Affordable Diagnostics

Providing new means of affordable access to diagnostics is no small task

- Arunima Patel

A pertinent problem currently faced by Indian healthcare industry pertains to the access of diagnostic healthcare in rural India. There is utter lack of good and well functioning licensed laboratory services in rural India. Laboratory services that are present in the rural India are marred with shortages of pathologists, technicians, biochemists, and other staff members. Rural India has one-fourth the doctors and diagnostic facilities as compared to urban areas and this is a huge issue with the chronically ill, who require complex and expensive long-term monitoring and treatment strategies.

Diagnostic testing is one of the most important segments of the medical field. Diagnostic laboratory testing results are applied for almost 60-70% of medical treatments in India. India is home to about six lakh villages with 70% of India’s population living in rural areas, yet out of the approx one lakh diagnostic laboratories in the country, majority of them cater to metros and tier 1 cities. As per a survey, there are only around eight diagnostic labs per 100,000 people in India and diagnostic facilities have a very low reach in small towns and villages.