Patient-Centricity in Continuum Care Delivery

A qualified chartered accountant and a passionate investor, Rajinish incepted Sukino Healthcare in 2015. He has successfully handled key roles across companies such as Microsoft, Deutsche Bank, and Reliance Energy. Additionally, he had also founded another health-tech startup named Grecell Technologies way back in the 1990s. In a conversation with the India Pharma Outlook magazine, he elaborates on the importance of patient-centricity in the healthcare sector.

Although it is used widely today, it is critical to understand the concept of 'patient-centric'. This concept didn't exist until a few years back and came into being along with the development of consumerism and increased consumer demands across various industries. While this concept was acceptable across almost every industry, the same transcending to the healthcare domain was quite a surprise for many. As a result, it had to be defined in a separate manner. In healthcare, patient-centric means putting the patient at the top of the pyramid with a sustained engagement model to achieve the best experience and outcome. It also involves educating patients about the help – both pre- and post-acute interventions – that will be provided to them, informing them how it will be easier in the future to come forward to get similar care without going through too many hassles, and, lastly, letting them know how they can seamlessly move around within the care provider itself or from one healthcare provider to other. 

Continuum care is also part of the patient-centric model in healthcare, wherein the patient is not only provided with acute intervention immediately but also advised on ways in which their ailments can be controlled and prevented in the future. As this is still an evolving segment, patient-centric continuum care is now being provided only by a few large healthcare players in the industry. By keeping patient-centricity at its core, the continuum care industry is catering to the demands of the patients and bringing out innovative healthcare models.

Challenges and the Role of Technology

In a country such as India, where tertiary care hospitals are available to a large extent but only in small pockets, the healthcare ecosystem still has a long way to go to truly adopt the patient-centric model. The primary reasons for this are a lack of awareness among patients about their rights and inadequate technological integration between various healthcare providers to immediately share a patient's treatment information in case of an emergency. 

Technology has multiple roles to play in a patient-centric model. First, it should provide sufficient information immediately for patients to decide which healthcare provider to go to address their ailment. Second, it must be able to advise the patient on whether they need to go to the hospital for the first round of check-ups or if the consultation can be done online virtually. Third, technology must also be able to assist general physicians in the initial diagnosis of the patient's ailment and help them decide whether a specialist doctor needs to be brought into the picture. Furthermore, technology also enables proper disease documentation and efficient management of patient records in a central repository so that they are available for patients at their convenience. Lastly, patients must be able to leverage technology for follow-up consultations with doctors via online mediums instead of having to physically visit the hospitals to show the reports or the surgery wound, which is unnecessary in most cases. 

Metrics to Measure Patient-Centricity

Standards are now being established in advanced countries such as the US, which are now evangelizing this concept for countries to follow. Since India has a lot of cultural affiliations with the US in societal terms, we are well-positioned to utilize these standards. Apart from this, some of the key metrics to measure patient-centricity are the wait time to get issues addressed, affordability of treatment, and robustness of technology used in the treatment process.

However, patient-centricity, in simple terms, means that the doctor must not lose sight of the patient after providing them with the initial care. At least the healthcare provider or the hospital that the doctor is associated with must stay in constant contact with the patient and keep track of their recovery. Technology plays the role of an enabler here by making it possible for patients to pass on their present health data and medical records efficiently to healthcare providers and get virtual consultations if they are facing any problems instead of physically visiting the doctors.