The wellness double helix

While healthtech provides the digital infra to widen reach, the true potential of healthcare and its quality can only be actualised concurrently with a robust biotech ecosystem

- Anil Nair Founder, ThinkStreet

INDIA'S HEALTHCARE ROAD map faces formidable hurdles—the largest population on earth, vast and diverse in its spread, and systemic challenges in providing basic healthcare. As opposed to a growing concentration of well-funded urban private hospitals, we have under-resourced public health facilities catering to 65% of the population in "rurban" areas. It's obvious that democratising healthcare in India needs a biotech surge as much as a health-tech boom.

Government healthtech initiatives like eSanjeevani, which has supported 12 crore tele-consultations, and private telemedicine platforms are serving as a digital bridge so that patients don't have to travel several kilometres. It also addresses the shortage of doctors in rural areas.

Considering the expenses that the population still has to bear directly, other government-led initiatives like electronic health records under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission and Centres of Excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) to promote AI-powered diagnostics and solutions reveal a forward-thinking mindset. Other digitisation initiatives like vaccination records and services under the U-Win portal, e-Hospital to connect patients with hospitals and doctors on one platform, and e-Bloodbank are maturing fast.