Dr Saji Salam serves as Chairman of Health Level Seven India and is a member of CII's National Healthcare Committee. He is a registered physician and earned his Masters Degree in Business Administration from University of Liverpool, UK, with specialization in Information Technology.
Demand for Health Level Seven (HL7) services and digital imaging and communication in medicare (Dicom) is expected to grow tremendously, according to Dr Salam. With both central and state governments seeking to create new standards for healthcare services and administration, HL7 has become one of the emerging areas and the market was set to grow to about $60 billion from the current $40 billion, according to Gartner group estimates. Speaking to K Santosh Nair of Pharmabiz.com, Dr Salam says to address this market many software vendors are seeking HL7 certification. Excerpts:

The demand for HL7 has been increasing. How is HL7 going about propagating awareness so that more and more IT vendors and healthcare institutes, even pharma companies, adopt the standards?

The HL7 is seeking to create awareness through centres of excellence in partnership with healthcare academic centres, management institutes and technology firms. The Institute of Life Sciences, Hyderabad, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Sri Ramachandra Medical College Management Centre, Chennai and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, are keen to create a platform for the facilitation.

The interesting aspect of the growth of HL7 certification is that a host of the management institutes are seeking to be a part of the initiative. The area of health management is now in synchronous with information technology and the blend of the two could provide an ideal platform for growth.

On a global level, HL7 is in collaboration with C-Disc (clinical data interchange consortium) to come out with a product R-Crim (regulated clinical reserve information management) that would address the pharma space. HL7 India is also coming out with a model for India, which will advocate the best practices for the pharmaceutical industry in the country.
Pharmaceutical companies in India are now trying to attract global attention. They are furthering their ground to the overseas market and it is imperative that they are in sync with the global standards. While in the overseas HL7 is the standard, Indian companies will have to adhere to this standard. This is where HL7 India plays a role, an important one at that. HL7 aims to educate the pharma companies about the standards prevailing in the global arena so as the enable them address the global market without much ado.

As a member of the CII, we are also seeking to promote India as a healthcare services destination where HL7 will be an important component. The kind of activity witnessed in the healthcare sector is an indication of the things to come. Standardisation in the healthcare informatics market will generate new avenues of business,"

HL7 has been conducting certification examination and in the country there are about 100 professional well versed with HL7 standards.

How has the response been to HL7 standards from pharmaceutical companies so far?

There has been good response from pharmaceutical companies in India. They have realized that if they needed a seamless integration with global markets, they need to adopt the standards prevailing in the overseas. Ever since HL7 India began its operations, we have been educating pharmaceutical companies about the HL7 standards. This has borne fruit, and more and more pharmaceutical companies now want to adopt the HL7 standards. We foresee many pharmaceutical companies adopting the HL7 standards in the near future.

What will further the demand for HL7 services is the decision of many multinationals eyeing India and looking towards joining hands with Indian pharmaceutical companies. When they come to India they bring along with them the standards they have adopted. This would force the Indian companies to adopt these standards if they want to be in the race.

Indian pharmaceutical companies and healthcare institutions have now been going in for information technology. Have IT companies responded the same way as the pharmaceutical companies and healthcare institutions?

Exactly. The healthcare segment in the country has been expanding drastically. What is more interesting is the fact that they have adopted information technology in a big way. A few years back the healthcare institutions were just thinking about adopting information technology in the day-to-day operations. Whatever the Information Technology vendors gave them they took it without much thinking. The information technology vendors were just looking at the healthcare industry for augmenting their revenues.

The situation is different now. Healthcare institutions have been adopting information technology in a big way. IT companies have the healthcare sector on top of their agenda. Investments by healthcare institutions in information technology have jumped leaps and bounds and vendors are just not looking at healthcare segment for augmenting their revenues but looking at the segment as a potential one.

The healthcare sector too is going global. And they are looking at adopting global standards. Now they are demanding from information technology vendors about a particular standard, in this case the HL7 standards. This has made the IT vendors look at HL7 standards so as to adopt the same and make better headway in their dealings with healthcare institutions.

The same goes for the pharmaceutical sector and the clinical research organisation sector respectively. IT companies will have to tune to their requirements, which mean they will adopt HL7 standards in a big way. The awareness of HL7 is increasing among the IT companies too.

The standardization in the healthcare informatics market and the HL7 standardisation could also help companies in the seamless integration of systems when merger or acquisition takes place

Which means the IT companies has the same for the TPAs (Third Party Administrators) in the cycle of health insurance?

Health insurance has not picked up in the country the way it has in the overseas. But in a way, the TPAs too are adopting standards which the IT companies must adhere. The TPAs in the country are just springing up. In the overseas, TPAs are dying. The connection is direct between the healthcare institutions and the insurance companies. It is not so in India. When the relationship is direct, the IT companies have to deliver products, which will be in sync with the needs of the healthcare institutions and insurance companies. They would have their own formats going by the standards and the IT companies will have to deliver such a requirement.