Author: Dr. Pankaj Gupta
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The old paradigm of business as a linear value chain is now facing extinction. Businesses are now ecologies and not merely producers and sellers ! That requires a change in thinking. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) needs to be a mission at every step of the process. This is hard to overemphasize! The internet is clearly the medium that allows such integration across time and space. It is time to take a more accepting look at Cloud and Social Media technologies. This offers the only universal layer of engagement across stakeholders. The investment in IT hardware as we new it in the past has been greatly optimized by mobile. It has brought a tactile feel to life and work for all of us. Mobile mirrors the nature of Healthcare in terms of immediacy and continuity so well. Healthcare needs to embrace it wholeheartedly. Healthcare can only profit from it.
There is a huge Vacuum in Indian Healthcare-IT space. Large Healthcare-IT vendors have exited the market. Either they lost interest and exited or got bought out e.g. TrakHealth, iSoft. Also the market is moving from client-server to cloud and from Capex to Opex models. New cloud based players are small in size and yet to reach enterprise class. Existing players are not able to shift out to cloud because of their long term negotiated contracts in client-server model. The time is now when full conversion of Enterprise class to SMAC will happen anyways. Healthcare CIOs can keep eyes closed or tighten the belt and ride the Digital wave.
Recently I spoke to a Director of State NHM in India. He said we are doing HMIS and Public health through ANM/ASHA. How do we benefit from SMAC IoT platform? Hard for many to imagine SMAC is a unifying force across enterprises and IoT breaks the silos. This can be quite unnerving for many.
The era of hierarchical command and control is over. Now is the time for horizontal networking across Communities of Practice [CoP]. Whatever gets the maximum likes becomes the In Thing. Whatever is the In Thing gets used the maximum. Students are learning more from the online networking than from the formal classroom and professors. Research will reach the point of use as soon as it gets published. Primary care Providers in semi-urban and rural areas will have access to latest therapeutic recommendations. The old Adage that ‘Knowledge is the only form of power that is not expendable but grows when shared’ has become true.
The movie Avatar has beautifully depicted the concept of Small data ^ = Big Data where small knowledge base of each living being [App] is contributing towards the collective consciousness [Big Data] of Eywa. Now the question is will the future of SMAC/IoT be driven by technology or biotechnology?
Anyways for now – The time has come when you don’t need big monolithic HIS software to run hospitals. Now you can do everything with small mobile based Apps for every function. Though I am already seeing many of these Apps in the market but what is lacking is a unified platform on which the Apps should be built such that the data can be seamlessly collated. Also it gives the provider the flexibility to select from a bouquet of Apps.
IoT integration platforms are emerging that will integrate at the App level, Data level and Semantic level. Anyone in the ecosystem can slice, dice, run reports on the collated data.
Successful Cloud models have dug the grave for the Enterprise Hardware. Capex has got converted to Opex. Now you can pay for the software on the cloud like you pay your monthly electricity bill.
SMAC coupled with IoT has a potential to bring the Aggregator Business model to Healthcare. Soon the unorganised and fragmented primary care, secondary care and supporting care market will begin to get Aggregated. I see these Aggregators becoming larger than established capital intensive Enterprise market similar to what happened in the Automobile market. It will be in the interest of Insurance, Pharma and Govt to go all out and support this emerging SMAC/IoT driven Healthcare Market Aggregation.
References
Why Healthcare must Re-imagine itself – and how
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-healthcare-must-re-imagine-itself-how-arun-kumbhat
Why All Indian Hospitals IT is in Bad Shape
http://healthcareitstrategy.blogspot.in/2014/04/why-all-indian-hospitals-it-is-in-bad.html
Global HIS/EMR vendor nightmare outside US
http://healthcareitstrategy.blogspot.in/2012/08/global-hisemr-vendor-nightmare-outside.html
Thick client vs Thin client
http://healthcareitstrategy.blogspot.in/2008/08/thick-client-vs-thin-client.html
There is no Market for EMR in India
http://healthcareitstrategy.blogspot.in/2012/10/there-is-no-market-for-emr-in-india.html
Size of Healthcare-IT Market in India
http://healthcareitstrategy.blogspot.in/2012/06/size-of-healthcare-it-market-in-india.html
Please note: The Author of this article is Dr. Pankaj Gupta. The article was first published on Dr. Gupta’s blog. And also on Dr. Gupta’s LinkedIn profile :New Healthcare Aggregators: SMAC and IoT | Dr Pankaj Gupta | LinkedIn
Article By: Dr. Pankaj Gupta
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