New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission will bridge the existing gap among different stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem through digital highways, a senior official of Safdarjang Hospital said on Tuesday.

She also said the mission has achieved a significant milestone by issuing more than 50 lakh digital tokens for queue less OPD registrations.

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Dr Vandana Talwar, medical superintendent, Safdarjang Hospital was speaking at the 2nd Healthcare Summit and Awards organised by ASSOCHAM.

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She also said that artificial intelligence is poised to reshape healthcare, while ML (Machine Learning) algorithms can analyse massive amounts of medical data to aid early detection and treatment of disease, and they can also optimise hospital operations and even assist in surgical procedures.

"India is emerging as a world leader in teaching and framing of robotics in healthcare. A robotic renal transplant conducted in Safdarjang Hospital was shown live to 52 medical colleges and 20 different countries on the NFC portal recently. We are committed to improving the quality of healthcare to meet the health-related targets of the sustainable development goals that India aims to achieve via Universal Health Coverage by 2023," Talwar noted.

She further said that the past few decades have witnessed enormous medical advancements in therapeutic and diagnostics that have revolutionised diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases.

"Advances in genome sequencing technology has made personalised medicines a reality. Today, technological advancement has enabled a policy of creating a new digital ecosystem that not only enhances accessibility and efficiency of healthcare delivery, but also made it more cost effective and paves the way for universal health coverage in India that is inclusive, timely and safe," she said.

The medical superintendent said innovations and sustainable solutions is the future of healthcare which occupies a pivotal role in the development of India today. The future belongs to a society investing in healthcare, she said.

"We must design healthcare infrastructure that minimises environmental impacts, reduces waste through recycling, and reuse and adopt renewable energy sources for a more sustainable healthcare system," Talwar added.

Delivering a special address at the summit, Dr Rajinder K Dhamija, Director, Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) said, “We have achieved a lot in the last 75 years. We are now a hub of the vaccination industry providing 60 per cent of all vaccinations in the world. We also provide 40 per cent of all generics for the US and 25 per cent of all generics in the UK, and two-thirds of all anti-viral drugs in the world comes from India."

The healthcare industry is worth USD 50 billion and growing at a fast pace. India spends 4-5 per cent of GDP on health which is comparatively lower than countries like Australia at 12 per cent and Switzerland at 17 per cent.

"We need to increase our spending on health. Our per capita expenditure on health has increased over the past 10 years and the insurance sector is coming in a big way and so is digital health. We are lagging in manpower, that is , for a population of 1.4 billion people, we have only 3,000 neurologists while there is a need for at least five times that number," Dhamija said.

Addressing the summit, Pushpa Vijayaraghavan, Director – Healthcare and Life Sciences, Sathguru Management Consultants, said there is a need to urgently address the continuing challenge of resource scarcity.

The number of doctors per individuals and the number of beds per individuals are currently below what it should be and we cannot bridge it without integrating technology in a big way. India's presidency of G20 has brought digital health to the fore, she said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)