each addressing specific challenges in the healthcare continuum. At the hospital level, AI is transforming how we utilize electronic health records, enabling healthcare providers to identify high-risk populations, predict potential outbreaks, and optimize patient follow-up care. As Dr. Bajaj explains, the purpose of primary healthcare, as a pillar of universal health coverage, is to provide essential medicines and diagnostic services to the population. In settings where specialist access is limited, AI-enabled technologies are proving particularly valuable, providing first-level screening and clinical decision support that can significantly improve health indicators through early intervention.

Bridging Healthcare Gaps

One of AI’s most significant contributions is its ability to democratize healthcare access. In areas with limited specialist access or sophisticated infrastructure, AI-integrated point-of-care tools have become invaluable for screening large populations and identifying individuals at risk of various conditions. This early intervention capability is particularly crucial for managing both communicable and non-communicable diseases, enabling healthcare providers to reach and treat patients who might otherwise go undiagnosed until their conditions become severe.

Lessons from COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst for AI adoption in healthcare, accelerating the development and implementation of innovative solutions. During this unprecedented crisis, AI technologies emerged as crucial tools in the fight against the virus. Healthcare facilities worldwide implemented AI-powered thermal imaging for fever detection, while sophisticated algorithms analyzed chest X-rays to identify COVID-19 pneumonia. Smartphone-based applications utilizing AI to analyze cough sounds helped screen for COVID-19, TB, and COPD. Remote patient monitoring systems with AI-driven decision support enabled healthcare providers to monitor patients safely at home, while robots and drones equipped with AI capabilities assisted in sanitization efforts and medical supply delivery to hard-to-reach areas.

Building a Sustainable AI-Driven Healthcare System

The foundation of sustainable AI implementation in healthcare lies in what Dr. Bajaj calls a “human-centered approach.” This philosophy emphasizes maintaining human oversight while leveraging AI capabilities, ensuring ethical implementation with transparency and accountability, and protecting patient privacy. Success in this area requires robust multisectoral collaboration, adherence to regulatory standards like HIPAA, and a commitment to continuous iteration and improvement of AI systems. The focus remains on enhancing, rather than replacing, human capabilities in healthcare delivery.

Emerging Innovations

The current landscape of AI in healthcare is rich with promising innovations being implemented in primary healthcare settings. Thermal imaging technology enhanced with AI is revolutionizing breast cancer screening, making it more accessible and less invasive. AI-powered cervical cancer screening tools are enabling early detection in areas with limited specialist access. Smart stethoscopes that convert sound to images for cardiorespiratory analysis are transforming how healthcare providers diagnose heart and lung conditions. Perhaps most excitingly, smartphone-based technologies are emerging that can detect conditions like hypertension and arrhythmias, while AI-assisted chest X-ray analysis is accelerating tuberculosis screening in high-burden areas.

Looking Ahead

The future of AI in healthcare holds immense promise, but realizing this potential requires a collaborative approach. Dr. Bajaj emphasizes the importance of breaking down silos between innovators, clinicians, health systems, and communities. The goal is not simply to develop new technologies, but to create solutions that genuinely meet the needs of the health system—solutions that are affordable, safe, and quality-assured.

As healthcare continues to evolve, the focus must remain on ensuring these innovations are accessible, ethical, and truly serve the communities they’re designed to help. “Be a solution provider, not just a technology provider,” Dr. Bajaj concludes, emphasizing that the true measure of success lies not in the sophistication of the technology, but in its ability to improve health outcomes for all populations.

Authors Biography

Dr. Priyanka Bajaj, is a Health Technology Innovations Specialist at PATH, advising on clinical, regulatory, and market access aspects. She leads cross-disciplinary public health projects globally, supports technology scale-up, and has expertise in diagnostics, medical devices, and public health integration.

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Reproductive Health Issues with Women-Based Approach

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 09:35:32 +0000

With this year’s World Population Day’s theme being reproductive health and gender equality essential for achieving sustainable development, the focus has once again shifted towards the need for women’s reproductive health. Surveys have shown that how women having lack of knowledge on sex, contraception, pregnancy and abortion has been affecting their reproductive health orientation.

Also Read: WHO’s First Guideline to Digital Health Interventions

A reproductive health orientation means that people have the ability to reproduce as well as to regulate their fertility; women are able to undergo pregnancy and childbirth safely and that the outcome of pregnancy is successful, in terms of both, maternal and child health and well-being. Reproductive health is affected by a variety of socio-cultural and biological factors and the quality of the delivery system. A woman-based approach to reproductive health is one which responds to the needs of adult women and adolescent girls.

