Ms. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals participated in the ‘Digital Transformation in Healthcare’ conference organised by Microsoft and Express Healthcare

Tech giant Microsoft, along with Express Healthcare, organised a round table with select healthcare CEOs on the ‘Digital Transformation in Healthcare. The conference with healthcare CEOs brought out some concrete submissions on how technology will play a critical role in enabling healthcare. The prime focus of the select meeting was on how digitisation could help deliver superior services amid growing patient demand for better experience.

The two-hour-long discussion was chaired by Jean-Philippe Courtois (JPC), Executive Vice President and President, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations, who gave a broad overview of Microsoft’s mission to make healthcare more accessible and affordable for people across the region, using technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cortana.

Initiating the discussion, moderator of the roundtable session, Dr Rana Mehta, Leader-Healthcare, PwC India commented that the digital revolution is actually expected to happen across the continuum of care and asked how the private sector viewed this trend as the digital revolution sets in.

Briefing about private sector’s view on digital revolution in healthcare space, Ms. Sangita Reddy, Joint MD, Apollo Hospitals, said, “In India, one needs to look at multiple factors like scaling, innovation, access, financing and efficiency. A combination of all these factors are driven by IT at different levels. They cannot replace hospitals but will definitely have an influence.” Further drawing an analogy between healthcare and the telecom space, Ms. Sangita Reddy informed that the infrastructure facilities put up and the investment made by the telecom sector are seeing benefits by big players like Google and Amazon. The value realisation out of the original infrastructure is getting realised. Similarly, pharmaceutical companies and hospital providers must seriously look at how they can connect the ‘Uberisation and WhatAppisation’ of healthcare, alluding to the increasing number of apps in the healthcare space.

Ms. Sangita Reddy also said, “There is immense data available but the country needs data aggregation and integration. It needs the vision to integrate and put everything together. A tech giant like Microsoft can lead and tell us how it can be done. An integrated mission with a group of like-minded people and a consortium can bring in transformation.”