Healthhunt, a leading and highly-engaging online platform in the health and wellness  launched India’s most premier wellness event and experience, the Future of Wellness. With the intent of creating a pioneering gathering of India’s foremost health, nutrition, fitness,and wellness brands, experts, workshops, and celebrities under one roof, the annual event is steadfast in establishing the most extraordinary wellness experience India has ever seen. The event is scheduled for 17th Nov 2018 at World Trade Centre, Mumbai.

With lifestyle diseases rapidly taking shape of an epidemic, it is pertinent to educate people on important of work life balance and its impact on overall well-being. Complementing Government of India’s initiatives of making India healthy, the first edition of Future of Wellness is a stepping stone towards empowering people in their quest of adopting a healthy lifestyle. The event will highlight various contemporary issues ranging from nutrition, fitness, beauty, mental well-being, relationships, lifestyle and family.

The unique event has already garnered recognition from both Industry and celebrities, with confirmed participation from leading luminaries such as Milind Soman, Sonakshi Sinha, Kanika Kapoor, Namrata Purohit, Amrita Raichand, Shree Akshar, to name a few. Over 100 leading brands in the country have already begun to charge togetherwith the common goal that is the Future of Wellness. With an expected footfall of a staggering ten thousand people, along with millions of audience engaged through digital medium, Future of Wellness has emerged as perfect platform for both brands and influencers to magnify their reach.

According to Pooja Duggal, Founder & CEO, Healthhunt, said

Rising India requires a healthy populace in order to emerge as a world leader. Today, 1 in 20 searches in India alone on Google are related to health matters and unfortunately 90% of the information available on the internet is not fact-checked or verified. At Healthhunt, it is our mission to provide credible information produced and verified by the world’s leading experts.

We are proud to be helping some of the largest corporates, schools and colleges through our unique tool called ‘The HealthNOW’. We want to further power our mission of disrupting the understanding of daily well-being, through our flagship event ‘The Future of Wellness’.

More details about Future of Wellness schedule, speakers, booking a booth as well as discounts for people attending the event can be found here.

About Healthhunt.in

Healthhunt is a fully-integrated SaaS wellness platform to empower businesses with verified, fact-checked information related to health and wellness fortified with the right products and services. They are powering some of the largest corporate’s schools and colleges. healthNOW is unique and unrivaled in its ability to create a personalized experience for every user, delivered straight to their inbox! With over 250 experts on board,3500+ brands and products, Healthhunt is one of the fastest growing wellness websites across Southeast Asia.

While ‘Tele-medicine’ has been there for a while, it did not become mainstream the way it was expected mostly due to lack of right technology and business objectives. In the current context, virtual care would mean remote health monitoring, home health man­­­agement, tele-medicine, kiosk and self-diagnosis based systems, wearables and the likes. Ideally, a collaborative environment leverages video, audio, mobile/portals, sensors/kiosk from where consumers can receive care with no constraints of location, time & in-person touch. The current virtual care drive is fueled by digital consumers, technology advancements, high cost of care, regulation driven better care mandates, and sparse density of physicians to name a few.

Let’s explore some of these in the current context

Technology advancements – IoT, AI/Voice and Blockchain could pave the way forward for the connected health/virtual care. These technologies have disrupted many industries operating today and healthcare is no exception.

• IOT – Evolution of sensor technology has made it possible to connect many passive devices with internet. Cost & size of many healthcare sensors have drastically reduced, providing opportunities and options for a connected ecosystem. Wearables and mobile phones of today are good examples of instruments that have enabled measuring & streaming of personal vital data.
• Voice – Alexa, Siri, Google voice, Bixby and many similar voice intelligent solutions ease the consumer interaction to more conversational rather than a complex system interface.
• Blockchain – While it has lot of promise and is yet to gain mainstream status, there are good chances that distributed and secured health records will be a plus for virtual care, where the information will not be restricted to one hospital and will also be immutable and secured at the same time.

High cost – Global healthcare spend is projected to reach $8.7 trillion by 2020 which will be approximately 10.5% of GDP. Virtual health if done correctly could be an answer to this rising cost, specifically for non-emergency, minor cases, rural care and post-surgical care which lead to hospital re-admissions. Substantial cost reduction can be achieved if virtual care can replace redundant physician & ER visits for trivial situations.

