Expect People to Accept Change

About 70 days back, the medical community, authorities and the Government were seemingly all dead against the virtual consultations. They were been considered as poor quality and illegal with no privacy and confidentiality of data in expressed forms and even as a video stream. And then the COVID forced them change their stand and take 180 degrees turn to ensure passage of written legal permissions and the protocols of providing the essential consultation services using video streaming services even over WhatsApp. It makes us believe that necessity “indeed” is mother of inventions.

“Everyone needs to have a backup plan in place. Earlier Plan B’s were luxurious, but now it will be very important.” (Ankit Nagori, Curefit)

COVID tool everyone by surprise and revealed several gaps in the strategic plans of almost all the industries. It should be an eye opener for the global health community to look into how the preventive, diagnostic, predictive and primary healthcare has to be structured and made robust so that there is continuity to the service delivery even under these kinds of similar conditions. Continuity will be an important consideration while framing any strategy going further.

Healthcare providers need to replace the conventional processes by use of technology wherever possible. Virtual consultation, virtual rounds to ICU, remote patient monitoring, wearable and point of care devices for vital data monitoring, use of VR in training, AI/ ML for predictive analytics, virtual patient counseling, virtual attendant counseling, contact less visitor and patient registration management, efficient patient tracking devices, use of robotics in support services and many such similar innovative implementation plans can yield in defining new normal for the healthcare industry.

“The future will belong to those companies who can keep communication and collaboration going during difficult times, and continue with the same model post crisis. The three key points are planning, prioritization, and agile execution.” (Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Deutsche Bank)

Where you are in planning for the post COVID era is for you to think about. First movers do always have certain advantages. So your time starts now!