Covid-19 pandemic accelerates digital adoption in health sector: PwC India

While doctors and patients went online to mitigate infection risk, pharma companies too adopted digital tools rapidly for customer engagement, development of multiple delivery models and R&D

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies in the healthcare segment as companies look for alternate models of delivering care and gain better insights on disease management, PwC India said in its report on Wednesday.

“The increased focus on digitalisation has helped in accelerating contactless healthcare and faster decision making. Technological innovations have further helped patients and consumers to understand diseases better and subsequently, demand higher-quality healthcare services,” the consultancy said in its report on healthcare trends in the post-pandemic world.

The risk of infection and social distancing measures during the pandemic limited physical interaction between health care professionals and patients. While patient-doctor interaction shifted to online modes, pharma companies too accelerated adoption of digital tools for customer engagement, development of multiple delivery models and for research and development.

Hospitals too have begun using electronic medical records to improve patient health outcomes, identify better practices for doctors, generate better insights for pharma and device companies and provide superior underwriting capabilities for insurers.

Rana Mehta, partner and leader healthcare, PwC India, said, “Voice-based AI will bring in the next big transformation in healthcare. Such a technological advancement would enhance the upstream value of the healthcare framework and further usher in the ambient era of voice-user interface.”

“The pandemic’s impact compelled healthcare organisations to rethink, reprioritise and reengineer the business models. They are now addressing the emerging challenges for the entire healthcare delivery ecosystem, such as adopting virtual-first healthcare delivery models on a larger scale. This allows for a more efficient, sustainable, technology-enabled and scale-ready healthcare ecosystem. Covid- 19 has created a window of opportunities for molecular diagnostics, the potential for which has largely remained untapped till now,” the report added.