Technology Beyond 'Code Blue'

Technology for preventive healthcare. Don't come to us - says this healthcare major. Possible? How does that work?

- Pratima H

The name needs no introduction. Especially when we think of a pioneer in affordable and democratic healthcare and the complex area of heart surgeries. With the same poised hand on the scalpel, this healthcare disruptor is now moving towards new organs like insurance, AI and robotics. We get a quick chat with Dr. Ashish Bajaj, Chief Marketing Officer, Narayana Health where he shares a prognosis of what's about to come. And whether technology can actually become the pulse of alwayson, extreme and proactive healthcare.

You call your HIS your organization's 'Atma'. Fascinating. Can you spell that out a bit?

It is a home-grown system and is, literally, the soul of what we do. All data goes into it - from oncology to radiology to payments and processes. It is has been shaped to work as a single cohort to deliver to our customers. What's CRM for other companies is PRM (Patient Relationship Management) for us - with the same opportunities and implications. It took us a lot of time to bind all touchpoints together. But now our contact centers have been strengthened. The average handling time has come down from 300 seconds to 200 seconds. There is more information in less time due to a single interface.

What has been the latest or the most novel or most exciting shift in terms of technology use at the organization?

The implementation of Salesforce has been quite exciting. Since I have a metier in many major technology companies, implementation was a crucial area that took my interest. Right from understanding the flow to data storage, and archival to compliance to retrieval to who has access and to how external tools can talk to our home-grown HIS-everything has been smooth.