Table of Contents
01    Mantra Podcast – Ep 3: Patient Empowered Care
02   The HealthTech Monthly Roundup
03   Building Blocks for India’s Healthcare Ecosystem
04   Digital Transformation Trends in Healthcare for 2022
05   Taking Digital Healthcare to Rural India

Mantra Podcast – Episode 3: Patient Empowered Care

The unprecedented nature of the pandemic pushed healthcare from a traditional in-person model to the digital realm almost instantly. Connected health swooped in to define the patient experience during the pandemic, but as healthcare moves forward — how will digital define the experience transformation needed in India’s healthcare delivery.

Mantra Labs CEO, Parag Sharma has an in-depth conversation with Dr. Shanila Laiju, CEO Medcare Hospitals to discuss how providers can transform the doctor-patient relationship from being visit-centric to home-based. 

Mantra brings you a new panel of experts each week who share their insights on How Digital is Transforming The Future Of Doctor-Patient Experiences. 

The Panel Discussion covers:

1. How healthcare enterprises use digital health tools to make patients feel more engaged in and motivated for their treatment, leading to better retention; and capturing their opinions/feedback that in turn informs decision-making?
2. How can providers transform the doctor-patient relationship from being visit-centric to home-based?
3. What are the keys to a successful ‘on-demand healthcare’ application of tomorrow?
4. How can the healthcare experience become more immersive – for patients, doctors?

Watch the full episode.

The HealthTech Monthly Roundup

A quick roundup of the month’s latest healthtech activity, both in India and globally.

1. India will need to raise public health spending to 2.5-3.5% of GDP from its current level of 1.2% to support the infrastructure needs of NDHM, according to a FICCI-KPMG report.
2. The online doctor consultation market in India is expected to reach $836 million by FY24, growing at 72% CAGR.
3. Eka Care has become the first private healthcare platform to facilitate the creation of Health ID under NDHM. The Eka Care app is available in 12 different languages and is being used by more than 1.5 million consumers across 1500 districts in India.
4. PharmEasy files for ₹ 6,250 Crore IPO – following a bid to diversify its operations, the firm had acquired Thyrocare Technologies, India’s largest diagnostic test provider by volumes.
5. Vodafone & Ericsson partner to showcase the potential of 5G in transforming healthcare in India. Ericsson’s 5G Business Compass report estimates that the total-enabled 5G-enabled B2B opportunity for Indian operators, across 10 industries, would be $17 billion by 2030 — with use cases in Remote video monitoring, Telemedicine, Digital Twin, AR/VR, etc. 
6. Health and wellness startup Mosaic Wellness, that runs digital health clinic platforms Manmatters and Bodywise, has raised $24 million in a Series A funding round, led by Sequoia Capital India. 
7. Mindtree has built a digital health passport for travel on hyperledger fabric blockchain, a solution that offers travellers an easy, quick and secure way to locate COVID-19 testing providers, schedule tests, manage vaccine certificates, travel authorisation forms, share results, etc.

Opportunity Matrix & High-Value Use Cases for Healthcare Providers

Read now.

Building Blocks for India’s Healthcare Ecosystem

The NDHM Blueprint underlines key principles which include the domain perspective — Universal Health Coverage, Security & Privacy by Design, Education & Empowerment, and Inclusiveness of citizens; and the technology perspective — Building Blocks, Interoperability, a set of Registries as single sources of truth, Open Standards and Open APIs. 

In order for the digital health ecosystem to evolve, a minimum viable set of building blocks is being created. While the Blueprint identifies 23 such blocks, for the purposes of this white paper, we will explore the six most relevant to healthcare providers.

The healthcare ecosystem allows for registered participating entities to integrate with these building blocks. An entity is a type of software service provider that facilitates integration for healthcare providers. 

Source: Mantra Labs Whitepaper

While India meets the global average in number of physicians, nearly 75% of dispensaries, 60% of hospitals and 80% of doctors are located in urban areas. Doctors cater to a third of the urban population, or no more than 442 million people.

One the other hand, only 3% of specialist physicians cater to rural demand – which points to the glaring dearth in both quantity and quality of healthcare services available for rural areas. India has a lower than average doctor to patient ratio, which is further skewed by concentration of medical facilities in the urban centers. 

The journey towards an Open Health Ecosystem is still nascent in its development, and its transformative impact can only be realised through the participation, collaboration and approaches of all health ecosystem players. The effective rollout of the project will be carried out over several waves. 

Read the full whitepaper, here.

Digital Transformation Trends In Healthcare for 2022

The Pandemic has taught most healthcare organizations to do more with less while planning for an unforeseeable future. With a Second & Third Wave of the Pandemic affecting the global economy, the role of technology has accelerated especially for the healthcare industry. For health leaders preparing to make significant digital transformation decisions, here’s a look at the trends that will matter for the next 12 months. 

According to a recent KPMG study — 80% of CEOs believe that healthcare needs disruption and change, with 79% expect that all aspects of care delivery models will be transformed within the next 3 years — which is a high ambition on a short runway for any sector.

Healthcare organizations should anticipate ‘black swan’ events that can drastically disrupt their operations. COVID-19 and its mutations can be an expected norm going forward that needs to be included and anticipated in organizational and system-wide strategies. The COVID-19 crisis is exemplary of the stress healthcare systems will be under in the coming years, necessitating fundamental transformation in how care is delivered, and evolving their workforces to support this.

Healthcare executives (62%) said their organizations were actively pursuing a transformation agenda prior to COVID-19, while nearly all (97%) agree that the pandemic “significantly accelerated” their transformation efforts. A majority of executives (80%) believe the healthcare industry “needs disruption and change,” and any accelerating factor, even COVID-19, should be seen as an opportunity to recognize vulnerabilities and embed resilience. Moving forward, healthcare organizations and the ecosystems that surround them should ensure change scenarios are built into plans.

The Top Trends in Healthcare for 2022:
(voted by Healthcare CEOs from eight countries)

Source: KPMG Healthcare CEO Future Pulse

Digital Health: Building Blocks For A Covid World

Read the full report.

Taking Digital Healthcare to Rural India

Only 3% of specialist physicians cater to rural demand – which points to the glaring dearth in both quantity and quality of healthcare services available for rural areas. India has a lower than average doctor to patient ratio, which is further skewed by concentration of medical facilities in the urban centers. 

While India meets the global average in number of physicians, nearly 75% of dispensaries, 60% of hospitals and 80% of doctors are located in urban areas. Doctors cater to a third of the urban population, or no more than 442 million people.

To close the last mile gap, rural India needs

1. Capacity-building operational models
2. Innovations like remote diagnostics and remote consultations
3. Accountable health financing
4. Digital recording of patient health profiles and prescriptions
5. Linking of rural outlets with main community health centres
6. Equipping rural care centres with diagnostic tools for coordinated patient management
7. Training doctors and nurses to use digital platforms as part of their core care services.

Taking Digital Healthcare to rural India requires the creation of a single patient identity and integration with the NDHE (National Digital Health Ecosystem) which will allow providers to get exposed to new demand pools. This will help offset fixed costs and change pricing for the treatment funnel, which was previously price-indexed for a localised populace only. 

The NDHE will allow providers to gain better reach to new demand pools in OPD & IPD care. India’s OPD rates are currently only at 4 per day per 1000 population. 

Source: Mantra Labs Whitepaper

Integrating With a Nationalised Health Ecosystem

Read the Whitepaper here.