Technological Innovations Transforming the Indian Healthcare Sector

In the wake of technology, the world witnessed many changes in the business ecosystem. The healthcare sector, in particular, has been heavily rewarded by the innovations in technology and as a matter of fact, healthtech became one of the buzzwords of the generation. Healthcare professionals are now keeping themselves fully aware of the technology trends in the market. The CEO Insights magazine engages in a conversation with Kishor Joshi, Chief Business Officer, Teleradiology Solutions to know more about the technological developments, taking place in the healthcare sector and also know about some of the drawbacks about the same to make the world aware on how to overcome them.

Briefly tell us about your professional journey and how have you been contributing towards the healthcare industry with your expertise?
Currently, I am the Chief Business Officer for Teleradiology Solutions and I have been a part of this company for seven years now. I have done my Masters in Pharmacy & MBA and after that I have served the healthcare sector for 20 years. Initially, I worked on drug delivery for the pharmaceutical industry and then moved on to health and life sciences. I was part of the whole genome sequencing program back in 2008. Post that I worked for the Fortis hospitals on their international businesses and mergers and handled that for long years. After that I went on to work as head for the Sankara eye hospitals. There I was head for all the 17 hospitals they had all over the country. It is only after that I moved on to become the CBO for Teleradiology solutions. Here I head the business strategy for all the three verticals that the company has. The image core lab of this company is used for providing services in drug discovery with the help of innovative AI.

How is technology transforming the healthcare sector in India? What are the new innovations that have been disrupting the healthcare ecosystem of the country?
Technology is a game-changer of how we experience services, not only in the consumer space but also in the space of healthcare, by

enabling end users to connect, contact and consume health care services from various devices. It is helping patients find out what they exactly need in a much better way and providing them with more options in the areas of their need, eventually bringing down the process. Technology has also changed the way patients get to know about the diagnosis. Talking about AR and VR technology, it is a very nascent technology at this point but AR VR has progressed in various areas in the last five years. It has applications in training people, thanks to the dearth of radiologists since we don’t have enough trainers to train. I think it will make a big difference in training the next generation of health professionals that will impact on the overall health economics. It will eventually become a part of the healthcare ecosystem.

Health professionals balance the need for the latest technology along with patient outcomes and needs as this forms the basis of technology selection

How do you perceive cyber threat the healthcare sector and what measures can be implemented for prevention?
As we increasingly use technology, there is always a chance for side effects of that. Accordingly, we are becoming casual about it and that is when cyber-attacks happen mostly. We should also not let our guard down in terms of various security measures and protocols which would allow for mitigation of such issues. We also need to ensure that the health of our tech system is also well taken care of and there is proper monitoring, upgradation, escalation, mitigation protocols in place to counter such events.

How much oriented are healthcare professionals with modern technology? Is technology being attractive enough for them?
Most healthcare professionals are aware of the latest technology trends, thanks to some of the mundane jobs which have got automated because of technology. Human skill sets are actually utilized to bring out faster outcomes which are also better. Technology is also helping to train the people who will become healthcare professionals in the future. Cutting edge technologies also form a large part of major health advances. Health professionals balance the need for the latest technology along with patient outcomes and needs as this forms the basis of technology selection.