Healthcare in India

The CEO, of Lupin Digital Health, Sidharth Srinivasan, spoke with ETHealthworld. about how the perception of cardiac rehab is witnessing a significant shift. He spoke about the major insights and adoption trends registered over one year since the launch of their digital therapeutic platform Lupin's Lyfe. 

Summarizing their talk, he mentioned that the program has grown in 3 ways:

1. the acceptance of digital interventions has increased in the cardiology community. Over 700 cardiologists across 20 cities actively prescribe Lupin’s LYFE, our digital therapeutics, and more than 90 per cent of patients are satisfied with the service.

2.  conducted and published real-world evidence studies, including two trials and two consensus statements.

3. LDH has been able to reach out to patients, with around 5000 patients signing up for months of rehab.

His comments also shed light on some of their plans for the the future which included plans to conduct India's largest digital therapeutic study, involving around 1000 patients, to comprehensively showcase the impact of digital therapeutics on cardiac rehab.

He mentioned that Lupin was actively utilising technology to simplify backend processes, among which was the use of AI to analyse patient reports.

read the entire unedited version of interaction here: https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/pharma/pharma-industry/lupin-digital-health-planning-indias-largest-study-on-impact-of-digital-therapeutics-on-cardiac-rehab/108653359

India features close to the bottom in international rankings in most health indices. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the fundamental problems plaguing the healthcare system, be it physical infrastructure, manpower or health management.

At least two-thirds of India’s 1.3 billion people depend on the public healthcare system, but the country has only 8.5 hospital beds and eight physicians per 10,000 people.

On account of the burgeoning costs of private healthcare and the inability of public healthcare to respond to the needs of the huge population, India’s remote villages have been traditionally relying on indigenous health systems of basic care supported by community agents.

Community health workers are greatly improving the life of millions of people where doctors and nurses don’t go. Community healthcare providers, like paramedics, are taught essential services such as maternal and child healthcare. The strategy is to move beyond doctors and nurses and shift down to lay people, peers and family.

An Accredited Social Health Activist — or ASHA, an acronym that translates as “hope” in Hindi — is the Government’s recognised health worker who is usually the first port of call for any health-related demands in rural India, where healthcare facilities are scant and medical professionals can be hard to find.

As a result, many Indian communities, especially women and children, rely on ASHAs for primary healthcare.

In many villages there are 1,000 to 1,500 people in each ASHA’s care.

Any visitor to a village where these community healthcare models are the primary drivers of awareness will marvel at the ability of the ASHAs to connect with and explain things to women. Their lack of a degree is not a handicap, it is an advantage. They understand how to reach the people who most need reaching out to: The illiterate, vulnerable and poor village women. They know how they think and live, because they are one of them.

The efficacy of the ASHAs can be seen in the impact they have made on India’s healthcare indicators. Their efforts have contributed to a 59.9 per cent decline in maternal mortality and a 49.2 per cent decline in infant mortality. Under their aegis, immunisation rates for the country increased from 44 per cent to 62 per cent and institutional deliveries doubled from 39 per cent to 78 per cent.

While ASHA workers have the potential to play a wider role in rural healthcare, their service conditions are pathetic and need to be improved

read the original unedited article at https://www.dailypioneer.com/2021/columnists/ashas-need-a-ray-of--hope-in-their-lives.html

India plans to spend a provisional sum of Rs 90,171 crore ($10.8 billion) for healthcare in the coming fiscal year, increasing from Rs 79,221 crore ($9.5 billion) previously. Some of it will go to the following key projects:

• extension of the health assurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, to include 1.5 million community health workers called ASHA (accredited social health activist) and rural child care (Anganwadi) workers and helpers
• establishment of more medical and nursing colleges to help address the shortage of medical professionals
• the nationwide rollout of the U-WIN immunisation management platform and vaccination campaign to prevent cervical cancer among girls aged 9-14, which both contribute to Mission Indradhanush's goal of reaching 90% vaccination coverage of Indian children
• improved nutrition and better services by upgrading Anganwadi centres 
• increased budget for biotechnology R&D to Rs 1,100 crore ($132.5 million) from Rs 500 crore ($60.2 million) in the previous year

Healthcare IT news speaks to industry leaders in this opinion piece

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/asia/industry-seeks-clarity-indias-2024-tech-investment-health