To get in place an updated pan India data on healthcare system of the country, Continua Health Alliance recently entered into strategic alliance with Disease Management Association of India (DMAI) to initiate a national health survey soon. Through this unique yearly survey, they aim to provide Indian consumers with an option to get access to all the vital information on healthcare information relevant to the country.

As per the plan, they will start the data collection by August -September and complete the same by December 2013, the results of which is expected to be out by March'2014. Experts inform that this national healthcare survey 2013 is designed to focus on accessing and analysing the users' perception and expectations about the current healthcare facilities of the country.

It is understood that this survey will be conducted in a phase-wise manner, focusing on meeting up with around 60,000 people across 12000 households in 12 zones across India in the first year, to understand the views on their healthcare needs, perception about the current public and private sector facilities and their readiness for the technology driven care, including mHealth and telemedicine, besides gathering other information related to health care. While in the second phase which is expected to start next year, they plan to increase the sample size to 100,000 people, thereby making this as the largest independent healthcare survey in the country.

The survey will divide India in 12 zones and from each zone two districts will be selected, thus a total of 500 house per districts will be covered. These 500 houses will be further divided into rural and urban areas as per the population proportion. It is understood that for the first year, a leading national healthcare academic institution has already been identified for data collection and analysis. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, chairman of the Continua Health Alliance-IWG informed that through this independent survey they plan to focus on understanding the perception and utilisation of healthcare services, life style and expenses on health and find out the preference for healthcare facilities, while examining people’s openness to use technology.

He pointed out, “Ironically, in spite of being a technologically advanced country, very few initiatives have been taken by the government to put correct use of technology to address the healthcare needs of the country. To make matters worse, there have been no regular survey or study that can independently access what the Indian consumer wants when it comes to healthcare. Also, the data on healthcare available with the government are outdated, having no use for planning for business or deciding about healthcare policies and programs. Especially in the light of the changed ground realities since 2005 after the launch of NRHM.”

This will be the first large scale independent survey done in the country on healthcare annually which will have a huge impact on the way healthcare strategies and policies are devised in the country. Whereas for the government, this survey will help them in planning to improve the healthcare delivery for people.

“After all, the money spent on healthcare by the government is the tax payers money, with Rs. 300,000 crore at stake for the 12th five year plan from the government, this survey might reveal interesting realities for the policy makers to consider,” added Gupta.