Relevance: Mains: G.S paper II: Governance: health
Introduction:
- Digital technologies are playing a pervasive role in transforming the healthcare sector in India. From booking doctor’s appointments to accessing medical reports and even getting consultation, everything is possible at the click of a button.
Need For Moving From Physical to Digital:
- While the efforts of deploying technology for rural healthcare have been consistent and widespread, the benefits to the rural masses are concentrated only in small pockets of the country.
• In the absence of any centralized system, the service providers have undertaken fresh diagnostic tests that again create isolated medical records which increase the burden on citizen significantly.
• India has just around one doctor for 11,000 people – a ratio far below from WHO’s standard which recommends one doctor per 1000 patients. Most of the rural Indians lack access to basic health care facilities.
• Lack of infrastructure makes it extremely difficult to retain doctors in villages, as they fear becoming professionally isolated and outdated.
• Poor villagers in order to get treatment have to travel to specialty hospitals in the city. With govt. hospitals already flooded with local patients, these villagers have to wait for their turn which ultimately inflates their overall expanses.
• Cost of setting and maintaining health care infrastructure is quite huge in rural setting. In such a situation, introducing “Digital” instead of “Physical” Health Centres could pave the way for quality healthcare at a lower cost.
• The report of Mckinsey Global Institute has estimated that the implementation of telemedicine technology could save $ 4-5 billion every year and replace half of in-person outpatient consultations in India.
CSCs Enabling Digital Healthcare:
- Telemedicine is the form of primary care, where the patient walking in at a Common Service Centre (CSC) seeks the doctor’s advice about non-emergency medical problems which do not require immediate doctor’s location visit.
• Villages in less developed states are using telemedicine to get medical consultation from the doctors of big cities through video conferencing.
• With the mandate of the Ministry of Electronics and IT, CSC-SPV is also implementing the Digi Gaon initiative in rural and remote villages the country, where citizens can avail various online services such as tele-education, telemedicine, financial services, internet connectivity and others.
Central and State Level Digital Projects:
- A few of the ongoing initiatives in digital health being implemented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) include the following programmes – Reproductive Child Health Crae (RCH), Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, e-Hospital, e-Shusrut, Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN), National Health Portal, National Identification Number (NIN), Online Registration System, Mera Aspatal (Patient Feedback System) and National Medical College Network.
• Since health is a state subject, states are supported under National Health Mission for services like telemedicine, teleradiology, teleoncology, teleophthalmology and Hospital Information System.
• The state of Gujarat has implemented e-Aushidhi project which is primarily a supply chain management application. The main objective is to ascertain the needs of various district warehouses in such a way that all the required materials/drugs are constantly available.
• Rajasthan has initiated Pregnancy, Child Tracking & Health Services Management System which is an online software used as an effective planning and management tool.
• Andhra Pradesh initiated Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) which was aimed at screening over 27 crore children from 0 to 18 years for the 4Ds – Defects at Birth, Diseases, Deficiencies, and Development Delays including Disabilities.
• Chhattisgarh Govt. launched Chirayu Programme. Its aim is to screen children for birth defects and various types of nutritional deficiencies, so that any permanent disability can be cured at an early stage.
Transforming Rural Healthcare through ASHA:
- It is believed that the biggest transformation in the rural healthcare sector of India triggered with the inclusion of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs).
• Apart from the govt., many private institutions are supporting initiatives like ASHA. Founded in 2012 with generous support from TATA Trusts, the TATA Center has initiated a project that focuses on NCH (Neonatal and Child Health), which is a core function of the ASHA workers.
• The center is developing a series of smartphone-enabled apps to empower ASHAs to screen children and infants for multiple conditions, and to collect basic epidemiological health data, such as baby’s height and weight.
• Technology has changed the way these ASHA workers perform their duties. They can now digitally track pregnant women and infants’ health and schedule home visits. They are given a digital checklist which enables them to analyse health issues.
• However, real transformation would come when these ASHA workers are empowered with better skill sets to handle even complex cases and perform tasks during unavailability of doctors.
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