Embracing healthcare software applications

Vasukumar Nair
Vasukumar Nair, Director – Marketing & Sales, 21st Century Informatics
What were some of the key challenges that the Health IT sector faced in 2012?
21st Century Informatics has achieved a few good orders in 2012. For these customers, we are providing solutions ranging from end-to-end hospital information systems to a multi-centred chain of enterprise level solutions. We have leveraged our domain expertise acquired through the last 18 years and continue to provide a scalable, affordable and reliable Hospital Information System. However, the key challenges continue to be slow decision-making and low-budget allocation from the providers’ side. I think there is still lack of awareness on advantages of IT automation and they don’t consider IT as an enabler to improve organisational performance. Finally this will reflect in low IT budgets allocated and sometimes lack of support during the time implementation and that has to be certainly changed.

What changes you have noticed in healthcare in the year 2012 in areas like Health IT, Medical Equipment, Regulations etc? 
One of the few areas that we call ‘happening’ in India is healthcare. We found a lot of stakeholders such as service providers, regulatory bodies, software providers becoming very active and we believe they are the driving forces for that positive happening. In 2012 we participated in a few healthcare events and we found that the industry is talking about interoperability and standardisation. Advanced healthcare applications definitely require reliable and secured interoperable standards. Another factor is that standardisation of a healthcare process needs to be in place, which can also promote better regulation.

What are the prospects of growth for the health IT market in 2013? 
Whether it is green fields or expansion of hospitals, or chain of general clinics, speciality clinics – all components of the Indian healthcare, irrespective of their size, are rapidly embracing healthcare software applications and we are seeing a healthy demand for our solutions. Definitely, there are some new healthcare projects coming up and also many in the expansion mode. There will be a need of healthcare IT applications for these new ventures.

We are constantly innovating to provide new features and functionality to our users. We are working on a new technology platform that enables rapid expansion of functionality during IT products implementation.
Please tell us about some new and innovative solutions/technologies that you are planning to introduce in 2013? 
We are constantly innovating to provide new features and functionality to our users. We are working on a new technology platform that enables rapid expansion of functionality during IT products implementation. It is supported by advancement in cloud computing technology and emergence of the SaaS model. We are hoping that by mid of 2013, we would be able to launch this for our customers.

What are the top technologies in healthcare that will play crucial role in the year 2013 and beyond? 
There are many technology trends in the market. Whether it is Cloud, Analytics, Big data, the technology is here to stay, but I do not believe that the mid market healthcare organisations have yet taken full advantage of it. I am sure; they can capitalise these emerging technologies and attain competitive advantage.

Evolving software for transformation

The current set of healthcare products is designed to improve the healthcare process by providing customised interventions, reducing the cost incurred, and ensuring an integrated and shared patient-centred care

By Rajmohan Nair, Head – Marketing and Partner Sales, 21st Century Informatics

There is a tremendous leap in the market primarily due to the implementation of various healthcarecentric laws and acts by  institutions and regulatory bodies, advances in technology, and increased awareness among patients and their demand for quality care at low cost. Healthcare providers, hence, have a wide variety of packages to choose from for facilitating healthcare reforms, competing in the market, providing high quality service with low cost of operations, planning for expansion and maintaining efficient control of operations. During the last two decades, a variety of software products have been developed and implemented for healthcare providers. Initially, when electronic records were introduced into the market, their functionality and application value were restricted to the same location (i.e., hospital) they were operational in. Over the years, this restriction has diminished, and the application has evolved into a unified patient-centred EHR system facilitating a seamless inter- and intra-hospital data transfer.

Although the plethora of healthcare ICT products available in the market provides the basis for a collaborative shared patient care, the effectiveness of these products depends on the accuracy with which they fulfil the dynamically evolving needs of the healthcare  industry. These approaches generally encompass all the key processes such as diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, revenue cycle management, administrative function improvisation, policy management and business and clinical analytics.

Healthcare providers and other stakeholders in the industry must look forward to adopting highly evolvable healthcare applications software that will have the inherent DNA to adapt to ‘constant change’.
The challenge
One of the main challenges that affect the need to fulfil the ever-changing requirement scenario is that users are often not satisfied with the products offered and their applications. Survey reports indicate that the dissatisfaction is primarily due to the products’ limiteduser interface and customisation to overcome changing needs. The healthcare ICT industry is becoming aware that the traditional business software approach towards building healthcare software products, which involves a rapid expansion of functionality during implementation and post-implementation stages, is not suitable for the healthcare segment. It has been observed and approved by industry leaders that, especially in the healthcare applications scenario, the key feature of any product is its ‘change’ capability. When organisations are faced with the ‘constant change’ phenomenon due to changes in the business ecosystem, such as organisational, political, economical, statutory, technological and legal, the need for a constantly improvised change request in application software is equally demanding. If these modification requests are addressed by the principal software provider, the biggest disadvantages are huge cost and time, both of which go against the primary requirements of an ideal healthcare product – quick goto- market and low cost. The users of healthcare software packages are demanding a new evolutionary approach in the handling of the product life cycle of healthcare systems. An aging product will not fit the current requirements of the healthcare segment. An evolvable application is hence a prerequisite to satisfy the changing needs of the healthcare industry.

The way forward and call to action
Moving away from a traditional models of software applications, healthcare providers and other stakeholders in the industry must look forward to adopting highly evolvable healthcare applications software that will have the inherent DNA to adapt to ‘constant change’. This approach will make the product suitable for a multi-organisational management, facilitate collaborative workspace, provide flexibility to the users of the system to adapt the system to changing business needs without large customisation costs and empower the users through its learning tools.