Digital technologies can help address key healthcare challenges in India related to awareness, access, workforce, affordability and accountability. The document discusses India's ranking in healthcare access/quality and issues like uneven workforce distribution. It outlines India's initiatives in digital health through the Ministry of Health including the National Health Portal, standards for electronic health records, and a national telemedicine network. The Chief Scientific Officer then describes Numen Health's platform which uses a multidisciplinary team approach led by doctors to improve outcomes through connected care that is hospital/doctor-led, team-based, dynamic and aims to make healthcare more affordable.

1. Digital Panacea for
effective health
management
Prof. Dr. ALBEN SIGAMANI – MDPharmac (St John’s),
MSc – Clinical Trials (London), MBA - Health Systems - (Bits
Pilani)
CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER & FOUNDING PARTNER
- NUMEN HEALTH

2. Healthcare challenges (opportunities) India
Kasthuri A. Challenges to Healthcare in India - The Five A’s.
Indian J Community Med. 2018;43(3):141-143. doi:10.4103/ijcm.IJCM_194_18
Awareness among
public about their
health status
Access to
healthcare
Absence of qualified
& experienced
healthcare
personnel
Affordability Accountability

3. Health
awareness -
Health
literacy
• WHO definition (1998)
• “the cognitive and social skills which
determine the motivation and ability of
individuals to gain access to, understand and
use information in ways which promote and
maintain good health”
• 3 components make up health awareness or
literacy
• Knowledge
• Skills to process the knowledge
• Manage their health

4. Access to healthcare
• India ranks a lowly 145th among 195 countries in terms of healthcare
access and quality
• Access to quality healthcare improves health outcomes
• India's improvements on the HAQ Index hastened from 2000 to 2016,
the gap between the country's highest and lowest scores widened
(23·4-point difference in 1990, and 30·8-point difference in 2016)
Measuring performance on the Healthcare Access and Quality Index for 195 countries and territories and selected subnational locations: a systematic
analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016
Fullman, Nancy et al.
The Lancet, Volume 391, Issue 10136, 2236 - 2271

5. Figure 1
The Lancet 2018 3912236-2271DOI: (10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30994-2)
Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC
BY 4.0 license Terms and Conditions
HAQ Index=Healthcare Access and Quality Index.

6. Absence of
qualified
healthcare
workforce
• A 2011 study estimated that India has roughly
20 health workers per 10,000 population,
• allopathic doctors comprising 31% of the
workforce,
• nurses and midwives 30%,
• pharmacists 11%,
• AYUSH practitioners 9%, and others 9%.
• India has achieved the World Health
Organization recommended doctor to
population ratio of 1:1,000 the “Golden
Finishing Line” in the year 2018 by most
conservative estimates.
• Workforce distribution is still a challenge –
access to infrastructure and technology causing
skewness

7. Affordability
Total Healthcare
Expenditure
Government Spending Out of pocket spending
Insurance

8. India Health
Expenditure-

9. Accountability
• Being responsible for the delivering services
through
• A physician – patient shared and facilitated
decision making
• Consumer choice of providers
• Multidisciplinary care managed protocols
• Managing expectations through appropriate
communication
• Governance and regulations of pricing for
services through reliable data analytics

10. Digital Health Technologies
I n t e r n e t o f t h i n g s virtual care
remote m o n i t o r i n g ,
artificial intelligence
big data analytics
blockchain
smart wearables,
Continuum of care

11. World Health Organization –
eHealth Policy
• Global strategy on digital health 2020-2025. Geneva:
World Health Organization; 2021. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
3.0 IGO.

12. DIGITAL HEALTH INITIATIVES
Ministry Of Health & Family Welfare
Government of India

13. Vision of Digital Health
• Create EHR of 1.3 billion people with Pan-India exchange in secured manner
• Set-up pan-nation Telemedicine Network
• Optimal use of IT for pan-nation surveillance & monitoring of programs
• Efficient use of IT tools for capacity building & training
• Wide-scale deployment of IT tools for governance & information dissemination
India undertook various initiatives in digital domain for efficient health service delivery

14. eHealth
Centre for Health
Informatics (CHI),
NIHFW
National Resource Centre
for EHR standards (NRCeS)
National Resource Centre for
Telemedicine
• Established in 2013 by The
National Institute of Health and
Family Welfare (NIHFW)
• Work as the secretariat for
managing the activities of the
National Health Portal and
other eHealth initiatives of
MoHFW.
• Established in 2014 at C-DAC ,Pune
• Facilitate adoption and promotion of
standards
• National release centre for providing
free of cost SNOMED license and
tool kits
• Providing assistance in developing,
implementing and using EHR
standards effectively in healthcare IT
applications across country
• Established in 2011 at SGPGI
Lucknow & supported by 7
Regional Resource Centres (RRCs)
• To develop and strengthen
Telemedicine technologies
• To provide necessary technical
assistance and handholding to State
governments.
• Act as implementation wing for tele
education and tele medicine
initiatives
Institutional Framework eHealth

15. Numen partners with healthcare
providers (doctors, hospitals) and
delivers evidence based treatment
through a physician directed
highly customized
multidisciplinary care team
The sole objective is improving
patient outcomes & avoiding of
catastrophic out of pocket
expenditure
TEAM BASED
HOSPITAL/ DOCTOR LED
ALWAYS CONNECTED
DYNAMIC
APPROACH
● Health Manager
● Clinical Nutritionist
● Physiotherapist
● Yoga Therapist
● Psychologist
● Clinical Pharmacologist

16. Numen platform
• Spreads health awareness
• Enables care delivery accessible
• Makes healthcare affordable through early detection & prevention
• Convenient and accountable to subscribers delivering evidence-
based care