Priti Gupta and Ben Morris are from Mumbai.
Image source, S KapaleThe first wave of Covid-19, that swept India in early 2020, was a tiring experience for Dr Sangram Kapale and his colleagues.
The kind of mental pressure we were all going through was very difficult to put into words.
It was about saving lives. There was a lack of medicine, beds, and oxygen.
The lack of skilled manpower, like paramedics, was another issue. We had to use medical students who had no experience with patients.
The temporary Covid treatment centre had 800 beds and was run by Dr. Kapale. Family members gathered outside as the centre became overwhelmed with patients.
We were accused of neglect by the relatives because they didn't know what was happening inside, but we were doing everything we could to fight Covid and save lives.
Image source, Getty ImagesHealth care workers say the lack of resources is to blame for much of the chaos back then. One of the lowest levels of public spending on healthcare in the world was reported by India.
The Indian government wants to spend 2.5% of GDP on health by the year 2025.
The impact of the Pandemic was a turning point for India's healthcare system, with a future focus on technology and innovation.
All aspects of access to healthcare, diagnostics and life-sciences are moving to low-cost and high-tech, according to an analyst who focuses on healthcare at Invest India.
Image source, DozeeThere are more than 6,000 start-ups in the Indian healthcare sector. A smart sensor is placed underneath a patient's bedsheet in a hospital.
When the heart pumps blood, it tracks the micro-vibrations produced by the body, and keeps track of a patient's breathing and other movements. If anything unusual is detected, the observations are translated into data and processed by an artificial intelligence-based system which can alert the nurses and doctors at the central monitoring station.
The company wants to have its technology in more than 1,000 hospitals by the end of the year.
Mudit Dan, the company's founder, says that their idea was to simplify the entire monitoring process, make it more patient-centered, and bring the technology to the wards.
The quality of healthcare in India could be improved by technology.
Poor hospital infrastructure, acute shortage of doctors, nursing staff and equipment, and specialized treatment facilities were laid bare in India by Covid.
He says that both the public and private sector will scale-up their facilities in the coming years, with technology playing a key role in that transformation.
Image source, G ManjunathDr. Geetha Manjunath founded a health tech company in Bangalore. She wanted to improve cancer screening for young women.
India sees high mortality rates due to late-stage detection, unlike in Europe and the US, where early detection is enabled through regular, systematic screening programmes.
In India, more than half of breast cancer cases are seen in women under 50 years of age, and traditional X-ray detection has low accuracy among this group.
Her firm developed a technique for detecting early-stage breast cancer using a small, portable screening device.
A high-resolution thermal sensor is used to measure the temperature variations on the patient's chest, and then an analysis of 400,000 temperature points is generated to mark any abnormal regions.
The test is simple to use and can be done by lower skilled health workers in more remote areas of India.
Dr Manjunath says the device makes a more systematic screening programme feasible and that earlier detection could reduce treatment costs and save lives.
Image source, Getty ImagesWhat do doctors think about the new technology on some wards?
The head of the anaesthesia department at the hospital in Mysore has used the Dozee system. He thinks that the technology has its limitations.
Artificial intelligence has a long way to go, although it is helping the medical profession in a great way, it cannot replace humans. Doctors and human presence are needed in hospitals and intensive care units. It is an assistance for us.
After a second wave of Covid in 2021, a national vaccine programme appears to have brought the virus under control for the time being, according to Dr Sangram Kapale.
The severity of the disease has reduced after the vaccinations. We have to face whatever comes our way in the future.
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