Also Read: Screening for Cervical Pre-Cancer in India
Current Scenario

Even after four decades of the inception of the family planning program, nothing much has been observed in terms of the population growth rate, which continues to grow at over 2% per year. Currently, almost 18 million people are added to India’s population annually, from which 40% of the population comprises children under the age of 14 years.

Also Read: Smart Toilet Detects Cancer, Diabetes Through Urine

Life expectancy has now reached 61 years, up from about 44 in 1960; and the crude death rate has fallen dramatically from 27 per 1000 population at the time of Independence in 1947 to 9.8 per 1000 (1991). In Kerala, which reports the longest life expectancy, there is 67.2 years for males and 72.4 for females Whereas, in Uttar Pradesh, which reports among the lowest life expectancies in the nation, there is a reversal of the gender pattern: while males can expect to live a total of 57.1 years, female life expectancy is only 52.8.

Gender Disparity the biggest roadblock in Unequal Access to Healthcare

Women’s unequal access to resources be it healthcare, education is a reality. Even economically, despite being majority of rural Indian women are active, their work goes largely unrecognized and poorly remunerated. Where women work, they earn lower wages including lower cash to kind ratio than that awarded to men. When it comes to household level, women have little decision-making authority and freedom of movement. Many behavioral norms further reinforce women’s lack of freedom of movement, self-confidence and acceptance of self-denial including in matters relating to health seeking and food intake. Violence against women and rape are all part of women’s lives. Women’s poor reproductive health in India can be attributed to various sociocultural and biological factors. Thus, efforts to improve women’s education are fundamental, be it raising enrollment and attendance rates of girls in school, reducing the drop-out rate on the one hand or enhancing women’s income autonomy on the other.

Also Read: Addressing Unmet Needs in India’s Health System
Loopholes in the Women Reproductive Program

India’s Family Welfare Program are basically focused on achieving demographic targets by increasing contraceptive prevalence and notably female sterilization. However, the Indian family planning program also evolved through a number of stages. It has changed its focus. In the early years, the program was laid with loads of caution and its impact was hardly felt. Then during 1965-75, the program was strengthened by integrating family planning with maternal and duringthe period child health services were introduced. It was also during that decade, abortion was legalized. Despite all these, India’s maternal mortality ratio is estimated at 555 per 100,000 live births, about fifty times higher than that of many industrialized nations and six times as high as that of neighboring Sri Lanka.

The following sub-sections highlight major concerns in the area of reproductive health:
a) Focus to be laid on reproductive morbidity and maternal health
b) Improving access to safe abortion
c) Information on sexually transmitted diseases
d) Improved quality of reproductive systemViolence

About the author

Ajoy Khandheria is the Founder of Gramin Health Care, the first ever start-up focused exclusively on primary healthcare. He has been an advisor to corporate giants like Harris Corporation, Telecom Ital, Tech Mahindra, Tellabs Maxis, UT Starcom, Hughes Software System and KPMG. Under his leadership, companies have seen exponential growth and geographical expansion in the global market. A strategic investor, Ajoy also has remarkable presence in telecommunication, geospatial and content businesses. He has invested in a number of companies across the world including Avenger (USA), Doc on call (Myanmar), Intersat (UAE), Emmanuel Healthcare (USA), Six Dee technologies and CERT Telematics (Abu Dhabi), among others.

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Indian Healthcare Roadmap

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 08:52:04 +0000

Indian Healthcare Roadmap:

An exclusive interview with World’s Most Influential Economist

Jeffrey D. Sachs is Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is also the Director of UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development. He has been advisor to three United Nations Secretary-Generals. He has received many awards including India’s most prestigious award ‘Padma Bhushan’. He has authored numerous bestseller books. Sachs was twice named as Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders and was ranked by The Economist among the top three most influential living economists. Nimisha Singh Verma interviews him on his viewpoint on Sustainable Development Goals and Indian healthcare roadmap to achieve its goal.

Q. Being the architect of Sustainable Development Goals, are you happy with its implementation and impact it has created globally?

I am very pleased and excited by the global acceptance of the SDGs across governments, businesses, and civil society. Yet, actual implementation lags far behind our aspirations and needs. In other words, the big challenge is aligning our plans and actions with the goals. For this we need planning, partnerships, and financial resources in budgets and business investments.

Q. As the world’s most renowned economist, what do you think should be India’s road map to achieve Sustainable Development Goals?

