HEALTHCARE 2020

Developments in Preventive Healthcare with the advent of

Digitization
Group 3:
Members: Aditya Vats, Akash Anand, Ananyaa Raje Ahluwalia, Manali Rai,
Nishant Mehta, Shashi Lavanya Appavuraj, Sriram T V

Introduction:
With a market size of 100 billion US dollars, Healthcare industry has emerged as one
the largest sector in India. This sector can be broadly subcategorized into hospitals,
medical device, laboratories, medical tourism and health insurance. With a CAGR of
22.9 % this sector is expected to grow to 280 US billion dollars by 2020 making it
one of the most lucrative and futuristic sectors. Also, on a global scale this industry
is undergoing tremendous turbulence. It is grappling with problems like
unsustainable cost trajectory and a substantial increase in demand from the
expanding customer base. The global health-care costs stand at a figure of
approximately 7 trillion dollars which is expected to go to 12 trillion dollars in the
next five years. Such staggering expenses can only be controlled with the help of
incorporation of newer technologies rather than building upon the conventional
models of healthcare system. Innovations in this sector with a blend of digitization
will go a long way in shaping up this sector by the year 2020. Introduction of
digitization has seen a lot of competitors enter into this market. These competitors
are out of the traditional healthcare industry with most of them coming in from the
technology sector aiming at capturing a portion of healthcare revenues. Inclusion of
such players has picked up pace in the past few years and is something here to
stay.
A study by Russel Reynolds Associates, a consulting firm, has indicated that two
defining strategies to survive as well as thrive in this industry are: Innovation;
Integration of medicine and healthcare. Innovations such as digestible chips to
monitor the vital signs of the patients body will not only help in improving the
quality of healthcare but will also reduce the costs by keeping the patients out of
the hospitals. The focus of innovation will shift from the product arena to the ways
healthcare is delivered. Also, the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare providers
have till date concentrated on manufacturing drugs and providing patient care,

respectively working in their own silos. Coming years will see these two entities
working in sync with each other providing better solutions to the prevailing
problems faced by the customers/patients.
As it is aptly said that prevention is better than cure, with consumers getting more
health conscious, this field of healthcare provides excellent opportunities to explore.
As per the data provided by various internet search
engines, almost 80 % of the users look for healthcare
information both to look out for a cure of a prevailing
disease as well as ways to avoid to common lifestyle
diseases currently haunting the masses. Hence, the
need of preventive healthcare is at its peak.
Future of Preventive Healthcare:
With websites such as www.athenahealth.com, doctors
can manage their appointments, patient information
and visit records, notifications about appointments and
analytics regarding how many people visited them. By
2020, all of the patients information will be on the
cloud. This not only includes basics such as age, weight, allergies but also recent
visits and the corresponding reports. It will also include family history of diseases.
Based on all of these factors, both patient and physicians will be able to access the
information. With the help of analytics, digital technology will be able to identify
which factors of your health have been changing over time and find trends. Based
on the findings, it will alert both physicians and patients of any potential health
pitfalls the user may face in the future.
With an ever-increasing digital presence, doctors will rely mostly on consulting
patients online via video calls. This will also allow either of the parties to be
anywhere in the world as long as they have an Internet connection. But how does
one check vitals from two different countries? Thats where wearable technology will
come in handy. Existing wearable such as the Apple watch track your heart rate,
your movement, distance, speed and the Cosinuss, tells your body temperature. But
by 2020, this will all be combined in one device that can be connected to your
phone, tablet, and laptop and can be shared with emergency contacts as well as
physicians with just one click. The in-built sensors will be able to keep track
parameters such as:

Air conditions: To avoid asthma and other lung infections

Amount of time spent in the sun: To avoid deficiency of Vitamin D
Water intake: To avoid dehydration
High/Low Sugar: To avoid fainting or diabetes
High Blood Pressure: To avoid hypertension or potential heart diseases
And many more