Regulatory compliance – Around the globe there is constant effort by regulators to enhance the care outcomes. US started value based care initiatives under Obama Care and even levies penalties on hospitals for readmissions. Prime reason for readmissions is confusion after discharge and lack of post-operative care. Virtual care and remote monitoring can drastically reduce potential readmission cases.

Vertical and horizontal consolidation – Healthcare sector has seen a global consolidation and there are recent cases where retail giants like Walmart are trying to acquire healthcare companies. While this is less of a driver & more of an outcome, this could result in better reach to population leveraging virtual care and tele-health kiosks even in the rural and remote areas via the retail outlets.

Density of physicians – Finally, the physician density is a big factor when it comes to virtual care. As per WHO, currently there is 1 physician for every 1000 people for over 45% of member states. This gap is bound to grow and even advanced countries like US, Canada etc. will have acute shortage of physicians, specialists and surgeons.

So now that we understand that virtual care is one of potential solutions to care reach, better outcome and cost reduction, let’s explore newer challenges it may pose

• First and foremost, a lack of comfort and confidence to adopt to this change is foreseen. Both physicians and consumers will have initial hiccups to adopt to the virtual care when both sides are used to in-person experience. A push from millennial population could be a key driver to overcome this situation.
• Next, when data is not limited to the boundaries of a clinic and/or hospital, security would be an added concern. The value of Electronic Health Records [EHR] combined with financial transactions data is very high in the grey market. While separating the two may be hard, digital technology and Blockchain adoption can be an answer to some of the security concerns.
• Privacy has always been a key factor when it comes to health. This would continue to be an added challenge in a digital and connected healthcare world.
• Conflicts and legality could be another challenge as we adopt virtual care. The virtual ecosystem will need regulation and compliance support to run successfully.
• Reimbursements for services will be another factor and hospitals and insurance companies will have to come up with innovative ways to reimburse for such virtual care.
• Finally, fraud and abuse would continue to be a challenge. While technology advancements can be an answer to some, there will always be concerns arising from ill-intended practices from both consumers and practitioners.

So, how will an ideal virtual care system look like? No doubt, it will be an ecosystem of well-lubed entities. The system would comprise of a partner network to maintain the remote systems and kiosks; robust technology infrastructure; reimbursement system backed by Insurance [Payers]; serve as a good knowledge base to educate the population; provide in-person help to assist mass on how to use the systems; and finally a network of participating hospitals, doctors, clinics etc.

Many Health-tech startups are coming up with innovative business models which will soon disrupt how healthcare is provided and even how we reimburse it. Gone will be the days where healthcare system only looked at generating profit. As the global healthcare system evolves, it will be virtual care that will be disrupting and re-composing healthcare ecosystem into its new and improved avatar.

About the author

Sanjay Pathak is the Head Healthcare and Insurance Solutions at 3i Infotech Ltd. More details about him can be found here

As per Bain’s India Philanthropy Report 2017, there has been a significant growth in the number of individual philanthropists and the amount of funds that has been contributed has grown six fold in the last five years. The total amount that was contributed back to the community from these philanthropists totaled to around Rs. 36,000 crore in the year 2016 [Source].

Across India the health-care sector suffers from overcrowding, overworked staff, failing equipment, sub-standard hygiene, in rural areas the doctor to patients’ ratio is as bad as 75000 to 1. Picture this, when a primary health-care centre in a village cannot adequately sustain a patient’s life, then the patient is sent to a university hospital in the region. This means that hospital will be receiving patients from as many as 10 or more other areas with outstretched primary health-care centres. And unfortunately when the university hospital can no longer manage the patient load, the same emergency care patients are then dispatched to larger, urban hospitals, most of which are as far away as the other state. Meanwhile the state-government has failed to provide meaningful health-care to the poor.

Though there are many hospitals that provide treatment for a menace like Cancer but the entire treatment is an expensive affair. A single sitting of chemotherapy costs about Rs. 90,000, a full-fledged cancer treatments runs into lakhs of rupees. What makes the matters worse is availing any kind of treatment for the poor is a challenge. They either face shortage of quality care, or shortage of money or often are deprived from timely care. [Source]

Many of these  philanthropists are  contributing to the cause of education and health-care, either through self-funded NGO’s or by participating in various CSR activities. There was a definitive need for an affordable approach to cancer treatment, especially for the Bottom Of the Pyramid market. A solution to this problem could only be realized, if the solution from a person who has passion, commitment and willingness to solve the same. In a distinctive initiative, Bengaluru based leading businessman Mr. Vijay Tata and his wife Mrs. Amrita Tata celebrated their daughter’s birthday in a memorable way for many. They announced the launch of their dream project, NEW INDIA – a self funded NGO, and gifted Rs 200 crores towards building of cashless cancer care hospital for underprivileged.

