The term preventive healthcare
remains self-explanatory as it pertains to a form of medical care involving
measures undertaken to prevent occurrence of diseases rather than treating
them. This includes advise on routine check-up for an individual even if he or
she is rather healthy considering that lifestyle diseases are asymptomatic in
nature. It remains an important determinant of a healthy life.
The healthcare industry has put the
spotlight on the importance of preventive care for quite a while now. It may be
noted that it’s far easier and certainly less burden in terms of cost to
provide patients with the care they need on a routine basis to maintain good
health and to prevent illnesses, injuries and diseases from occurring in the
future.
In the Indian context, the government
has undertaken numerous initiatives over the years such as Health for All and
The National Health Assurance Mission to ease the burden of chronic diseases.
Through these numerous initiatives the healthcare modalities being implemented
are pivoted towards the prevention, screening, early intervention and new
treatment platforms for patients, thus resulting in facilitation of better
patient outcomes.
Preventive healthcare is known to
have several benefits, including reduced spending for payers, besides increased
lifespan as it allows to catch things early and treat them much easier. In
addition, productivity and efficiency at work can be maintained.
Further, preventive healthcare leads
to better chronic disease management and reduces mortality. The World Health
Organisation (WHO) estimates that 50% of the global burden of disease is
chronic illness. Considering that chronic diseases are long-lasting illnesses,
which can have a compounding and sustained effect on the social, physical, psychological
and economic levels of the individual and society at large. Stopping the onset
of illness remains crucial for healthcare transformation and
sustainability.
In a country like India, there remain
a few challenges, though. Primarily being the tremendous growth in population,
which burdens the overall healthcare system and this includes preventive care
as well. The doctor-to-patient ratio remains abysmally low, which is merely 0.7
doctors per 1,000 people. This compared to the WHO average of 2.5 doctors per
1,000 people. Improving this situation continues to remain a long-term
process.
At the onset, to achieve preventive
healthcare, there is a need to start from the core idea: prevention is better
than cure. Ideally, preventive healthcare starts with change in the way we
approach our health and our healthcare ecosystem. The preventive healthcare can
be achieved by using data-driven informed decisions. In this regard,
longitudinal clinical data for patients is critical for preventive healthcare ecosystem.
There is also need to promote better educational and awareness initiatives to
ensure building a robust preventive healthcare system.
The healthcare ecosystem in India
also needs to be enabled with a framework of preventive caregiving using clinical
knowledge, access to clinical data and usage of new-age clinical tools to
enable predictability using artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML)
and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to alert the patient care giver and the
entire health ecosystem about the probable adverse event. At the same time,
using digital healthcare solutions and connecting them for larger population
and building population heath can prove to be a game changer for this cause.
There is a need to promote collaboration and research initiatives for
preventive healthcare system to flourish in an organic manner. The use of
healthtech devices and connecting data from these smart devices to the
mainstream ecosystem will subsequently help to increase focus on
patient-centric healthcare delivery. For a country like India, healthcare
industry is at a crossroads and there remains considerable scope for
improvement and growth. In the end, it all boils down to the idea and will to
use digital healthcare technology, which can also propel preventive healthcare
frameworks.
(The author of this article, Ms
Ashvini Danigond is Executive Director & CEO, Manorama Infosolutions Pvt
Ltd (MIPL))
Link: https://
No comments:
Post a Comment