The pandemic situation has pushed countries to adopt digital technologies in health and human services, and India witnessed one of the highest adoption rates, according to a new survey.
The survey, carried out by EY and Imperial College London’s Institute for Global Health Innovation, said 51% of respondents in India have increased their use of digital technologies and data solutions since the Covid-19 outbreak.
The survey, titled ‘Embracing Digital: is COVID-19 the catalyst for lasting change?’, spoke to more than 2,000 global HHS (health and Human Services) professionals in six countries — India, Australia, Italy, UAE, the UK and the US. India had 359 respondents.
Almost two-thirds of respondents globally (62%) reported an increase in the use of data and technology solutions, as the health industry adapts to new ways of working under pressure.
Phone and video consultations zoom up
Around 74% of respondents in India reported that digital technologies and data solutions have increased staff productivity, and 75% reported that digital solutions have been effective in delivering better outcomes for patients and service users.
According to the survey, phone and video consultations have seen the greatest uptake across all technology solutions, with phone consultations being offered by 81% of HHS organizations (up from 39% before the pandemic) and video consultations available from 71% of organizations (up from 22% before the pandemic).
Compared to this, the uptake has been higher in India at 86% for phone consultation (up from 48% before pandemic) and at 83% for video consultations (up from 33% before pandemic).
The public sector organizations in India preferred digital tools for self-help (92% organizations) and online self-assessment tools (89% organizations) over phone consultation and video consultation.
Also, in India, about three fourth of the respondents reported positive experiences with digital technologies and data solutions, leading to better collaboration and efficiency in the operating model.
India’s ‘digital health mission’ can be a game-changer
Kaivaan Movdawalla, Partner, Healthcare, EY India, said: “The Government’s National Digital Health Mission initiative, which endeavours to create a Health ID for every citizen, will bring together the distributed health information that exists across the health continuum and play a key role in advancing healthcare in India. This data will be the bedrock of the healthcare system and will revolutionise advancement of products, techniques, diagnosis and therapies for providers, med-tech and pharma players and aid any epidemiological planning.”
Privacy concerns, ethical concerns about using digital technology and loss of human interaction are some of the major barriers preventing rapid adoption of technologies in India.
Nearly 40% of the respondents from India listed ethics and privacy concerns as one of the most prevalent barriers significantly higher than other countries in our sample, with only 11% of UK respondents and 20% of US respondents, respectively, citing this as a main barrier.
More use of technology in future
About 75% of respondents from India indicated that they plan to further invest in digital solutions and technologies over the next 3 years and that the level of investment will be more than 50% as compared to the previous 3 years.
Mental health services are more likely to report planned investments in AI-powered diagnostic solutions over the next three years in India, at 81%, compared with 77% and 76% for physical health services and social services, respectively.