Actor Emraan Hashmi graced the occasion with his presence. The unique attribute about NEW INDIA is that it is self funded and it won’t accept funds from anyone. The couple has been sheltering 40 kids for 6 years and the dream got bigger to give back to society, which gave birth to NEW INDIA.

New India solemnly commits itself to the fight against cancer by ensuring to take strong steps in making sure that cancer treatment and care is available to all the needy and poor for free. Because with Cancer what kills faster is the cost associated to it. NEW INDIA already has earned itself a 50-acre land worth Rs. 100 crores [#VijayTataDontates100cr] that will be the foundation on which a cancer hospital for the underprivileged will be built.

NEW INDIA – A nonprofit organization will be completely self funded by Mr Vijay Tata & Mrs Amrita Tata and will focus on creating a new hope for the betterment of underprivileged. It aims to cater women, children, critical illness and stop-rape initiative to bring justice to rape victims and help them resurrect their lives. As the first initiative by NEW INDIA, it has already pledged 50 acres of land worth Rs 100 crores in Attibele-Anekal Road, Bangalore to the trust. Additional Rs 100 crores will be used towards construction of the super-specialty cancer care hospital. All underprivileged cancer patients from across India will be treated completely free of charge. This will be the first cashless hospital across India.

Inaugurating the NGO, Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi said

I have very closely seen the pain which cancer patients and their family goes through. NEW INDIA’s initiative to create new hope for poor cancer patients is worth appreciating and I am glad that individuals like Mr. Vijay Tata and Mrs Amrita Tata are coming forward to take this novel step.

On this development, Mr. Vijay Tata said

A small step can transform into a milestone and development is always bottom-up. Our Honorable PM’s vision on healthcare for all inspired me. Our major thrust today is to work for improving the life of our people who are below poverty line. The need of the hour is to give proper guidance and free timely treatment to them. NEW INDIA is a national movement and underprivileged cancer patients across India will be treated free of cost. We are sure that this cashless cancer hospital will be able to pull down the agony of these people up-to a certain extent at-least on the monetary side. A Nation’s progress lies in its ability to provide health and care to its people. A healthy India is our aim.

Mrs Amrita Tata said

To make a difference, one has to be the difference. Many people want to work on these lines but we are fortunate enough to execute this initiative on my daughter’s birthday. We want to give it back to the society and we have already taken the first step. NEW INDIA wishes to provide a holistic care and solution for cancer patients, which include free treatment and after care. We will also be aggressively working towards other social causes for women and children.

The entire hospital will be of 150 beds and will be completed in different phases. The initial phase will be ready by December 2018. It will be state of the art infrastructure with renowned oncologists and consultants on board. Entire hospital project will be designed by a UK based Architect and Engineering firm, BDP, formerly known as Building Design Partnership. It’s a firm of architects and engineers employing over 900 staff in the UK and internationally. Entire project from planning to execution will be executed by BDP.

This project is founded by Vijay Tata and Amrita Tata, leading entrepreneurs from Bangalore who are on a mission to make a difference and touch lives through NEW INDIA and its underlying movements. This NGO aims to be working together with partners and local communities in various part of India at grass root level to understand the key issues and work in best possible way to eradicate or minimize the cause. The NGO is open for collaboration with local NGO’s and volunteers across India to make this a mass movement. Though the organization is self-funded but it seeks the support of our fellow Indians to spread the message, support our cause and volunteer in the New India Movement.

About NEW INDIA

NEW INDIA, is a self-funded NGO that is founded by two entrepreneurial and compassionate beings, viz. Vijay Tata and Amrita Tata. The NGO is a manifestation of their vision to give back to the society and the country that has given them the opportunity to dream and flourish. New India, found its root and meaning in the belief of Vijay and Amrita that we can definitely make India a country that is invincible and a beautiful haven.