Health is the Motive and Digital is the Instrument

Abstract

The coronavirus crisis has seen an unprecedented response
from India and the world. If the viral outbreak has exposed gross inadequacies
in the healthcare systems of nations both rich and poor, it has
stirred a digital healthcare revolution that has been building since the
past decade. We have seen how this new era of digital health evolved
over the years since healthcare started getting increasingly unaffordable
in the western countries forcing a relook in their strategies to explosion of
digital innovations in mobile telephony and applications, internet, wearable
devices, artificial intelligence, robotics, big data and genomics. The
single biggest trigger for the digital shift has indeed been the COVID-19
pandemic this year, more so in India with astonishing response from the
private enterprise and the proactive push from the government so evident.
However, the full potential of this digital revolution cannot be realized
as long as core structural reforms in public healthcare do not take
place along with significant boost in digital infrastructure. The way digital
technologies have helped facilitate strategy and response to the global
pandemic and with predictions of more zoonotic outbreaks impending in
the coming years, it has become imperative for the world to increasingly
adopt and integrate digital innovations to make healthcare more accessible,
interconnected and affordable.