India should pursue the SDGs through six main transformations. First, quality education for all, based on expanded budgets for education at the Union and State levels. Second, quality healthcare for all, similarly based on expanded healthcare budgets at the Union and State levels. Third, decarbonisation of energy, by eliminating the use of coal, oil, and natural gas, and shifting to solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal energy. This will not only contribute to ending global warming but will also clean the air and save millions of lives. Fourth, sustainable land use by restoring degraded lands, protecting endangered species, and ending deforestation. Fifth, investing in sustainable cities, through all-electric vehicles, green spaces, walking areas, and affordable housing. Sixth, being the world leader in using Information and Communications Technologies (the digital revolution) for sustainable development.

Q. Countries have adopted various healthcare financing models as per their needs like Beveridge, Bismarck, and National Health Insurance Model, but every system has its limitations. Do you have any recommendations or hybrid model which India should adopt to serve its healthcare needs for varied segments of its population?

The best healthcare financing is a single-payer approach by government (shared between the Union and State levels). The US model of private health insurance is unjust, costly, and unfair, based on a powerful private – sector lobby that makes exorbitant profits at the expense of society, especially at the expense of the poor. India continues to under-invest in healthcare. It should be spending at least 4 percent of GDP on publicly financed healthcare, with the share rising gradually overtime.Until recently, India has been spending little more than 1 percent of GDP, a shockingly small amount, and perhaps the lowest public-sector outlay on health of any major country. Of course, good health comes not just through a high-quality and equitable health system, but also through healthy life practices. India should avoid the American fast-food industry and the accompanying obesity syndrome, the heavy addiction to cigarettes, and the massive air and water pollution that claim so many lives. Quality education for all, and gender equality will also strengthen health outcomes.

Q. You have vast knowledge of Indian healthcare system, having been associated with various initiatives like National Rural Health Mission. How do you think the Bottom of Pyramid can be served in its healthcare needs?

The surprising point about India is how the government chronically under-invests in healthcare. In this case, India is following the US model, of relying on privately provided healthcare. But that only works for the upper class, not the poor.

Q. How should Indian healthcare policies be structured to integrate the technological innovation to achieve its healthcare goals?

Digital technologies enable low-cost, high-quality, and innovative delivery of healthcare. Smartphones can play a vital role: to connect households with health providers, for remote sensing of patient data, for guiding community health workers (such as ASHAs), for telemedicine and distance diagnostics, for collecting and reporting data, etc. More generally, we are in an era of rapid technological breakthroughs in diagnostics, big data collection and processing, remote monitoring, new medicines, genomics, social medicine (including community-based mental health services), and environmental determinants of health. India should turn to its key institutions such as the Public Health Foundation of India to help set roadmaps for universal health coverage based on innovative technologies. And as with the US National Institutes of Health and the UK’s Wellcome Trust, India should explore an innovation ecosystem built on public financing, private foundations, and private-sector financing for cutting-edge R&D. A single-payer system should reimburse private providers at fixed public rates to give them the incentives to reduce costs and raise the quality through innovations. In other words, a single-payer system can still induce innovation by private providers, but within the context of universal coverage and without the excessive lobbying power of private health providers. European models will be helpful here.

Q. How globalization can help developing countries in improving healthcare? Is it a win-win situation for both developing and developed countries?

SDG 3 sets a shared global set of health objectives – “healthy lives for all at all ages”. In other words, the SDGs can build a shared global perspective and strategy. Of course, the gains are win-win. If all countries coordinate on decarbonizing the energy system, all will gain in improved health (fewer extreme heatwaves and climate-related disasters, reduced air pollution). If they cooperate on improved delivery of primary healthcare, there will be fewer uncontrolled epidemics of emerging diseases. If they cooperate on regulations on antibiotic use, there will be much less onset of antibiotic resistance. If all countries cooperate on sustainable farm practices, there will be healthier diets and less irresponsible use of antibiotics for farm animals. In other words, there are huge gains to global cooperation. Moreover, the poor countries depend on financial support from the rich countries like – to finance the control of epidemic diseases, the shift to clean energy, and the implementation of universal health coverage. Crucial institutions like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, need much more global financing. The world’s billionaires should be doing much more than most of them are doing now to put their vast wealth at the service of humanity. No country should say, “America first,” or “India first,” or “China first.” All countries should say “The World First,” and we will all come out ahead.