Therefore, even if the doctor is unavailable in person, he will be able to receive your
vital information in real-time. For example, if you have a fever and cough, by
checking on your vitals over a couple of hours or days, he/she will be able to
recommend whether you are on the road to recovery or if a further check- up needs
to take place. The doctor will be able to digitally prescribe medicines, which could
be ordered online via digital verification of the prescription. The constant feed of the
vitals would be constantly stored and analyzed to predict possible future problems a
patient may be exposed to because of the illness most recently caused. While there
are enough companies who have initiated or executed some of these technologies
already, five years from now we will be able to find them all in one place.
Consumers will have easy access to these wearables and will be able to purchase
them at an affordable price.
Preventive Healthcare could also be useful when it
comes to pregnancy. For example, BloomLife is a
company that uses a sensor attached to a pregnant
womans belly to track her contractions, the
frequency as well as duration. Soon they will be
launching diet tips, kicks, sleep patterns and stress
levels. By the year 2020, there will be sensors
tracking the pressure on a womans back and arms,
and she will be alarmed if she is picking up an
object too heavy to be lifted during pregnancy.
Furthermore, the sensor will be able to track the
babys movements and hence identify which
position the baby is in, as many complications during childbirth occur due to wrong
positioning. The sensor will connect to an app that will recommend home exercises
or healthcare professionals who could help in moving the baby in the right position
much before the mother goes into labor.
Self-diagnosis will be another result from this gain in technology. Just like we have
apps on our phone that allow us to scan documents, five years from now our phones
will be able to scan our body parts. Suppose you think you have a pink eye, with the
help of digitization you will be able to scan your eye using your phone camera and
with the help of an algorithm and past data, the app can diagnose what it is. Our
connectivity will reach such great heights that the app will be able to recommend
medicines certified by doctors to cure the pink eye and using your location; get it
delivered to your house from a nearby chemist. These apps can also help in
minimizing deficiency diseases by constantly monitoring body vitals thereby
suggesting what dietary and nutritional aspects we should incorporate in order to
live a healthy life.
Further, this will result in people avoiding the intake of food supplementary
capsules/tablets and consuming healthy natural food. Also, another major problem
with the current generation, apart from being engrossed most of the time in their

cell phones, is that some people do not have a control over their alcohol
consumption or their nicotine intake. This can cause severe liver damage and
damage to lungs. An app monitoring body levels that are adversely affected by such
habits can give warning messages that can trigger people to mend their ways. By
the year 2020, such alert apps can definitely make a mark on peoples lives.
The elderly succumb to many illnesses with age and could certainly use preventive
healthcare to improve their life. Loss of balance, sight, and hearing, among others,
are common problems faced by the elderly. By 2020, they will have shoes that will
warn them of an object that is about to come in their way. With the help of foot and
back sensors, they will be able to fix their posture when they walk, sit and lie down.
By sending vibrations to areas of improvement, people could self-correct their
posture. This data could be shared with family members and physicians to warn
them in case the users lifestyle is becoming sedentary. If such precautions are
taken at a suitable time, problems such as broken hips from falling or immobility
due to weakness could be avoided.
Rural India: A major untapped market

When we talk about the healthcare sector in India, majority of development has
been seen in the urban sector. Given the fact that approximately 70% of Indian
population resides in the rural part of the country that is still deprived of not only
the state-of-the art infrastructure but also the basic facilities, digitization can go a
long way in giving a boost to the preventive healthcare industry. Such a huge
market size has brought up the concepts like Tele-health and Tele-medicine.
Tele-medicine or popularly known Telehealth facility is the delivery of services
pertaining to healthcare and medicines in
remote areas of the country using
telecommunication technology. Through
this we can extend the reach of
healthcare professionals who are located
in urban parts of the country. However,

one may wonder how these concepts can be applied in the field of preventive
healthcare. Well, regular health checkups wherein people can interact with
healthcare professionals to discuss their problems related to their lifestyle and infosessions conducted through such a platform can go a long way in preventing the
chronic diseases that these people face just because of the accessibility issues. By
2020, each district will have a Tele-health hub which will cater to the medical needs
of the villages coming under the purview of that district. Care-coordinators will be
recruited from the villages to have better connect with the masses. These care
professionals are the one who will be responsible for connecting the advice seekers
to appropriate doctor through videoconferencing. The exchange of data will also be
possible through Tele-health services that in turn will lower the need for villagers to
move all the way to a primary healthcare centers to get proper medicinal treatment.
For the pathological needs, the samples will be transferred through Drones to the
laboratory located in the city and the drones shall also return with all the reports,
recommendations and medicines. This all can happen with just the click of a mobile
button, thereby, taking preventive healthcare to new heights.
Conclusion:
A recent study done by BAIN & Company, has excessively emphasized upon the
protocolization and development of an integrated approach that the already
existing and upcoming players need to follow in order to succeed in this industry. In
the coming years, we would see a proliferation in the number of both gadgets as
well as the number of players that would offer a number of preventive healthcare
measures. However, by 2020, these disparate entities targeting specific aspects of
healthcare would witness numerous mergers and acquisitions. It is quite possible
that some of the key players will come together and create a one-stop destination
for all. This consolidation of industry will see one major player thatll be the
Google of Preventive Healthcare solutions. In the consumers perspective, a better
awareness level of their health parameters will not only help them live a long but
also a healthy and prosperous life.
References:

1. George Eliades, Michael Retterath, Norbert Hueltenschmidt and Karan Singh.

Healthcare2020
Available: http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/healthcare-2020.aspx.
Last accessed 28th Jul 2015

2. India Brand Equity Foundation.

Healthcare Industry in India
Available: http://www.ibef.org/industry/healthcare-india.aspx
Last accessed 28th Jul 2015