A rise in India’s Health-Tech sector by 2022
One of India’s fastest-growing sectors in the healthcare sector. In India, technology and health care have combined to form a new industry poised for success. Technology has helped transform other critical sectors like finance and education to do the same for this sector.
In 2022, several analysts predict that the healthcare market could reach $370 billion, offering 35-40% returns. Even though India still has a long way to go effectively use technology in health care, health tech is a game-changer. By 2030, it is projected that 40 million people will become employed in health tech.
The trace shows that India invested $571 million in health tech in 2018. A partnership between NASSCOM and GE Healthcare, announced in April, aims at boosting the number of startups in the healthcare sector. Many technologies have applications in the healthcare industry, such as machine-learning, nanotechnology, IoT, AI, robotics, and 3D printing.
The number of startup companies focusing on health technology in India is around 2,975. PharmEasy, CureFit, Practo, MedLife, and CallHealth are the most popular. They all aim to make healthcare more accessible.
There is a considerable imbalance in the ratio of doctors to patients in the country, so it shouldn’t be surprising. There are 1,596 doctors per 1000 patients in the allopathic sector, while WHO recommends that at least 1400 doctors per 1000 patients be accommodated.
Many health-tech startups in India fall into pharmacy, home healthcare, diagnostics, and biotech. To understand the impact of technology, let’s look at the pharmacy and home healthcare sectors. According to a McKinsey report, telemedicine rather than in-person doctor visits would save Indians around $10 billion by 2025.
We can soon expect to see genomics, biotechnology, and robotics applied to hospitals and clinics to improve the efficiency of healthcare services in India due to the rise of healthcare startups. In addition to artificial intelligence and apps that monitor your vitals and movements.
As we discuss the growth of health tech in India, we need to keep some red flags in mind. Security and privacy are at risk due to the focus on functionality. Sending sensitive health information over the internet can be dangerous.
Thus, health-tech demands that greater responsibility be imbibed into it. Additionally, how safe are medical devices without established protocols, quality assurance, and legislation?
Health-tech startups in India are increasing due to the need for better health care and acceptance of it. By using technology, the Indian healthcare industry may finally tackle the issues plaguing it today, such as quality, maximising capital utilisation, scalability, accessibility, etc.
As a result, startups in the health-tech sector in India have a tremendous opportunity to bridge needs and wants.
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Healthtech has grown in prominence after Covid-19
With Covid-19, technology adoption has been accelerated. The rise of health tech certainly illustrates this effect better than anywhere else, and we can expect more growth in this area.
A global healthcare pandemic has been triggered by the discovery of the novel Coronavirus, also known as Covid-19. Healthcare has seen technology implementation during the past decade to initiate telemedicine, e-pharmacies, personal health management, and home healthcare.
Still, each provider and consumer have been slow to adopt these services. The adoption of these services is about to reach a tipping point with the release of COVID-19. Patients’ consumption of healthcare services is shifting due to the immediate response to this crisis.
A new opportunity has opened up for revisiting the patient assessment, treatment, and monitoring cycle at Covid-19 by focusing on the health tech ecosystem. By integrating technology and healthcare, we reduce costs, improve access, and increase affordability while improving patient care.
The pandemic has resulted in a significant advance in medicine thanks to technology. As a result, many fields such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence, remote learning, and data interconnection will now become available to the digital health community.
In the first half of 2020, a record amount of $5.4 billion in venture funding was allocated to online health service providers after Covid-19, and global digital health activity accelerated rapidly. Teladoc Health’s acquisition of Livongo, valued at $18.5 billion, has set the tone for what this space will look like in the coming years.
By 2025, the Asia-Pacific digital health market will reach $80.7 billion and grow to $350 billion. It is estimated that the global digital health market reached $350 billion in 2019.
India’s healthcare sector is expected to reach $370 billion by 2025, making it one of the fastest-growing sectors. Based on the digital adoption index, India is one of the fastest-growing digital economies. In the Indian healthcare ecosystem, this phenomenon is also reflected in the rise of health tech.
Healthtech, technological advances such as medical wearables, telemedicine, telehealth, e-health, artificial intelligence, electronic health records, and medical applications that deal with personal health will multiply exponentially following the Covid-19 era. India’s $159 billion healthcare market in 2019 contributed $1.6 billion from companies in the health tech sector.
About 4,800 health technology companies are serving the pandemic in India with cutting-edge technologies. Between 2014 and March 2020, 459 Indian health-tech startups raised approximately $2.3 billion in funding, indicating that technology is poised to enhance the healthcare environment in India exponentially.
