Philips in push for digital healthcare

 Banking on affordability and digital technologies, India will make a larger impact on the  healthcare sector globally, said Medwell Ventures Chairman Vishal Bali at the Philips Digital Healthcare Conclave 2015 on Friday.

“India will leapfrog a lot more in creating affordable solutions using digital technologies because 80 per cent of the population pays for healthcare out of pocket and when you pay out of pocket you are most sensitive to cost,” said Bali.

Bali said the burgeoning Indian startup ecosystem will disrupt the traditional business models. “Here I am finding new wave of changes with the percolation of smartphone in the country which will help in bringing out more healthcare solutions for the masses,” he said. “Indian healthcare startups alone have managed to receive $108 million of venture capital funding until now, and this is a great development,” added Bali.

The event saw startups exhibiting their innovative solutions in wellness, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of hospitals.

Philips Innovation Campus (PIC) CEO M R Srinivas Prasad said a vast country like india should use its digital power to cater to the demands of the healthcare sector. “Philips has embarked to apply mobile, digital and cloud technologies to improve patient outcomes through care co-ordination and patient empowerment across the health space,” he said.

As part of the programme, PIC unveiled mobile obstetrical monitoring, an application which remotely monitors pregnant women for early high-risk identification via a new tele-health solution.

Its newly unveiled android-based mobile application, Mobility Sanjivini, will eliminate the paper-based system and help midwives working in the field to capture data.