BANGALORE, INDIA: Information technology (IT) is one of the most dynamic and high-impact components of every industry, and healthcare is no exception. Now it is on the verge of revolutionizing healthcare industry in India. After decades of delay in adopting of the IT component, it is now on the threshold of transforming itself into an IT-driven entity.

Efficiency in the healthcare sector and the quality of treatment given to patients has improved by the usage of IT. The Internet has made healthcare more accessible, interactive, and highly useful. Telemedicine, picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), and healthcare information systems (HIS) are a few of the many IT applications in healthcare.

IT has come a long way in making hospitals paperless and filmless entities. It has provided enormous benefits such as faster patient throughput, faster diagnosis, reduced manpower requirement, capturing patient history at one place, and cases being referred overseas. For health insurance companies, benefits could be in the form of knowing disease trends, treatment paths, and patient history. Every participant in healthcare has benefited by IT applications in terms of efficiency and quality.

The Indian Perspective
The Indian healthcare sector is today lagging behind in IT adoption. Reports indicate that the usage of IT in the Indian healthcare had not taken off despite a strong healthcare market over the decades especially in the small hospitals and across rural India. Lack of regulations and standardization and the lack of professionalism in this sector have been the major hurdles in the path of IT adoption. The fragmented nature of the Indian healthcare delivery system, characterized by small nursing homes and general practitioners, has also slowed down this process.

Today, however, the Indian healthcare landscape is changing in the urban cities and IT is poised to revolutionize healthcare in India. Competition has also forced hospitals to adopt technology, and private sector hospitals are taking the lead. There is a change in the mindset among the big Indian hospitals like Apollo, Fortis, Wockhardt, Manipal, which, earlier, were of the perception that IT only automates the medical process and does not lead to either cost reductions or increase the return on investments (ROI). With the onset of health insurance in the country and the changing regulatory framework, healthcare providers today truly see value in the adoption of IT.

Vadeesh Budramane, MD FCG Software Services Pvt Ltd, a leading software services and healthcare IT leader, and subsidiary of First Consulting Group, USA, says: "Healthcare costs are growing worldwide and it is estimated that healthcare costs will go up by 30 percent in the next five years. Healthcare organizations are looking at ways and means of reducing the costs. So India is very important strategically."

Reports indicate that the healthcare spending in India itself is about $30-billion and it is expected to go up to $80-billion in the next 10 years. "IT trends in India is picking up and it is estimated that $300-million will be spent in the next 3-4 years in India in Healthcare IT, but still the overall penetration is still low,'' says Budramane.