As the country’s distribution of healthcare expertise is skewed, video-conferencing and further more telemedicine is a way to close that gap. It helps in increasing efficiencies and productivity across organizations , Ron Emerson RN BSN, Global Director of Healthcare, Polycom tells Nandita Vijay in an email interaction. Excerpts:
How does Polycom intend to tap the opportunities in video conferencing from the life sciences sector and healthcare market?
We believe that healthcare in all sectors across India is at an inflection point with a growing middle class which will increase the demand for healthcare. We also see a significant mal-distribution of healthcare professionals with 33 per cent of government doctors in India serving in rural areas and 70 per cent of the population living in the semi-urban region. This is where we see video-conferencing and further more telemedicine can be adopted to bridge the gap. Telemedicine is used by healthcare organizations for medical education and administrative purposes to increase efficiencies. It is used by life science and pharmaceutical manufacturing companies to increase productivity across their organizations.
Could you tell us about the adoption of video conferencing in the developing markets of Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa (BRCS) and Middle East, North Africa (MENA)?
In MENA, video-conferencing is very mature as it is utilized for medical education, healthcare administration and telemedicine. In certain areas of healthcare, video-conferencing is predicted to double within four to six years in certain specialities. In many MENA countries, video-conferencing has become the tool of choice to share medical knowledge. Also, using the US as an example, interactive telemedicine is also growing at a significant rate.
The growth statistics for telehealth are staggering. Market research firm IMS predicts that the US telehealth market would grow from $240 million in 2013 to $1.9 billion by 2018, representing an annual growth rate of 56 per cent. This explosive growth prediction caused Forbes to label telehealth as the top health trend for 2014.
We have an ageing population, mal-distribution of healthcare providers and access issues that are making healthcare organizations and systems look at different delivery models and telemedicine is one of them.
Is India far behind these countries in healthcare and life sciences technology ?
In life science and more specifically manufacturing plants that develop pharmaceutical products is utilizing video-conferencing for a variety of reasons including administrative and reaching out to counterparts on a global level. With regards to telehealth, India has a unique opportunity to leverage the challenges of geography and where people are located to validate the reason for using video-conferencing. In telehealth, there are countries that are more advanced in the delivery of telemedicine, but there are also countries that have not scratched the surface yet.
How important is India in your business development plan and what is your strategy to see Polycom increase its presence in the life sciences and healthcare sector here?
We see India as having the key demographics and geography that can leverage the full benefits of video-conferencing both in healthcare and the life sciences sectors. Large travel distances, traffic congestion and increasing pharmaceutical manufacturing provide an environment that can truly benefit from the use of this technology. Plus, as mentioned earlier, the doctor shortage in rural areas and increasing size of the middle class will result in increased demand for services regardless of where people are located. Also, we see the increasing size of the private healthcare sector as a key driver for growth. Telemedicine is used as a way to grow market share by developing relationships with patients regardless of where they are located which results in the healthcare provider to generate revenues. This competitive environment will push healthcare organizations to look at different models to differentiate themselves from their competition.
How do you view the current scene for telemedicine in India and global markets?
As stated earlier, we see many growth drivers covering shortage of healthcare providers, ageing population, access to doctors in rural areas and increased chronic diseases that are going to push India and other markets to look at different healthcare delivery models to meet the needs of patients across all countries.
What are the visible trends of video-conferencing in life sciences and healthcare sectors ?
Integration of video-conferencing in the workflow of other applications is beginning. For example, video will be used as part of the patient electronic health record or PACS (picture archiving and communication system). Then there will be integration of video in a quality assurance system for life sciences and shift to cloud-based video solutions.
What are challenges that companies like yours encounter in the area of video conferencing in the developing markets?
One is we need adequate bandwidth to provide high level interactions. Polycom leads the industry with the ability to get full HD 720P 30 fps with as little as 512 kbps. We also need to work with policy-makers to develop a telehealth friendly environment so doctors are incentivized to use different delivery models that benefit patients and the overall healthcare system. This is where we look to medical associations to establish by-laws and lead the way within their specific speciality group to validate the use of this technology that can provide services to populations across India that never had them before.