The healthcare industry needs an electronic information system that is globally interoperable but the industry’s technophobia is costing thousands of lives globally.
The hype and hoopla of the 21st century being a tech-age and the Generation Next being techsavvy would seem so true, if one were to ignore the healthcare industry. Though the healthcare industry is growing by leaps and bounds in terms of drug development, R&D, etc., it still has a long way to go as far as adopting Information Technology (IT) is concerned.
The growth figures of the healthcare industry are awe-inspiring. The global healthcare industry was valued at $550 bn (2004), representing 7% increase over the previous year (2003)—which, in turn, marked a 9% increase over 2002. The US healthcare services market is the world’s largest and is worth about $1.7 tn, while the European market is valued at about $700 bn. However, the Indian healthcare industry is worth only $20 bn (roughly 4% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product). Twelve percent of the national annual expenditure in India is on healthcare.
Yet, the unfortunate part is that, there is no system in the industry to maintain electronic health records of patients. There is a need to develop a system that allows doctors or patients to access their medical records anytime, anywhere in the world with the help of an identification number allotted to the patient. The global healthcare industry hitherto lacks an information system that is interoperable and accessible by the relevant stakeholders of the healthcare industry, viz. patients, healthcare providers, and policy makers. On the domestic front, India is touted as the global IT hub, but the country still has a long way to go so far as the application of information technology in the healthcare industry is concerned. The industry is known to continuously upgrade itself when it comes to the medical equipments it uses—be it a CT scan or a laser treatment, but the need to have an efficient patient information system seems to be the last thing in its priority list. However, this is gradually changing and the healthcare providers seem to have realized the value of maintaining an electronic record system. |
