Anita Shet
Founder & CEO, pink Whale Healthcare Services Private Limited
Virtual platform enables easy communication and information sharing between patients and their doctors, says Anita Shet, Founder & CEO, pink whale Healthcare Services Private Limited, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN)
How is IT transforming the healthcare sector in the country?
IT is transforming the healthcare in India from a Pop & Mom run shop to a more corporate, accountable entity. Unlike the western countries, close to 70 per cent of the healthcare is delivered by private practitioners at small and medium-sized clinics or hospitals. pinkWhale has been working closely with this segment for the last few years and sees a huge opportunity for technology to improve efficiency and productivity. IT in health will help better the quality of care, facilitate preventive care, and reduce risks and mortality apart from streamlining the processes and accountability.
What are the solutions offered by your company?
Healthcare in India has been more of a reactive process than a proactive regime. From our experience, we have learned that this is majorly contributed by poor follow-up care and close to NIL patient awareness. pinkWhale is a telehealth company that focuses on enabling and being the backbone of providers to deliver convenient and cost effective follow-up care, and also, to equip them to empower their patients be better aware of their medical conditions, best care options, supportive therapies and nutritional needs. Our Cloud -based virtual platform enables easy communication and information sharing between patients and their doctors. Our platform also has an integrated OPD management and medical health records built into it.
How do your solutions help in improving healthcare quality, productivity and cost?
Healthcare cost is a sum of care, travel, and cost of absence from work. Statistically, more that 40 per cent of outpatient care does not require physical examination. Patients can benefit from virtual consultations in such situations. This in turn enables doctors to efficiently utilise their OPD hours for the needy patients. pink whale solution enables patients to address all such health situations with their doctors from their home, telephonically or online. With home diagnostics and virtual consultation a pregnant woman can order a test, upload her reports online and initiate a follow-up with her gynecologist from the comfort of her home. Our solution benefits patients by providing cost-effective, convenient access to their doctors on one side and improves efficiency, quality of care and productivity for doctors.
How do you think healthcare IT has transformed patient care? In five years from now, what other transformations do you see?
Healthcare delivery in the past has been restricted predominantly to outpatient and inpatient care. IT is enhancing care worldwide by enabling virtual and home care. This transformation in care delivery is enabling a 360-degree care to patients. In the next 5-10 years we will see physical care, virtual care and home care functioning together. This will be supported with many diagnosis tools, enhanced with IoT technology. High quality healthcare will be delivered in a convenient and cost effective method in near future. But governments support is a must.
How IT innovation can bridge rural-urban health divide?
Bridging this divide is the biggest challenge for modern India. Traditional telemedicine did not yield the expected results to bridge this divide, as the facilities were restricted to limited bigger care centers. With telemedicine broadening its scope to digital health and technology making it accessible from mobile devices, this divide can be substantially reduced. With the support of the medical fraternity and governance, healthcare IT innovators can do wonders to narrow this divide. pinkWhale hopes to play a significant role in facilitating this effort.
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