Healthcare is one of the most challenging sectors in India. It exhibits impressive growth yet, it has the disparity between rural and urban. With most of the quality care facilities concentrated in and around tier 1 and tier 2 cities, patients have to travel long distances for basic and advanced healthcare service which make the facilities expensive for the underprivileged people. Technology based solutions could revolutionise healthcare in a more cost effective way but it was found that traditionally, healthcare providers are sluggish to embrace technology. 

After Corona, outbreak people in the cities are more open to adopt healthcare technology but the adoption rate is very low in the  underprivileged section of our community. The reason behind this non adoption is mainly due to its affordability, availability, low educational background and trust upon the technology. 

Though a very High end expensive technology will not be suitable in this context but  sustainable and scalable AI, blockchain and IoT based technology could take healthcare closer to the underserved population in a cost effective way.

In specific cases AI solutions can augment the scarce personnel and lab facilities, help overcome the barriers to access and solve the accessibility problem; through early detection, diagnostic, decision making and treatment. 

By Integrating AI capabilities with the diagnostics devices , we can get AI-powered insights, though they are running a specific test/imaging in remote areas with nil or intermittent connectivity to the cloud. 

AI has already revolutionized several healthcare domains like pathology, ophthalmology (eye diseases), and cardiology. It can minimise the difficulties of diagnosing cardiovascular diseases, especially in places where there are no expert cardiologists, such as rural hospitals, overcoming the demographic constraints. Integration between IoT and Blockchain can create a secured platform to mitigate shortage of health workforce. Blockchain was used in the proposed operational framework to store and validate patients’ records. IoT devices such as smart pills, wearable monitors, and sensors allow healthcare practitioners to continuously collect electronic health data which gives critical insight about the patient’s health. With these technology diagnoses are made quickly and accurately without using the invasive methods. 

Strategic alliances between medtech companies and providers can help cut down costs and significantly improve accessibility. The Future of affordable healthcare lies in technology reform. The Government of India has already started embracing technology for accessible and affordable health care through it’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India Programme’ initiatives, through the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. Big companies , but not limited to ,Philips Healthcare, GE, Microsoft and IBM are rapidly adapting the IoT to enable physicians in urban Indian hospitals to remotely monitor and manage their patients in remote areas. As reaching the last mile and implementing technology is a key issue in India and it is still challenging for these large competitors, innovative partnership is required to reach  low-income consumers for creating actual impact. Otherwise the rural urban disparity will remain constant. The technology based healthcare solutions can help in making healthcare services more proactive not only for the deprived but for all – shifting from “sick” care to true “health” care, with emphasis on preventive techniques.