• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Dr Sumanth C. Raman

Technology can make a big difference to the Government's healthcare services. It can tackle the hurdle in the way - lack of commitment.

PRIVATISATION of healthcare services is an issue that's being actively debated. The argument is that a financially-hamstrung Central government, and State governments that have to borrow even to pay their employees are hardly in a position to improve the healthcare infrastructure or the quality of care they provide. Hence, the argument goes, the Government must progressively involve the private sector in healthcare services, and also hand over a part of its infrastructure and facilities to the private sector.What does this argument have to do with Technology? Plenty, because the simple fact of the matter is that the Government can make the greatest impact in improving healthcare services in India — not by abdicating one of its primary responsibilities but by merely ensuring that the healthcare delivery system on which it spends thousands of crores annually actually does the job it is intended to do.

Introducing accountability, ensuring that doctors actually spend the hours in the Government Hospitals that they are paid for, streamlining accounting procedures and taking advantage of innovative technologies such as telemedicine can dramatically make a difference. To make every one of these happen, technology is required or is a useful adjunct to make the process better.

A great deal can be accomplished at an almost negligible cost and the quality of healthcare that can be given to the poor villager or indeed the urbanite can be greatly improved. The technologies to provide quality healthcare are at least a decade old, if not more. Yet the Government has done little to use the benefits of these technologies to further its own stated objective of moving towards `Health for All.'

Let us now look at the manner in which the Government can use technology in the healthcare space. Telemedicine is the obvious starting point. As large numbers of specialists reside in the metros and there is a great scarcity of such specialists in the smaller towns and villages, it is logical to use the experts in the towns to offer their services to the public in the villages. The cost of a basic telemedicine system is less than Rs 50,000 per centre but Governments are not even willing to look at such systems. They want video-conferencing equipment, VSAT terminals or broadband connectivity, indeed any fancy gizmo that can push up the cost for obvious reasons.

A simple example can illustrate the benefits of what a Rs 50,000-system can achieve. A villager comes in with chest pain to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) or Taluk Hospital. His ECG is taken and scanned using an ordinary flat bed scanner (Rs 4,000) and sent by e-mail to the cardiologist in the District or State Headquarters Hospital. The diagnosis (whether the patient has had a heart attack or not) is made within three to five minutes and further treatment can be advised based on the clinical condition of the patient which can be relayed by the doctor at the peripheral end to his senior. This simple measure can save thousands of lives every year.

The problem is not with the Technology; the PC, modem, dial-up telephone line, scanner, Web camera, etc, can all be easily arranged at negligible cost. The real problem is with the doctors at either end — first the doctor in the PHC or Taluk Hospital should be present when the patient arrives while the specialist in the Headquarters Hospital should be willing to look on this remote consultation as part of his work and not as an additional burden. The ECG machine in the PHC should be in working condition, there should be power supply or a battery/UPS back-up facility, the telephone line must not be dead etc, etc, etc. So while technology has many of the answers to the problems, the more mundane administrative and infrastructure issues pose a real challenge.

Another area where technology can make an impact is in the maintenance of Electronic Medical Records. If done on a State-wide basis, this will ensure a dramatic enhancement in the quality of care provided as all previous records for an individual patient will be available for access.

Technology could also be used to assess the performance of the staff, whether doctors or nurses or other para medical staff are delivering the consistent results they are expected to.

The data stored in EMRs becomes valuable for research. Healthcare policy-makers can then make several crucial decisions based on scientifically-analysed data.

The list is endless as to what benefits technology can achieve for the common man in terms of better healthcare. The barrier is not money, not infrastructure, it is political will

The author is Advisor-Life Sciences & Health Care Practice, Tata Consultancy Services.

dr_sumanthraman@chennai.tcs.co.in

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Big guys do it better

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line