Technology In Healthcare - Where's The Value?

Mankind Pharma is one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in India, started its journey in 1995. Presently, the organization has 11,000 employees and is heading towards a turnover of INR 50000 million.

- Rajaram Iyer

Technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence), IoT (internet of things), Blockchain, VR (visual reality), Big data, cloud computing etc. are the current buzzwords. Use of these technologies has progressed a lot in last couple of years. They are increasingly making a difference in the way we do things and are changing the fundamental architecture of the industry. Though in infancy, these technologies have shown great promise and no doubt that future belongs to these technologies.

Though it is certain that emerging technologies will impact the healthcare ecosystem, however we will have to access the impact and understand, if we are using technology only because it is available or are we using it because it really makes an impact. The impact has to be measured on the core elements of healthcare delivery. Healthcare delivery has several players ranging from hospitals to physicians to pharmaceutical companies to pharmacy chain to diagnostics. If we have to make an impact, then we must create value which transcends all the elements and eventually improves the life of the patient. Patient is central and is the core theme for the healthcare industry to exist. Hence the key question is how do you measure the impact of technology on healthcare? Alternatively, what is the value it generates for patients?