A new opportunity has opened up for revisiting the patient assessment, treatment, and monitoring cycle at Covid-19 by focusing on the health tech ecosystem. By integrating technology and healthcare, we reduce costs, improve access, and increase affordability while improving patient care.
Using technology to advance medicine and save lives is becoming increasingly important due to the pandemic. By leveraging the advancements made in big data analytics, artificial intelligence, remote learning, and data interconnectivity over the past several years, the digital health community will make tremendous progress in healthcare.
As the healthcare sector has grown in India, it has been primarily driven by corporatisation, which has led to large-scale, professionally managed and better-equipped hospitals and diagnostic chains. India has focused mainly on building brick and mortar hospitals to fill its infrastructure gap.
Compared to other sectors such as retail, banking, hospitality, and mobility, technology spending in the industry has been significantly lower.
Currently, over 700 million Indians use the internet throughout the country, and by 2025, it is expected that there will be over 974 million. As with fintech and edtech in the country, mobile internet will drive health tech adoption.
It is anticipated that virtual care will play a significant role in health tech adoption is expected to contribute 15%-20% of primary care consulting in India by 2025. Telemedicine in India is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 31% for 2020-25, reaching $ 5.5 billion by 2020.
E-pharmacy sales are expected to account for 10%-12% of overall pharmaceutical sales in the next five years. Multiple service providers may be involved in the origin of the patient data through a well-designed digital health ecosystem that will enable portability and aggregation of patient data.
An outbreak of Covid-19 demonstrates the importance of a healthcare ecosystem leveraging health tech to enable broad-based access to healthcare services for India’s 1.3 billion citizens.
In recent years, Covid-19 has led the health tech sector to broaden its focus from personal health to strengthening medical infrastructure and responding more effectively to medical emergencies. Digital disruption is now a significant factor driving this sector.
In terms of the post-covid healthcare ecosystem in the country, the omnichannel healthcare delivery model will have the most significant impact. It will be possible to direct the patient to a physical or virtual care setting based on their online journey. By leveraging technology, we are enabling improved outpatient care for patients, reducing doctors’ consulting time, and enhancing e-pharmacies for the delivery of medicines, as well as on-demand pathology diagnostics and home healthcare services.
Ultimately, access, affordability, and sustainability of patient-centric healthcare will enhance by increasing health technology in the Indian healthcare ecosystem. As 5G technology is introduced, this momentum will become more pronounced.
Every individual has a different view. Asia Healthcare Holdings’ chairman is the author.
One of the fastest-growing sectors in India is the healthcare sector. India’s healthcare sector is poised to make breakthroughs with the amalgamation of automation and healthcare. In addition to its impact on other sectors of the economy, sensing technology has facilitated the education and finance sectors.
According to several investors, the healthcare market may reach $ 370 billion by 2022, with yields of 35-40 per cent. Technology is transforming healthcare in India, but before technology fully expands health services, there is a long way to go. By 2030, 40 million jobs will create through technology.
The figure of $ 571 million believed to be India’s investment in health tech in 2018 is derived from Traxcn data. To support the region’s digital healthcare solutions, NASSCOM partnered with GE Healthcare in April 2019. Examples of technologies that have applications in healthcare include machine-learning, nanotechnology, IoT, AI, robotics, and 3D printing.
The Indian health-tech sector has roughly 3,225 startups. PharmEasy, CureFit, Practo, and MedLife are just some examples. Many startups strive to make healthcare resources more accessible. Because there are far too few medical specialists compared with the number of patients in the country, this is not surprising.
India’s health-tech startups mainly focus on pharmacy, home health care, diagnostics, and biotechnology. To understand the impact of the culmination of technology, we will examine the pharmacy and home healthcare sectors. Using telemedicine instead of in-person physician appointments could save Indians about $10 billion by 2025.
According to the growth of healthcare startups in India, we will soon examine the benefits of genomics, biotechnology, and robotics in hospitals and clinics to enhance health care delivery. Artificial intelligence will predict diseases with absolute certainty in the coming decades, while mobile apps tracking vitals and movements will improve country-wide well-being.
When discussing the advancement of health tech in India, we need to keep a few things in mind. Security and privacy are compromised as a result of a focus on functionality. This can mean a great deal when transmitting medical information electronically. It is, therefore, necessary to exercise greater responsibility in the field of health-tech. Furthermore, how reliable are automation in the health field without accepted protocols, quality assurance, and regulation?
India is combating the ongoing virus through various information campaigns despite its limited infrastructure and immense population. In another health-tech startup offering 24/7 primary care through a network of doctors, Clinic Healthcare is offering a 1 lakh insurance coverage for families afflicted by COVID-19 in addition to free teleconsultation channels.
