<p>The previous two Covid-19 waves have left all the industries in paradoxical disarray, where new challenges and opportunities are being brought to the fore. Major challenges include the shortage of medication, oxygen and the medical workforce. On the other hand, a major lesson highlighted by the pandemic is that without a well-equipped and trained allied healthcare workforce, overcoming healthcare challenges in a developing country like India is next to impossible.</p>.<p>The Indian healthcare workforce is divided into three major categories of doctors consisting of 10 to 15 per cent, nurses consisting of 20 to 25 per cent and allied healthcare professionals consisting of 60-70 per cent. Being in a country with very few medical facilities, the Indian populace had made peace with the abysmal healthcare which was available prior to the crisis. However, Covid-19 taught us that we can’t ignore healthcare. More and more efforts need to be directed towards healthcare development, and an educated and healthy workforce is pertinent if we wish to unlock the demographic dividend of the age structure of India’s population. Moreover, in order to firmly tackle that issue, the Indian healthcare system needs to be uplifted and brought to a robust state in order to not fall back to the pre-crisis unprepared state and that can be done with the intervention of ed-tech.</p>.<p>The pandemic has also presented significant opportunities for the healthcare workforce due to massive demand and a major shortfall of supply which triggered a sudden surge in the salaries of allied health professionals (AHP) along with other healthcare workforce and was caused by the unpreparedness of the entire value chain of our country.<br />There are opportunities that lie in every crisis and even if nothing else changes, private sector innovation in healthcare will see a massive boost over the next 10 years. Like the dot-com bubble burst gave rise to several large technology firms and the financial bubble burst led to lots of innovation in fintech and access to finance, this healthcare crisis will bring irreversible growth because innovators around the world see this glaring opportunity staring us in the face now.</p>.<p>Currently, India has an estimated workforce of 5 million AHPs whereas what we need is 3-4 times more of it, which is inconceivable to imagine in a democratised healthcare system without local and immediate access to AHPs. Therefore, the mass availability of well-equipped and well-trained AHPs is the need of the hour and that can be achieved through the intervention of ed-tech. Ed-tech offers cutting-edge technology to ensure real-time analytics and alerts on each aspiring paramedic studying in the system and providing extra care to the ones who need it at the right moment.</p>.<p>A citizen of a remote village will someday be able to get quality level AHP training as we do in the metro cities today. With ed-tech, they will be able to learn basic triage and vitals recording and will know how to get the patient on a video call with a specialist, transcribe the call as it happens, create personalised medication specifically for that patient and then ensure day-to-day delivery of that personalised medication and high-quality treatment, escalating back to the doctor when necessary. This is a future that we can look up to. </p>.<p><em>(<span class="italic">The author is the co-founder of a healthcare-focused ed-tech company.)</span></em></p>
<p>The previous two Covid-19 waves have left all the industries in paradoxical disarray, where new challenges and opportunities are being brought to the fore. Major challenges include the shortage of medication, oxygen and the medical workforce. On the other hand, a major lesson highlighted by the pandemic is that without a well-equipped and trained allied healthcare workforce, overcoming healthcare challenges in a developing country like India is next to impossible.</p>.<p>The Indian healthcare workforce is divided into three major categories of doctors consisting of 10 to 15 per cent, nurses consisting of 20 to 25 per cent and allied healthcare professionals consisting of 60-70 per cent. Being in a country with very few medical facilities, the Indian populace had made peace with the abysmal healthcare which was available prior to the crisis. However, Covid-19 taught us that we can’t ignore healthcare. More and more efforts need to be directed towards healthcare development, and an educated and healthy workforce is pertinent if we wish to unlock the demographic dividend of the age structure of India’s population. Moreover, in order to firmly tackle that issue, the Indian healthcare system needs to be uplifted and brought to a robust state in order to not fall back to the pre-crisis unprepared state and that can be done with the intervention of ed-tech.</p>.<p>The pandemic has also presented significant opportunities for the healthcare workforce due to massive demand and a major shortfall of supply which triggered a sudden surge in the salaries of allied health professionals (AHP) along with other healthcare workforce and was caused by the unpreparedness of the entire value chain of our country.<br />There are opportunities that lie in every crisis and even if nothing else changes, private sector innovation in healthcare will see a massive boost over the next 10 years. Like the dot-com bubble burst gave rise to several large technology firms and the financial bubble burst led to lots of innovation in fintech and access to finance, this healthcare crisis will bring irreversible growth because innovators around the world see this glaring opportunity staring us in the face now.</p>.<p>Currently, India has an estimated workforce of 5 million AHPs whereas what we need is 3-4 times more of it, which is inconceivable to imagine in a democratised healthcare system without local and immediate access to AHPs. Therefore, the mass availability of well-equipped and well-trained AHPs is the need of the hour and that can be achieved through the intervention of ed-tech. Ed-tech offers cutting-edge technology to ensure real-time analytics and alerts on each aspiring paramedic studying in the system and providing extra care to the ones who need it at the right moment.</p>.<p>A citizen of a remote village will someday be able to get quality level AHP training as we do in the metro cities today. With ed-tech, they will be able to learn basic triage and vitals recording and will know how to get the patient on a video call with a specialist, transcribe the call as it happens, create personalised medication specifically for that patient and then ensure day-to-day delivery of that personalised medication and high-quality treatment, escalating back to the doctor when necessary. This is a future that we can look up to. </p>.<p><em>(<span class="italic">The author is the co-founder of a healthcare-focused ed-tech company.)</span></em></p>