Health-ITOpinion

mHealth expected to be crucial in making healthcare accessible in India: PwC-CII Paper

In India, there is considerable potential to leverage mHealth (mobile health) as an alternative healthcare delivery channel. According to the knowledge paper titled “How mHealth can revolutionise the Indian healthcare industry,” jointly launched by PwC and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) at the 14th India Health Summit, access to even basic healthcare is a challenge because the supporting infrastructure and resources are inadequate.

India has only 0.7 Doctors, 1.3 Nurses and 1.1. Hospital beds per 1000 population thus creating a need for alternative channel like mHealth for delivery of healthcare. Additionally, there are some worrying statistics on the Indian healthcare ecosystem. In fact, a large segment of the population is deprived of even primary healthcare facilities. It is imperative to leverage newer ways to make quality and affordable healthcare accessible to everyone.

 

mHealthThe knowledge paper focuses on the factors driving healthcare providers and and patients to adopt mHealth. Financial constraints like rising healthcare costs and limited budget allocation for healthcare by the government further constrain the healthcare ecosystem in India. Behavioural factors such as change in lifestyle have resulted in newer types of diseases which require access to specialists who are few in number and cannot be reached through traditional means of healthcare delivery.

Commenting on this trend, Dr. Rana Mehta, Partner & Leader – Healthcare, PwC India said, “If mHealth is adopted completely in India, it has the potential to play a critical role in improving the healthcare outcome for the country. We can expect that through mHealth, an additional 12-14% of the population will gain access to healthcare. India’s population is around 1.3 billion and if we take a conservative estimate of 6-8%, we can expect to provide access to healthcare to an additional 79 to 105 million people.”

Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman, CII Healthcare Council said, “India needs newer and innovative ways to provide care and compensate for the shortage of healthcare workforce and infrastructure. A reduction of 15-20% in patient’s healthcare cost is possible through mHealth enabled treatment and remote monitoring thus resulting in savings of $ 0.8 to 1 billion.”

The knowledge paper highlights that there are a number of features in mobile that can be leveraged to capture and transfer data.

The evolution of mobile technology has opened newer and better ways to provide care. In India, there has successful implementations of Text/SMS, Tele and Video consultations. Slowly and steadily, Indian healthcare community has also been leveraging mobile technology for data capture and data sharing. It is time for the healthcare ecosystem to explore various mHealth apps, device integration and sensor technology seriously and start benefitting from it. There is huge untapped potential of mHealth through these technologies that Indian healthcare can benefit from. The future advancements will surely enable further ways of providing care by leveraging mHealth.

 

About PwC

At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We’re a network of firms in 158 countries with more than 236,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com

In India, PwC has offices in these cities: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. For more information about PwC India’s service offerings, visit www.pwc.com/in

PwC refers to the PwC International network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate, independent and distinct legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

About CII

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the development of India, partnering industry, Government, and civil society, through advisory and consultative processes.

CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization, playing a proactive role in India’s development process. Founded in 1895, India’s premier business association has over 8,300 members, from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 200,000 enterprises from around 250 national and regional sectoral industry bodies.

CII charts change by working closely with Government on policy issues, interfacing with thought leaders, and enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and business opportunities for industry through a range of specialized services and strategic global linkages. It also provides a platform for consensus-building and networking on key issues.

Extending its agenda beyond business, CII assists industry to identify and execute corporate citizenship programmes. Partnerships with civil society organizations carry forward corporate initiatives for integrated and inclusive development across diverse domains including affirmative action, healthcare, education, livelihood, diversity management, skill development, empowerment of women, and water, to name a few.

The CII theme for 2017-18, India Together: Inclusive. Ahead. Responsible emphasizes Industry’s role in partnering Government to accelerate India’s growth and development. The focus will be on key enablers such as job creation; skill development and training; affirmative action; women parity; new models of development; sustainability; corporate social responsibility, governance and transparency.

With 66 offices, including 9 Centres of Excellence, in India, and 10 overseas offices in Australia, Bahrain, China,

Egypt, France, Germany, Singapore, South Africa, UK, and USA, as well as institutional partnerships with 344 counterpart organizations in 129 countries, CII serves as a reference point for Indian industry and the international business community.

Confederation of Indian Industry, The Mantosh Sondhi Centre, 23, Institutional Area, Lodi Road, New Delhi – 110 003 (India)

T: 91 11 45771000 / 24629994-7 | F: 91 11 24626149

E: info@cii.in | W: www.cii.in

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