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National Ageing Center Coming in New Delhi

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 06:20:46 +0000

Ahead of an international day of old people on October 1, a foundation stone of the National Ageing Center has been laid recently at AIIMS in the national capital. The National Ageing Center will provide state of the art clinical care to the elderly population and shall play a key role in guiding research in the field of geriatric medicine and related specialties. The Centre will also be a key training facility for undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The Centre will provide multi-specialty healthcare and will have 200 general ward beds, which will include 20 medical ICU beds. The center will be developed at a cost of Rs 330 crores and shall be completed by February 2020.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also dedicated the underground connecting tunnel between AIIMS and JNPA Trauma Centre, and Power Grid Vishram Sadan at AIIMS along with the 500 bedded New Emergency Block and 807 bedded Super Specialty Block at the Safdarjung Hospital to the nation.

Informatively, on the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the United Nations International Day for Older Persons (UNIDOP) celebrates the importance of this Declaration and reaffirms the commitment to promoting the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by older persons.

Growing older does not diminish a person’s inherent dignity and fundamental rights.

On 14 December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly designated October 1 as the International Day for Older Persons. This was preceded by initiatives such as the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing – which was adopted by the 1982 World Assembly on Ageing – and endorsed later that year by the UN General Assembly.

In 1991, the General Assembly adopted the United Nations Principles for Older Persons. In 2002, the Second World Assembly on Ageing adopted the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, to respond to the opportunities and challenges of population ageing in the 21st century and to promote the development of a society for all ages.

Almost 700 million people are now over the age of 60. By 2050, 2 billion people, over 20 percent of the world’s population, will be 60 or older. The increase in the number of older people will be the greatest and the most rapid in the developing world, with Asia as the region with the largest number of older persons, and Africa facing the largest proportionate growth.

The interdependence between older persons’ social integration and the full enjoyment of their human rights cannot be ignored, as the degree to which older persons are socially integrated will directly affect their dignity and quality of life.

Older human rights champions today were born around the time of the adoption of the UDHR in 1948. They are as diverse as the society in which they live: from older people advocating for human rights at the grass root and community level to high profile figures on the international stage. Each and everyone demands equal respect and acknowledgment for their dedication and commitment to contributing to a world free from fear and free from want.

The 2018 theme aims to:

Promote the rights enshrined in the Declaration and what it means in the daily lives of older persons;
Raise the visibility of older people as participating members of society committed to improving the enjoyment of human rights in many areas of life and not just those that affect them immediately;
Reflect on progress and challenges in ensuring full and equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by older persons; and
Engage broad audiences across the world and mobilize people for human rights at all stages.

On the day of laying of foundation stone for ageing persons, Mr. JP Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mr. Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Smt. Anupriya Patel, Ministers of State for Health and Family Welfare were also present at the event.

Addressing the participants, PM Modi said that our government has been successful in taking healthcare out of the ambit of the Health Ministry and today we have Rural Development Ministry, Water and Sanitation Ministry, and Child Development Ministry and AYUSH Ministry with our vision of healthcare.

He further added that our vision is not limited to hospitals, diseases, medicines, and super specialty care but also with the idea that affordable and equitable healthcare should be ensured for every citizen. PM Modi said that the government is equipping existing hospitals with all the modern facilities and at the same time it is also making sure that the healthcare facilities reach the remotest areas of the countries. He added that 58 district hospitals are being upgraded to medical colleges and the government has also sanctioned budgets for 24 new medical colleges.

PM Modi added that the global target for eliminating TB is 2030, but we have set 2025 as our target for India to eliminate TB, five years before the global target. He further stated that the government is providing Rs. 500 to the TB patients towards nutritional support.

The Prime Minister also mentioned the Ayushman Bharat programme. He said that under the National Health Protection Mission, 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) will be provided a coverage up to 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. This will be the world’s largest government-funded healthcare programme, he stated.

Mr. Nadda said that there has been a visible change in the tertiary healthcare in the country and assured that the government is committed to ensuring that the new AIIMS will meet the same standards of service as AIIMS, New Delhi. No effort will be spared to make them the very best, he added. He said that that the new AIIMS will have the same work culture and the government is taking all the steps to ensure that. He further stated that the Ministry in the past 4 years has not left any stone unturned – from monitoring the clean and effective implementation of national programmes to establishing 13 new AIIMS like institutes across the country. Reiterating the commitment of the government, he said under Ayushman Bharat, 150,000 sub-centers will be converted into Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) that will deliver comprehensive primary healthcare.

