Artificial Intelligence Healthcare is one of the most important sectors for any country. The sector is witnessing robust growth led by the investments made by the government and corporate. There is improvement both in terms of coverage and quality. Notwithstanding the investments by the public and the private players to improve the coverage of medical products and services, the sector continues to languish with India still ranking low on the Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) index. There are many challenged before the sector made worse by the coming of COVID-19. No losing sight of the challenges, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with healthcare for enabling universal access to healthcare anytime and anywhere.
How India Fares In Providing Healthcare Services
As stated above, it is one of the largest sectors in revenue generation as well as providing employment. India’s healthcare industry is projected to reach market value of USD 372 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of over 16%. The government plants to increase the spending on the sector to 3% of country’s GDP by 2022. There has been 137 percent increase in the allocation of the funds by the government for healthcare in Budget 21-22.
Transforming Healthcare with AI
It is projected by the experts that use of AI in healthcare can add USD 25-30 billion to India’s GDP by 2025. There is no denying the transformational power of AI will play a pivotal role increasing the access to excellent healthcare services.
The problem of delivering quality medical care will be given a boost with the integration of AI in the healthcare sector. Public will be able to receive high quality care which will be accessible to the large part of the population.
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Automation and use of AI will also help to reduce costs considerably so automatically increasing accessibility of medical outreach in the country. AI implementation will be a top priority in patient care and improving their experience by improving delivery of service.
A great deal emphasis must be given to value creation and upgrading of implementation capabilities of the sector. It is expected that introduction of AI in medical care in India will be critical in changing the paradigm.
What are the Challenges Before Healthcare Sector Amidst The Global Pandemic?
Notwithstanding the gigantic scale and impressive growth in India’s healthcare sector there are many challenges before the sector which require calibrated approach to ensure universal access to quality healthcare services.
A lot of prioritization and focused effort is needed to bring about solid improvements across value chain segments. There is no denying the fact that the sector is facing challenges of cost, quality and accessibility which might be resolved with the integration of AI technologies.
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Already healthcare in India is burdened with huge population pressure which was further impacted by the advent of the global pandemic. Obviously, India’s healthcare infrastructure collapsed with overwhelming case-load of COVID-19 cases.
Introduction of virtual services is step in the right direction as it will exponentially improve the access to quality health care for a large percentage of the population which is otherwise very daunting. In consolidating and increasing the reach would need extensive and innovative use of AI in India.
Application of Artificial Intelligence in remote diagnostics and monitoring is critically important as it will provide mass access to diagnostic and monitoring tools besides being immensely instrumental in pacing up drug research.
Need to Build AI Ecosystem in Healthcare
Hospitals and healthcare organisation need emergence of innovative AI solutions providers for deployment of the AI tech. It is imperative that healthcare organisations are able to find partnerships with AI solutions providers for superior implementation and performance.
In the Indian context, it is need of the hour that we develop reputed technology product and service companies for unlocking the full potential of AI technology. Consequently, numerous healthcare AI start-ups will emerge providing much needed technological push-ups.
Last but not the least, creation of AI ecosystem must involve academic institutions which are essential for carrying out cutting-edge research in AI.
