The past year saw India’s endeavors to lay the foundation for its digital health infrastructure through the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. This program has acted as a catalyst for numerous health organizations, research institutions, as well as small healthcare practices and individual consumers to conform to global standards by exploring innovative technologies.
In the realm of health IT, developers have stepped up to address India’s need for healthcare digitalization. Rustom Lawyer, the mastermind behind Augnito, an Indian company specializing in voice AI for clinical documentation, shared insights with Healthcare IT News regarding the potential trajectory of India’s health IT landscape in the upcoming year.
Looking forward, he identifies the following as key areas of focus for the year:
- Deployment of AI-powered diagnostics and clinical decision support systems
- Extension of telemedicine services and capabilities for remote patient monitoring
- Emphasis on data privacy and security protocols
Furthermore, he foresees that the following emerging trends might garner attention and activity in 2024:
- Advancement of personalized medicine and AI-assisted clinical trials
- Increased adoption of wearables and supportive technologies
- Focus on integrating mental health support with AI technologies
Lawyer intriguingly points out that AI can act as a common thread weaving through these trends. For instance, AI can streamline clinical documentation processes, leading to faster and more accurate diagnoses. It can also enhance the transcription and analysis of telemedicine consultations between healthcare providers and patients. Additionally, AI facilitates digital assistive tools that empower patients to independently access healthcare services.
Embracing the Digital Revolution
The Indian government remains steadfast in driving the uptake of digital health solutions across the healthcare spectrum, primarily through the ABDM. This initiative aims to interlink various stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem. To date, it has enabled the issuance of health IDs for over 500 million individuals and linked more than 300 million health records with around 200,000 registered healthcare facilities. The government’s incentives for healthcare providers have been instrumental in motivating the public to obtain their health IDs. Even private and small clinics nationwide have been enrolled in the program to expedite their digital transformation.
As healthcare access post-pandemic becomes more convenient and effective for consumers, India’s digital health market is poised to skyrocket to a value of \(37 billion by 2030, a significant surge from \)2.7 billion in 2022.
Another driver behind the adoption of healthcare technology, particularly among hospitals, is the substantial cost savings it offers, as emphasized by Lawyer.
Citing the experience of Apollo Hospitals, he highlights the remarkable outcomes post the integration of voice AI into their clinical documentation workflow. The esteemed hospital group witnessed an impressive “return on investment 21 times over, saving an average of 44 hours per month for their physicians, and enhancing overall productivity by 46%.”
“Through workflow optimization and efficiency enhancement, AI-driven solutions can bring significant cost advantages to hospitals, making them more inclined towards adoption.”
The Ascendancy of Voice AI
In the foreseeable future, there may be a heightened focus on voice biomarkers for the early detection of diseases.
Lawyer envisions harnessing over 2,500 biomarkers inherent in the linguistic subtleties of human speech to enable the identification of various ailments, including neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s, mental health conditions such as depression, and respiratory diseases like COVID-19, solely through a patient’s voice.
Voice AI operates by scanning for unique voice patterns in a patient’s speech, which are archived and stored in a database encompassing linguistic nuances, intonations, cadence, and more. This, according to Lawyer, could offer “unparalleled efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility benefits” to India, where there exists a significant patient-to-doctor ratio and 70% of healthcare infrastructure is concentrated in urban areas.
“In essence, I foresee 2024 as a pivotal year for healthcare technology in India.”