“The HWC would provide preventive, promotive, and curative care for non-communicable diseases, dental, mental, geriatric care, palliative care, etc. He further stated that the government has initiated universal screening of common NCDs such as diabetes, hypertension and common cancers along with Tuberculosis and Leprosy and everybody above the age of 30 years will be screened for these diseases and as such this will eventually help in reducing the disease burden of the country. “We will implement the vision of the Prime Minister in letter and spirit,” he added.

The underground tunnel is providing connecting facility between AIIMS and JPNA Trauma Centre and will reduce the commute time between the two centers. The completed length connectivity between two centers is approximately 1 km and has been completed at a cost of Rs. 44 crores.

The Powergrid Vishram Sadan has a 300 bedded night shelter facility meant for the patients and their relatives visiting AIIMS main hospital and JPNA Trauma center at AIIMS. The 11-floor facility has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 32.67 crores and funded by the Power Grid Corporation.

New emergency block at Safdarjung Hospital will house 64 triage beds, red zone for children & adults and 90 ICU beds for victims of road traffic accidents, acute trauma suffered by individuals at home or work, acute poisoning and severe medical and surgical emergencies. The block has been developed at a cost of Rs. 346 crores.

Super Specialty Block at Safdarjung Hospital holds tertiary care facilities in the areas of cardiovascular sciences, neurosciences, pulmonary medicine, nephrology, and endocrinology and shall be offering the facility of a Heart Command Centre, respiratory care facility, sleep labs, 24×7 dialysis unit, MRI guided Braine Suite, etc. It also has a 228-bedded private ward. The super specialty block has been developed at a cost of Rs. 920 crores.

Also present at the event were Smt. Preeti Sudan, Secretary (Health); Prof. Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS New Delhi; Dr. Rajendra Sharma, Medical Superintendent, VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi and Mr. IS Jha, CMD, Powergrid Corporation along with the senior officers from the Health Ministry and faculty of AIIMS.

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Universal Health Coverage

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 06:06:11 +0000

Partner State Session; Achieving Universal Health Coverage, Insurance Led Innovations, and AYUSH

Recent policy aiming at Universal Health Coverage, the launch of Ayushman Bharat, Ministry of Ayush are some of the key steps of the government of India. Insurance led innovations can come from market and state actors both.

The panel represented industry working in cutting-edge research on Ayurveda, industry leaders, home healthcare expert, leading hospital leader and internet driven insurance marketplace providers.

Dr. James P Kingsland started the session with his keynote by a short presentation of slides about the project on primary healthcare they are doing in India. Talked about Achieving Universal Health Coverage and quoted the following

“There is nothing new except what has been forgotten”

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Deliberated on possible ideas to further strengthen the Indian healthcare system, learning from other markets (NHS), offerings in the insurance sector, new care delivery models such as home healthcare offer and possibilities with alternative medicine and treatment lines. To tie all of this in a goal, which is to improve the quality of care and reduce the cost of care delivery.

Dr.James shared his work from the UK of the quadruple aim of building Healthcare system by mentioning that not only three aims but the fourth also existed and those are :

-Improving the health and wellbeing of the population
-Improving the individual outcomes & experience of care
-Reducing the per capita cost of care
-Fourth and important aim: Improving the experience of providing care

Systems with a strong generalist approach work best for access, equity and cost-effectiveness.

The supply of Primary Care Physicians is associated with improvements in population health inequalities. By contrast, specialist groups make little difference in health inequalities or cost-effective care.

Since a good system to primary care will lead to proper and optimum cost.

Ayushman Bharat is one of the largest schemes in India which will be covering 100 million poor and vulnerable families that acquits up to 500 million people. The panel discussed the key challenges anticipated in the different perspective since there were panelists from the different area of expertise.

Dr. Ganju anticipated the key challenges would be in – decrease financial risk of the population -improve population health, Dr. Gulati added his key points in care perspective that a measure of check and balances of money flow should be implemented in such a big scheme where huge amounts of funds are involved.

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Ramani stated that in a long run the sustainability of the scheme is very important to keep it running to be worthwhile for all the stakeholders involved.

Ganju was hoping good outcomes through AYUSHMAN BHARAT because of the IT structure that we have now can make many things redundant in lowering the administration cost.

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Digital India Healthy India

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 06:34:46 +0000

New India, Digital India, Make India, Innovate India in making a ‘Healthy’ India

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India is a country of diversity with 1.3 billion population of which 70 per cent resides in villages and have access to 30 per cent of medical assets of the country. Poverty is a significant issue of the country, despite having one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, clocked at an economic growth of 7.6 per cent in 2015. It is estimated that 23.6 per cent of Indian population, or about 276 million people, live below $1.25 per day.

