Now into its 11th year, the Bangalore-based software engineering and business solutions firm spreading its wings globally.

Ajay Shankar Sharma, co-founder and chief executive officer of Srishti Software and member of NASSCOM regional executive council, talks to Sudhakaran of CyberMedia News about the potentials of healthcare IT in the global market.

He believes the economic slowdown will no way affect the potential of healthcare IT industry and says Srishti is all set to make hay with its software innovations for future. 

Healthcare is one of the main focus areas of Srishti. Could give a brief idea about the function of PARAS, the Hospital Management Information Systems?

Srishti's range of HMIS products offer a robust centralized, well-integrated, real-time solution that plays a key role in the everyday workings of hospitals and plays a key role in clinical integration and decision-making.

The administration and logistic part apart, what are the other healthcare specific products that Srishti offers the healthcare segment?

Srishti's other products are RIS/PACS, LIS, eMAR Management, Blood Bank Management System, Eye Bank Management System, Cord Blood Bank and Isabel CDSS.

How do the Srishti products help improve the healthcare system in India?

As you know, Srishti's products not only automate the day-to-day admin and logistical processes but also bring to the table high-end clinical integration and analysis.

Srishti's solutions deliver innovative approach towards patient care. Starting from complete view of patient data to clinical decision support system, our target is to enable healthcare providers to deliver quality care at reduced cost.

This will allow economically weaker sections to avail quality care at lower prices, which is the need for the healthcare system in the country. For example, PARAS EMR (Electronic Medical Record) facilitates the capture of patient details right from patient registration to the final stage of discharge.

In PARAS, the patient's EMR can be created, retrieved, and updated online by any authorized hospital personnel, thus providing consistent patient data.

While talking about patient care, it is a fact that Indian medical/healthcare segment is yet to give due attention to the problems of the rural sector. Do you have any product line that would help boost the rural healthcare and small healthcare institutions?

Sure, Srishti has specific strategic plans for these. Our lighter products like PARAS Lite and Tele Medicare are specifically targeted at these segments. Additionally we have also reached places like Imphal (Shija Hospital), Muzaffarpur (Prashant Hospital) to name a few.

Could you please give a brief picture of the healthcare IT in India?

Healthcare in India is set to expand for another 10-12 years. Various State Governments are seriously looking at integrating the healthcare system by computerizing various levels of healthcare starting from district hospitals to PHCs. Many Governments have attempted but have not succeeded completely because of the sheer size.

The good news is that the State governments are looking at moving ahead and start the initiative. They have realized that an efficient healthcare program cannot be administered and monitored without an integrated IT platform.

Looking at the private healthcare IT spending, there are many institutions which went in for first round of computerization. These solutions had limited functionality and are outdated. There is a big replacement market.

There is a huge shortage of bed capacity in India, which will translate into many new hospitals coming up in the country. The trend with the new hospitals coming up in India is that they consider computerization of the hospital as part of the essential infrastructure. This means more IT spending from the private healthcare segment.

Another emerging segment is the healthcare tourism. From current revenues of around US$ 300 million, it is estimated to grow to US$ 2.2 billion in 2012. This means that, by 2012, India will be catering to around 750,000 foreign patients a year. This calls for higher bed capacity, ultra-modern care centers and availability of patient data remotely.

All of them call for higher IT spend. While the entire eco-system is getting digitally enabled, there will be tremendous pressure on the SME sector, which is very huge. Most of these healthcare providers are running PAS and would be forced to computerize enterprise-wide. This will throw open a new market segment for SMEs.

It is said that health is the business of the 21st century. On the other hand IT market is seriously affected by the global economic slowdown. In this scenario, how do you see the future of healthcare IT?

The future of healthcare IT market is very bright. It will not be affected by global economic slowdown. Solution vendors like Srishti who are focusing on optimization of costs and delivery of innovative functionalities will have far brighter future growth.

Apart from India, which are the other countries that Srishti sees as a potential market for the healthcare IT products?

We are focusing on India, ASEAN, Middle East and Africa this year.

And what are the new innovative products that Srishti is planning for the near future?

Healthcare is moving towards becoming personalized. To achieve this we have to manage in addition to EMR/EPR data, genomic, genealogical and herd data. Srishti's PARAS now incorporates genealogical and genomic profile. We aim to move towards a system, which can deliver personalized healthcare.