Indian government has taken definitive steps towards inclusive healthcare committing to make India healthier and a model to be emulated by the rest of world. Government schemes like ‘Ayushman Bharat,’ allocates funds towards improving healthcare infrastructure in Tier 2 and 3 cities along with rural areas.
- A brief about Ayushman Bharat:
According to the National Health Portal ‘Ayushman Bharat,’ is Indian government’s National Health Policy aiming to extend free health coverage at the secondary, tertiary level and to the poor/vulnerable population.
Using public-private partnership hospitals will be set up with a financial contribution from Government of India -GOI to extend facilities to 112 Aspirational Districts making ‘Ayushman Bharat’ viable for weaker sections.
Crisil notes, the insurance coverage of Rs. 5 lakhs under the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme has raised the preference for private hospitals.
Government hospitals face unique challenges that restrict the quality of healthcare provided thus, people prefer private hospitals and clinics.
Benefitting from ‘Ayushman Bharat’ will lead to bed addition in tier 2 cities unearthing dormant demand and more people adopting ‘Ayushman Bharat’ schemes as per the Crisil study.
Currently, healthcare facilities are focused on tier 1 cities like Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Hyderabad.
The quality of healthcare is restricted to tier 1 cities while tier 2 cities and tier 3 cities lack standardized services.
Some of the tier 2 cities are:
Kota, Bikaner, Moradabad, Meerut, Agra, Lucknow, Indore, Mysore, Hubli, Belgaum, Salem, Kochi etc.
Tier 3 cities are:
Nasik, Baroda, Trichy, Madurai, etc.
- A picture of healthcare in rural areas:
Situation in villages, and rural areas is pathetic due to inadequate healthcare structure.
Also, National Health Profile 2018
data reveals that out of total 10 lakh registered modern medicine doctors, 80% serve
in tier 1 and tier 2 cities. Public hospitals are overburdened and understaffed
while facing an urgent requirement for highly qualified medical professionals
and better quality healthcare facilities.
Doctors avoid working in rural areas due to insufficient housing, education for children, water, transport, and electric facilities. Infrastructure for health services are poor too.
‘Ayushman Bharat’ is set to change this scenario. The healthcare sector in India is estimated to reach Rs. 8.6 trillion by 2022 with the change of focus to tier 2, tier 3 cities and rural areas.
Private sector is working towards extending healthcare facilities to smaller cities in India.
Nayati Medicity, Mathura and Nayati, Agra provide immediate healthcare facilities to accident and trauma victims since its placed on the NH19 highway. Niira Radia, Chairperson of Nayati Healthcare notes that they focus on quality medical services to be extended to smaller cities in India. Lack of healthcare facilities in small cities compel patients to travel to cities. In such a scenario healthcare entrepreneur like Niira Radia are working towards extending advanced healthcare closer to masses by setting up state-of-the-art hospitals in Mathura and Agra.
- Growth in tier 2 due to IT sector:
Tier 2 cities are transforming to become IT destination due to decisions taken by Nasscom. Thus, cities like Kochi, Coimbatore, Kozhikode, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar have focused on IT sector. Also, web development and digital marketing have boosted the cities’ growth. Since top cities in India witness saturated economic growth it led to the growth of these tier 2 cities with emerging opportunities and government schemes. Thus, overall infrastructure along with healthcare is set to improve with a boost in the economy, higher aspirations and increasing income levels among people living in these areas.
- Technology driven change:
Another major shift in healthcare sector is the use of technology across different sections of India. According to Sangita Reddy, joint managing director of Apollo Hospitals, care is shifting from the hospital to clinic, then further clinic to home, proceeding from home to 24×7 access to healthcare all guided by the mobile phone.
Technology led innovations are making India’s healthcare industry more attractive for investors leading to penetration in second and third tier cities.
Telemedicine and teleconsulting programs via mobile phone are getting popular due to easy availability of telecom bandwidth helping healthcare professionals reach undeserved rural markets.
Also, the new online pharmaceutical retail industry is gradually penetrating the market. Now, the challenge of unavailability of medicine is getting resolved in rural areas too.
MRI teleradiology reporting; Why it is a viable option in Indian tier 2 and tier 3 cities:
Looking at this overall scenario the demand for radiologists and teleradiologists will rise. Even as government and private companies push healthcare facilities in rural areas radiologists are not going to be available 24/7/365 days at the hospitals and clinics.
With an increase in facilities in government hospitals, private hospitals, clinics, and radiology centers might fall short of radiologists.
The present day radiologists reading MRI, CT-Scan, X-Ray, PET-CT scan are burdened with large volumes of images to be interpreted.
The need for second opinion, comparative assessment has put a huge burden of workload on radiologists. The shortage of radiologists is more common in remote areas and centers extending primary and secondary level of care.
This ever-increasing demand of radiology services gives way to teleradiology services especially extended to remote and rural areas and centers without enough radiologists. Hospitals with general radiology services are using teleradiology for second opinion from subspecialists.
- MRI teleradiology market:
One of the most common radiology images is MRI thus, the demand for MRI teleradiology reporting is bound to increase.
MRI scans offer many applications in the disease diagnosis like neuroscans, liver scans and cardiac. MRI is one of the most preferred imaging methods utilized for the central nervous system to detect brain tumors, stroke affected areas and other brain related issues.
Technological improvements pertaining MRI have led to the capturing of detailed images of ligaments, soft tissues and other organs of the body. Further advancements in technology related to MRI have widened its scope to diagnose various diseases.
Research has been focused on developing systems that lead to minimum suffocation for claustrophobic people. Thus, these improvements are in favor of an increasing demand for MRI reports. Also, the rising geriatric population calls for high demand for MRI reports.
High demand for MRI is for scanning brain and neurological systems since there is lack of effective and accurate alternative.
Connecting the dots, MRI teleradiology reporting is going to be a viable option for healthcare centers, hospitals and diagnostic centers in tier 2, tier 3 cities and rural areas.
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