Digital technology is not an end in achieving healthcare but an enabler in making it patient-centric and more accessible, experts have said. "Prospects that digital health can provide are limitless, provided there is proper implementation with coordination among all stakeholders," Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Authority R S Sharma said.
Dr Sharma was among the speakers at the 2nd Digital Health Summit on Friday. The summit, organised by the think tank IHW Council and powered by Super Konnect, brought major stakeholders together for meaningful conversations around digital health ecosystem transformation.
In the thought-provoking sessions which were supported by NITI Aayog, National Health Authority and Invest India, doyens of public health along with technology experts and representatives from the pharma industry came together to discuss about achieving the shared vision of revolutionising healthcare in India through meaningful public-private collaborations and to analyse the data concerns and data gaps in digital health.
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Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sharma said digital technology is not an end to achieve healthcare but it can facilitate innovations and transform healthcare making it more accessible, effective and time saving.
Naveen Kumar, Special Secretary in the Department of Health, Medical and Family Welfare, Government of Andhra Pradesh, said, "Our country has evolved better and progressed than any other country as far as digitalisation of healthcare is concerned. We need to devise a comprehensive strategy on digital health based on the experiences of the pandemic and use them extensively."
The COVID-19 pandemic has unleased tremendous possibilities and opportunities in digital health and to harness them the country needs to have an integrated approach that focusses on providing healthcare to all the citizens irrespective of their economic and social condition, a process that has already been kickstarted by the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, the experts from different states observed.
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Kamal Narayan, CEO of IHW Council, said, "We firmly believe that digital health infrastructure can go a long way in tackling the woes and burden of healthcare sector in our country. However, to transform the dream into reality and to leverage it for maximum utility we need integrated, coordinated and extensive efforts among all stakeholders to enable affordable, accessible and inclusive health for all as promised in the National Health Mission.”
(With PTI inputs)
