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Rajashree Damle, Vice President & Global Head of Portfolio – Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Services, Capgemini
COVID-19 has presented unprecedented disruptions to all facets of the healthcare industry in a very short time. The pandemic has put pressure on the healthcare system, and this has led to digital transformation in the industry.
Some of the technology led healthcare and life sciences trends we will see in the coming years are below:
- Remote care is here to stay as telehealth solutions have gained prominence due to COVID-19. In India especially, where the larger population live in rural areas and specialist doctors are mostly located in the cities, Telehealth can play a major role in healthcare in a wide range of cases such as primary diagnosis, managing COVID like infectious diseases, even helping to monitor patients with chronic conditions and post-surgical rehabilitation.
- Telemedicine solutions and other home care services have started to gain widespread acceptance in the healthcare ecosystem in India and will continue to do so in coming years as well. India has adopted new ways to manage – from monitoring vitals through wearables every day and increased use of personal medical devices, online consultation in real time with doctors through telehealth apps, to even robotic surgeries that are on the rise.
- In the coming years we will see increasing use of Cobots and Robots in hospitals especially deployed for COVID wards. Chatbots can help to triage patients seeking treatment for symptoms.
- We also see solutions like Software-as-a-Medical Device to help with solution for lifestyle management to complimenting drug therapy for chronic and lifestyle diseases like heart disease, diabetes and respiratory conditions. Reduction in routine follow-up visits to hospitals and doctors and to also enable a sense of wellbeing will drive the acceptance of such solutions.
- The role of AI and analytics will be key to the sector. With the use of AI especially machine learning and advanced analytics that help in breakthrough innovation, companies have been successful in accelerating development, validation and launch of products all in a matter of weeks and months as the recent vaccines present.