As Health is a state subject-there is lot of mismatch in states like Kerala and Punjab have best health indicators, while Uttar Pradesh is the poorest as per the NITI Aayog report. Indian government spends approx. 1.5 per cent of its GDP on health sector and mplans to make it 2.5 per cent which is much less than many developing countries while the USA has dedicated 16 per cent of its GDP. India is riddled with very basic public health issues leading to disease burden. Keeping this in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched six initiatives: Open Defecation free country by 2019, Swachh Bharat Mission, National Health Policy 2017, Digital India with e-health, medical device manufacturing and door-to-door screening of chronic diseases.

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The healthcare needs holistic approach which depends on multiple factors. The present government has taken many positive steps including launching of National Health Policy 2017 after the gap of 12 years. It has announced many initiatives like health insurance of people who cannot afford basic healthcare and upgrading of health infrastructure.

The regulation of medical devices have been brought out and is applicable w.e.f January 1, 2018 ending uncertainty of medical device manufacturers having global market of 220 billion US dollar. Challenges bring opportunities such as Indian healthcare market is around US$ 100 billion while it is expected to grow US$ 280 billion by 2020. The healthcare IT market is US$ one billion and is expected to grow 1.5 times by 2020. There is requirement of 7 lakh hospital beds which need investment opportunities of 25-30 billion US dollar. We need to bring innovations in hospital planning,devices, diagnostics, drugs and use of technology to reduce healthcare delivery cost and yet quality.

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We failed targets of Health for All by 2000, National Rural Health Mission, and Millennium Development Goals and now launched Universal Health Coverage; its success would depend on providing healthcare facilities and strict accountability. We need to focus on primary health care and customise our healthcare delivery system by learning from experiences of other countries.

The concept of Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) making financial package for group of diseases which is known to patients, providers and third party payors should be considered by improving deficiency found in its execution by the USA.

The various schemes of present government are appreciable but success would depend on strict monitoring, corporate hospitals have high cost and many unethical practices are reported every day in media. Public hospitals to National Rural Health Mission have not delivered as required because of corruption, lack of resources and application of management practices. The need is not old wine in new bottle but strict control in implementation of various schemes launched.

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Alcohol addiction: Counselling can be of great help

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 10:31:46 +0000

Alcohol abuse contributes to illness and premature deaths in a big way. It is also associated with several socio-economic consequences such loss of earnings and domestic violence.

Over the years, several measures have been launched to overcome the problem including imposition of ban on alcohol sale and setting up of de-addiction centres to help the drinkers.

A group of researchers drawn from several national and international institutions have now found that it is possible to address the issue in a significantly effective manner at low costs. They have found that lot of benefit can be derived by merely equipping public health workers with different counselling techniques.

The study was conducted at 10 public primary healthcare centres in Goa. A total of 377 heavy drinkers in the age group of 18 to 65 years were enrolled. They were randomized into two groups- one receiving just the routine care and the other who also received counselling for two months. Their alcohol use was measured after 12 months.

In the group that received counseling, as much as 68 per cent of the men were found to have reduced their consumption to the safe level, as against 40 per cent in the case of the group that received only the routine care. The counselling programme was also not too intense. It consisted of just one to three sessions.

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The counselors were also just non-specialist health workers. They had no prior professional training or qualification in the field of mental health. However, they were given rigorous training on various aspects of counselling and they gave advice on how to deal with craving and motivated patients to quit drinking.

Speaking to India Science Wire, Vikram Patel, professor at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts in USA, who was the corresponding author for the study, said, “Given the great social and health harms associated with heavy drinking in India, and the effectiveness of this relatively brief and cheap treatment to reduce drinking levels,the government needs to scale up this treatment by training primary care health workers across the country”.

Besides Dr. Patel, the study team included Abhijit Nadkarni, Helen A Weiss, Benedict Weobong, David McDaid, Daisy R Singla, A-La Park, Bhargav Bhat, Basavaraj Katti, Jim McCambridge, Pratima Murthy, Michael King, G Terence Wilson, Betty Kirkwood, Christopher G Fairburn, and Richard Velleman.

National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru and Sangath, a NGO in Goa participated in the study. They collaborated with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, University of Bath, University of York, University College London and London School of Economics and Political Science in United Kingdom, University of Toronto in Canada, Rutgers University in New Jersey, and Harvard Medical School in United States of America. The Indian Council of Medical Research gave the ethical approval for conducting the trial.

(Article shared from India Science Wire)

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