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About The Impact Of
Technology Development In Diagnostics On Health Outcomes
As per a WHO study, although
diagnostics comprise less than 5% of hospital costs, their
findings influence 60–70% of healthcare decision-making. In the
developing world, diagnostics is often a negligible proportion of
healthcare spending. India has one of the lowest spend on
diagnostics in the world.
WHO estimates that ‘at least 80% of
premature heart disease, strokes and diabetes and 40% of cancer
could be prevented through early diagnosis and lifestyle changes
such as healthy diet, regular physical activity and avoidance of
tobacco products’. This means that India needs comprehensive
awareness and diagnostic screening programs for both communicable
and non-communicable diseases to prevent the huge economical cost
of these avoidable diseases estimated at over 1.5 % of GDP.
The pandemic has greatly accelerated
the innovation wave in Indian healthcare sector especially in the
diagnostics sector which became crucial for COVID-19 testing.
India with its huge healthcare sector and a huge pool of
scientists and engineers, has the potential to become a global
manufacturing and R&D hub of medical devices.
Creating Future Of Diagnostics
Diagnostics technology is moving
fast in the direction of full automation with the help of latest
developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and
Machine Learning (ML). From developing accurate and efficient
diagnostic solutions to accommodating technological interventions.
Further, as the demand for
healthcare continues to grow exponentially, so will the volume of
laboratory testing. But with limited availability of qualified and
trained pathologists, it has become essential to develop
technologies which assist them in faster diagnosis. Manufacturers
are pioneering the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine
Learning (ML) in new products and concepts intended to make
laboratory diagnostics easy to use, thereby increasing their reach
and ensuring quality of diagnosis. With the help of these
technologies, many diagnostic tests which used to take hours of a
pathologist’s time can now be done in minutes. Nowadays it is
common to find pathology labs doing over a million tests a day
which was impossible just a few years ago. And now most of these
tests cost one tenth of what it used to cost earlier. This is
technology benefiting humanity. In the coming years, the main
challenge for manufacturers in developing countries like India
would be to make such technologies affordable and accessible so
that it can benefit over 800 million people living in Tier 3 and 4
towns and villages of India.
( Based On article bt Mr Nikhil
Vazirani, CEO, Transasia-Erba Group as published in Financial
Express, weblink :
https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/health/emergence-ofinnovations-in-diagnostics-during-pandemic/2255652/
)
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