Health is not alone

World population has touched 8 billion, with India poised to be the most populous country in 2023. Gen-Z population, averaging an age of 28 years, an aging population across all geographies, vulnerabilities exposed by the pandemic ensuring accessible affordable healthcare could not be more challenging. Coupling stretched, underfunded public health budgets with high out-of-pocket expenses is a combustible proposition. India is not unique in this context. Covid laid bare cracks in healthcare delivery world over. Among the many reasons accessing and affordable are repetitive in each narrative. Elusive and seemingly impossible, though it may sound, we have to face and address them.

Firstly, do we as individuals or society know what it means to be healthy? Why? Simply being alive or productively engaged? How? Generations have absorbed of healthy living by soaking in wisdom of elders and peers. We must move on and spread the concept of preventative care in a systematic fashion. Health literacy in schools, colleges, homes, workplaces must be the norm. If I do not know the what, why, or how, I cannot seek or question. This cannot happen anytime soon without societal enablement. Health capital has to start young. Seeds of preventive care do not appear overnight but have to be embedded to become a part of ones DNA. Good behavior needs to start now.

Second is affordability. There is hope in diagnostics, IVDs, and genomics which may well turn out to be game changers. Covid demonstrated the value of quick and efficient diagnostics. Knowledge of PCR for Covid testing was ubiquitous world over as was the clamor for vaccines, as survival instruments. PCR for Covid testing was on the on the tip of people world over as without you could move to next level care i.e., treatment. As the pandemic evolved the power of POC’s and self-rapid testing kits became permanent fixtures in people’s homes. Prohibitive screening prices are now affordable. Imagine, if there were hand-held PCR devices, the game-changing effect it would have on myriad of lives in remote areas and marginalized socio-economic societies.

Drug effectiveness. If we reflect on the number of drugs we tried and failed, technology to predict drug and intervention effectiveness could have possibly been far more efficient in tackling the crises. Health wearables, telemedicine, and IVDs saved the day for many but of course not the whole, and at a cost. We must endeavor not to deny scientific proven interventions from being used for societal good on the platform of cost.

AI, wearable devices, IVD outputting data for diagnostic and drug discovery, predicting desired therapeutic outcomes could be game changers in addressing challenges of affordability. With mobile health, digital technology the scepter of cyber security efforts also becomes vitally important, but adds costs. Having said that, the imperatives to pursue this path could not be clearer. The concept of value-based pricing in diagnostics, IVDs, and interventions could pave the way.

Shortages and projected millions of professionals needed world over is another area where non-medical actors need to get into the arena and work with the help of technology to enhance capacity, competencies, and efficiencies. Unmet basic needs and its impact on healthcare, including climate change, are other contributory factors. If healthcare were a country, it would probably be at the fifth position for gas house emissions.

Health equity stewardship and enablement is clearly the responsibility of the government. Stake holders include the health community, individuals, industries, society, and humanity at large. Targeting solutions, recommending yet respecting the value of change, let us pick up the baton and collectively run the race to win the war and see a better tomorrow.

The author is also Governing Board Member, Life Sciences Sector Skill Development Council; Governing Board Member, Health Sector Skills Council; and Consultant, Emeritus Max Healthcare Institute Ltd