The Future of Healthcare in India through Technology and Digitalization

India has a population of about 1.3 billion scattered across urban and rural areas. Unfortunately, according to a report by the united nations, 75% of all healthcare infrastructure including medical specialists & doctors are concentrated in urban areas where only 27% of the Indian population live. This means that many rural residents have little to no access to quality healthcare. This is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently. As we already know, India is a country that is constantly evolving and growing. With over 1.3 billion people, it is one of the most populous countries in the world. And with such a large population, comes a lot of potential for growth and development.

One of the main reasons why India has seen such success in recent years is due to the advancement of technology and digitalization. India has been at the forefront of this technological revolution. In today's day and age, technology plays a vital role in our lives.

It will be fair to say that the advancement of technology and digitalization in the financial and banking sector has led to a drastic improvement in the economy. Launch of UPI ( Unified Payment Interface) UPI was a watershed moment in Indian digitisation history. It is a payment platform that makes it easier for end users to make payments, and it has seen tremendous growth in India in recent years. From small-scale businesses like chai shops to large businesses, more and more people are using UPI for their payments. The growth of UPI is beyond expectations, and it is clear that UPI is making a big impact in India.

Similarly, It is the need of the hour to harness the power of technology in healthcare facilities. ?Technology and healthcare need to work together more seamlessly. Private hospitals and quality healthcare are limited to urban areas, which creates a huge disparity between rural and urban areas. Technology can help bridge this gap by making healthcare more accessible to everyone.

One of the biggest issues in the healthcare industry is the lack of accessibility to important data and information. This is something that NHA is looking to solve by adopting UHI. Keeping the view National Health Authority announced the launch of the Unified Health Interface (UHI) under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). UHI is an open network designed to enable interoperable digital health service delivery such as teleconsultation, health locker, Hospital information and so forth. In layman’s terms, under the ABDM scheme, each and every citizen will be provided with a unique health ID. This ID will be used to store all of your health records, making it easy for you to access them whenever you need to.

UHI proposes that all doctors, hospitals, labs, pharmacies, and health tech companies plug into a open network for the free exchange of health data. An open network is not owned by a particular service provider or particular company products. It refers to open-source software for people that they can modify and share because its design is publicly accessible.

One of the core protocols of UHI is the adoption of the Decentralized Health Protocol (DHP). They are inviting contributors and developers from the digital health community to participate, build and contribute to UHI. A version of the open protocols is available in the public domain on GitHub platform at https://github.com/dhp-project and may be used to build health service applications. Any technology provider currently developing or having digital health solutions for hospitals, doctors, labs or consumers can create innovative new solutions using DHP and become a part of UHI Network.

Currently, many entities including private players have signed up to be integrated into UHI. It comprises of like Apollo Hospitals and Fortis group’s SRL Labs, and health startups. Fintechs like Paytm, Financial Services Company Bajaj Finserv and insurtech company PolicyBazaar, Doctors' online booking platform Practo, all of which have a health vertical have also come on board.

Apart from the numerous advantages UHI need to overcome certain challenges. Start from integration of third parties API’s to UHI to assigning a health ID to a user requires their explicit consent. However, it seems that NHA has overlooked this requirement in an attempt to shore up numbers. This is a serious issue considering the new Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022 enactment is in process. Under new DPDP bill it has been proposed that processing of digital personal data will need the permission of individuals to protect their personal data. Secondly, NHA announced that they want to be for UHI what National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is to Unified Payment Interface (UPI , a layer of regulatory oversight. Multiple healthcare players in the industry have officially written to NHA stating that the Over-The-Air (OTA) transactions business model primarily used in UPI?is counterproductive to healthcare. Undertaking health transactions is not the same as going up to a vegetable vendor and using UPI to buy groceries. However, the NHA feels that having this level of regulatory oversight will help ensure that UHI is successful in achieving its goals. As of now, UHI proposes a single platform for discovering doctors, with the role of the companies offering tele health services reduced to a mere channel, charging a token convenience fee to connect patients with doctors. ?Industry players are concerned with commodity-based transaction model in healthcare. This would mean that instead of paying for services or solutions, we would simply pay for the commodities used in those services or solutions. While this model may work well for transactions involving commodities, it is highly concerning in a services/solutions space like healthcare. This is because it does not take into account the value of the service or solution itself, only the value of the commodities used. Healthcare is an incredibly complex and nuanced industry, and that this proposed transaction model does not do it justice. It would be detrimental to both patients and providers alike if this model were to be implemented. In addition to that, healthcare partners are also demanding that the ABDM clarify guidelines on how patient records, reports, documents, images and diagnostics related data that is uploaded onto health lockers of private companies will be anonymised. Because it’s not just a handful of banks, as was the case with UPI. Even if all this works out, there’s still the matter of over 400 million Indians who have no access to a smartphone. There must be some alternative technology solution for CDMA users and the region with no accessibility beyond 3G connectivity.

NHA is constantly working to address the existing challenges. We all know, the healthcare and FinTech industries are booming right now. In the next few years, we expect an even larger number of startups and unicorns to enter these markets. And as these companies grow, they will bring quality web application developers to help build UHI a better product. That's where UHI comes in.

NHA believe that UHI has the potential to become much more popular than it is today. India has the skills and experience necessary to provide quality digital health services to the last mile.