COVID, 5G, and digitization in healthcare – A new tomorrow

Digital transformation in healthcare is likely to bring tectonic shift regarding impact of technology in healthcare. With the COVID-19 pandemic restricting people indoors much longer, more and more patients seek on-demand healthcare. The pandemic introduces simple mobile technology of video calling as aa alternative to physical visit to a doctor. This has a potential to lead to a huge disruption in conventional OPD practice, since now patients seek guidance at their own time and from any geographic location they can get it from. Online healthcare platforms link patients directly with doctors, in such a way that doctors are becoming on-demand healthcare providers who need to fulfil the ever-changing needs of their patients almost instantaneously. For telemedicine to be really successful, this means patients need seamless and quality video-conferencing quality, irrespective of their location.

With the current network bandwidth, it takes long for patients to connect using video call and send large imaging files to a specialist. 5G being almost 100-time faster is supposed to make buffering a thing of the past, allowing for almost instantaneous streaming, downloading, and uploading. Apart from online consultation, simultaneous integration of mobile or wearable technology is through remote monitoring is going to revolutionize preventive medicine.

With 5G, clinicians will be able to instantaneously collect medical data, such as a vitals or physical activity and test results, helping make faster diagnoses.

In the UK, attempts are ongoing to build artificial intelligence algorithms, capable of remotely monitoring patients with Parkinson’s disease, and reducing time to conduct a motor function assessment from over 30 minutes to less than three minutes. Smartphone apps enabled with AI will record how a patient opens and closes their hands with intent to determine the progression of their symptoms. If a patient’s treatment program needs changing, the AI will raise an alert to notify their doctor and arrange a dose modification or checkup, if required.

Devices enabled with fall detection and double support time (time during walk when both feet are on ground) can allow physicians to have much more real time data to act upon. The technology will reduce the patient’s costs of traveling back and forth to the clinic and mitigate unnecessary inconvenience of OPD visits altogether. Similarly, digital health applications (such as voice reminders for taking medication at the right time) can contribute to raising therapy compliance as well as enhancing a prevention-oriented lifestyle (e.g., through glucose and blood-pressure monitoring). Absence of good quality X-ray facility is a major challenge about managing respiratory diseases, including Covid in remote and rural areas.

The solution called X-Ray Setu can work with low-resolution images sent via mobiles. The chest X-ray of a person is uploaded by the doctor or radiologist on WhatsApp bot of X-Ray Setu, which analyzes the image and generates a report in 10–15 minutes.

Through digitization, Continuum of Care comes to the patient, which is enabled by smartphone technology in combination with the telemedical infrastructure and will lead to a change in the doctor-patient reaction as well as pharmaceutical industry dynamics.

In this area, a market worth billions is getting created, in which players who traditionally were not associated with health area (Apple with its health-monitoring watch and Google with contact lens with glucose-monitoring function) are taking giant steps.

For all of us, the goal is to innovate and embrace this new normal, and ensure these services continue to improve lives and fulfil a want or need. India has almost half a billion internet users, a comprehensive national policy with regulatory framework covering different aspects of digital health is going to lead the way for better public-private partnerships along with indigenous start-ups. A digital health ecosystem in India isn’t a dream but potentially USD 1 trillion opportunity which is here to take.