By- Saurav Kasera, Co- Founder at Clirnet
Even now, in many less fortunate areas, obtaining a professional healthcare service is considered more of a privilege than a right. In India, nearly 75% of health infrastructure and resources are concentrated in urban areas, where only 27% of the population live. This portrays the example of inequality persisting across the country. Death rates and life expectancies tell a similar story, and the contributors to such phenomena are poverty, remoteness, and infrastructure, which leads to insufficient investment in the local healthcare system. Residents in these regions often find themselves with very few or almost none of the primary healthcare services and even fewer preventative healthcare services. It is essential to bridge this gap by employing strategists who are involved with technology and collaborating intensely with health systems.
Role of Telemedicine in Bridging the Healthcare Gap
Technology has become a true asset in healthcare provision, especially in rural and marginalized regions that face several constraints. Technologies are indeed tools that, if harnessed well, can increase the level of health services that are available, accessible, affordable, and effective. One of the more exciting new technologies is telemedicine, which permits individuals living far from the clinic and ill to contact the physician without going to the clinic. For instance, telemedicine eliminates distance constraints and minimizes queues and delays in seeking medical care by allowing patients to see physicians using video calls or telephone. The technology also escalates the possibility of receiving the appropriate diagnosis since patients can seek specialists in various conditions and instances, enhancing patient management.
Potential of Mobile health to Bridge the Healthcare Gap
Mobile health (mHealth) applications have also greatly helped patients by providing relevant health information specific to them, texts for their medications, and symptom and vital signs tracking modules. These applications help adults take active measures to manage their health-seeking behaviour, make informed choices, and prevent illnesses. Furthermore, mHealth innovations may reduce the knowledge gap between healthcare providers and patients’ relatives by providing educational materials on many health aspects that help improve health literacy in a population.
Solutions to Effectively Implement Telemedicine and (mHealth) Applications
Even though technology has enormous potential in making healthcare services more accessible, comprehensive planning and solutions to a number of challenges must be thoroughly addressed for real success to be achieved.
Above all, the internet is necessary for telemedicine services and mHealth applications. In regions where the infrastructure is not very well developed, it is very important to install broadband connectivity to enable residents to use these digital solutions. Governments and collaborations with the private sector can solve part of the problem by working to create the infrastructure needed to advance the provision of digital health in regions that usually do not have such capabilities.
However, there are also legal, data privacy, and data security issues. Telemedicine and mHealth applications include aspects that involve a patient’s data, which can easily be misused, which means strict measures must be taken to prevent this. History has already proven that these IT systems and platforms may become targets for aggressive intruders and that all organizations operating them should comply with some security policies related to data protection.
In addition, it is essential to train both healthcare professionals and patients to make the most of the technological solutions provided. Many medical patients and even practitioners may have yet to use the telemedicine platforms and the mHealth applications, especially in rural settings where the adoption of technology may be slower. We must emphasize education and assistance to reap the benefits of provided media tools. Local health authorities and health technology providers can work together to provide classes and training to help the users of these devices maximize their use.
Although technology solves some barriers, this alone cannot solve the problem. To close the healthcare gap, effective working relationships must exist with existing healthcare providers. One such example is bringing healthcare to such underprivileged communities via mobile clinics. These clinics will help to aid the rural communities with essential medical equipment, basic health check-ups and immunisation. Mobile clinics make it easy for healthcare professionals to get to communities seeking treatment. In addition to this, intermediate healthcare is provided by mobile clinics aimed at building relationships with patients in the community, facilitating better healthcare outcomes in the future.
Another aspect is sustaining the recruitment and retention of community health workers (CHWs). Through their work experience, CHWs have in-depth knowledge about the communities they work with as they do the groundwork. Thus, their active intervention in healthcare policies can influence health education, promote lifestyle changes and seek out people in need of care. However, it needs to be accompanied by investments in infrastructure and training.
Reversing averages in access to health care will always be challenging, but there is a hope! The health status of the people at different levels of the society can be readily improved by optimizing technology and by creating deep-rooted community partnerships. Nonetheless, it is crucial to understand that a lot needs to be done to make quality healthcare accessible to people from all walks of life, under all conditions.
Moreover, meeting healthcare needs in low-resource areas is another major challenge that demands continuous negotiation and balance between technology and local community leaders. However, a collaborative and innovative approach is the only solution by which the existing inequality in the healthcare domain could be overcome.