Care.Fit, a complete healthcare platform, has positioned telemedicine as a quick and cost-effective way to put consumers in touch with high-quality doctors in various specialities when faced with pandemics—additionally, Cult.Life provides free classes in fitness formats such as strength, cardio, HRX, strength and conditioning, dance fitness, and yoga.
A new startup named Bione has identified specific gene groups that affect people’s vulnerability to Coronaviruses. Additionally, the team developed a Biobank-based COVID-19 microbiome test which, combined with some Artificial Intelligence predictive analysis tools, can generate tailored recommendations for individuals to strengthen their microbiome, thereby making them more resistant to virus infection.
Indians are eager for better healthcare and trust it, as demonstrated by the exponential success of health-tech startups in India. By using technology to facilitate efficient and affordable capital employment, scalability, and affordability, the Indian healthcare industry may solve the issues plaguing it. In this regard, startup companies in India with a health tech focus are well-positioned to bridge the demand and need gap.
During FY2020-FY2023, the Indian health-tech market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 39 per cent and reach the US $50 billion by 2033, according to a new report.
About $2 billion is spent on health-tech products, which include segments such as telemedicine, e-pharmacy, fitness, wellness, healthcare IT, analytics, home healthcare and personal health management. The total expenditure for India’s healthcare industry falls under 1%, according to the RBSA Advisors report.
“Over the last several years, the Indian health-tech industry has received close to $1.6 billion in funding, as the pandemic has spread and technology has been adopted, said Rajeev Shah, MD and CEO of RBSA Advisors.
In ten years, the Indian health-tech industry will grow to $50 billion and $5 billion by 2023, according to a report. In 2020, the Indian health-tech market was dominated by e-pharmacies, which generated $700 million in revenues followed by B2B health-tech ($60.2), B2B medical supplies ($28.8), other health-tech services ($100 million), e-diagnostics ($70 million) and teleconsultation ($45 million).
Health care will radically change through robots, machine learning and artificial intelligence, wearables and on-body devices, and blockchain, among other factors. According to the report, increased focus on digitalising patient healthcare records and cloud-based infrastructures will accelerate the process.
There has been a rapid rise in robotics in the healthcare and medical industries. In the future, it is expected that ‘humanless’ systems and technology will be used in a wide range of fields, including surgery, prosthetics, therapeutics, healthcare logistics, and pharmaceutical manufacturing, among others. A 3D bioprinter will find applications in the development of drugs and the production of living human tissue.
Telemedicine combined with the Internet of Things has created the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), which plays an increasingly important role in preventing and monitoring illnesses.
AI-powered machines and analytics can help healthcare providers treat patients with more precision, efficiency, and effectiveness. According to the report, nanotechnology has applications in disease diagnosis, targeted drug delivery, and molecular imaging, and some products are being evaluated in clinical trials.
Investors are becoming interested in health-tech startups, which are raising capital. Several of the most prominent health-tech startups have received significant PE/VC funding, including healthcare and IT analytics company Innovaccer ($225 million), e-pharmacies Pharmeasy ($651.5 million) and 1mg ($191.3 million), telemedicine platform Practo ($232 million), and fitness and wellness platform cure. Fit ($404.6 million).
In addition to being unprecedented globally, the Covid-19 crisis put a great deal of strain on the Indian healthcare ecosystem, which was already fragile. The pandemic presented both challenges and opportunities to Indian health tech startups.
India has experienced a rise in the number of health-tech startups and investments in this field; two of its most recent unicorns, PharmEasy and Innovaccer, operate in the sector. There will be more surges in the future, so addressing Covid-19 and future health issues will be vital.
Telemedicine has accounted for 30 per cent of all patient visits during the pandemic, and this number is expected to continue rising. In May 2020, Practo reported an increase in online consultations of 16 per cent week over week, as well as a Series D investment. The epidemic encouraged rapid development and investor backing for several companies such as 1mg, Pharmeasy, and Mini.
A few startups are helping front-line workers, and Indians get vaccinated directly or indirectly.
Startups are working on many topics, such as data management, Covid-19 monitoring solutions, pandemic response care, social distancing using Bluetooth/IoT, patient tracking, remote monitoring, N-95 mask and PPE manufacturers, sterilisation tools and services, vaccine equipment manufacturers, IoT devices enabling at-home diagnostics, Covid-19 rapid test kits, supply chain management, AI/ML data-driven clinical trials, and many others.
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edited and proofread by nikita sharma
