India is witnessing a steady increase in healthcare sector spending, especially in the deployment of information technology (IT) in the healthcare delivery system.
Constant changing patient demographics, chronic disease growth, and increased healthcare expenditure have increased the demand for the implementation of health-related IT in India.
Health enterprises are now moving towards more integrated IT-enabled or e-healthcare delivery models for sustainable healthcare delivery.
Large-scale implementation of e-Health projects across the country would dramatically increase the accessibility of healthcare for patients residing in the remote rural parts of India also, revealed Mordor Intelligence Report.
The study conducted a Pan-India survey of 2,306 medical professionals such as practicing doctors, medical students, and professors teaching in various medical institutions across the 30 states of India.
The subjects were attached to either government hospitals, private hospitals, hospitals run by non-governmental organizations, or educational institutes. The survey was conducted in two groups.
The first group included 306 doctors who were surveyed using a net-based questionnaire. They responded via the internet. All the professionals who consented to the survey and who had access to internet connectivity were included in the survey.
The second group included 2000 doctors. The survey was based on face-to-face interviews. This ‘second phase’ coincided with that of the home-to-home-based National Healthcare Survey (NHS) 2013–14 conducted by IIHMR. The face-to-face survey for Technology Adaptation Survey was clubbed along with NHS 2013–14 to enhance the coverage of doctors in the interiors of the country. Conducting face-to-face interviews ensured the participation of doctors who did not use the internet but used other forms of health IT applications such as EMR/EHR/mobile apps, etc. The survey used the ‘WHO 60-cluster-sampling method’ for the second set of data collection.
The study revealed that regular usage of healthcare platforms is quite low across medical professionals of all segments. However, the disposition to use IT and specifically mobile apps is quite positive. Disposition is more positive amongst younger professionals.
Most patient records are stored still in paper formats by most professionals. But, in private hospitals and research institutes, records are started storing in digital format along with the traditional paper record methods.
It is felt by the fraternity that EMRs will definitely enhance patient care quality and efficiency; however, they are concerned about the costs and investments that the system would entail.
Key barriers to acceptance of IT in healthcare are:
- High cost of implementation for things like EMR
- Lack of user-friendly options
- Vendors lacking healthcare domain knowledge
- Fear of data loss
- IT attitudinal segments of medical professionals
The survey findings suggest that medical professionals display segmented attitudes with respect to e-Health. However, they all lie on a continuum with respect to the adoption of IT in healthcare and this overlaps with their age continuum.
