Dr. Ritu Garg, an ENT surgeon with 12 years of medical experience, transitioned into healthcare management after earning an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. She has held senior leadership roles at Fortis Healthcare, Sakra World Hospital, and Amrop India, focusing on strategy, clinician recruitment, and patient experience.
In a recent conversation with Women Entrepreneurs Review Magazine, Ritu shared her insight about the future of healthcare, focusing on how AI, blockchain, and innovation can revolutionize patient care and operational efficiency. She emphasized the need for patient-centric models in large hospital chains, highlighting successful strategies for improving accessibility and affordability in underserved regions.
Given your experience with managing scale and complexity in healthcare, how do you foresee emerging technologies like AI and blockchain revolutionizing patient care and operational efficiency in the coming years?
Emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, and others are poised to revolutionize patient care and operational efficiency in healthcare, particularly in focused healthcare settings. AI will drive predictive analytics for personalized medicine, intelligent diagnosis, and treatment planning, while streamlining clinical workflows and enhancing patient engagement. Blockchain will help secure and decentralize patient data management, ensure transparent and tamper-proof medical records, and optimize supply chains. Other technologies like IoMT, virtual reality, NLP, and RPA also have the potential to further transform healthcare.
At Fortis, with the help of early AI enabled technology, we have started e-ICU services for partner hospitals across the country where-in vitals of critically-ill patients are remotely monitored by experts sitting at a central location. The expert can not only keep a check on the patient’s vitals but also see the patient virtually via a high-definition camera and instruct the medical team at the partner hospital on the steps needed to stabilize or manage high risk patients. Advancements such as these can improve patient outcomes, enhance operational efficiency, and drive better data management and analytics.
However, successful adoption depends on India’s regulatory frameworks, data standardization, cybersecurity including data protection laws, workforce training, and patient acceptance of AI related outcomes. In focused healthcare settings, these technologies can potentially optimize resources, improve patient engagement, and enhance overall quality of care, leading to new business models and revenue streams.
With your background in navigating dynamic structures, how can hospitals better integrate with the broader healthcare ecosystem, including startups, insurance companies, and tech firms, to create more holistic patient care solutions?
Integrating hospitals with the broader healthcare ecosystem, including startups, insurance companies, and tech firms, can significantly enhance patient care. Here are some strategies to achieve this
Data Integration and Interoperability: Establishing seamless data exchange between hospitals, startups, insurance companies, and tech firms is crucial. This can be achieved by using data formats that are standardized for example at Fortis; all insurance claims are processed using ClaimBook –a tool to effectively manage hospital insurance claims process. The ClaimBook is integrated with all leading health insurance providers.
Collaborative Platforms: Creating platforms where different stakeholders can collaborate and share insights can foster innovation. For example, at Fortis, with adoption of EMR, doctors can manage their patients including prescriptions, medical assessment and discharge summaries.
Patient-Centered Care Models: Shifting towards patient-centered care models that leverage technology to provide personalized care. For example, Fortis’ e-consult model that allows patients at remote location seeks super-specialised consultations from leading experts from within the Fortis network.
Value-Based Care: Transitioning from fee-for-service to value-based care models, where hospitals and insurance companies work together to focus on patient outcomes rather than the volume of services provided.
Regulatory Support and Incentives: Governments and regulatory bodies can play a role by providing incentives for collaboration and innovation.
Fostering a culture of Innovation: we at Fortis run Fortis Innovation Challenge for the staff, where we receive ideas, that how we can improve or implement new processes, technology to make patient experience better.
By adopting these strategies, hospitals can become integral parts of a dynamic healthcare ecosystem, ultimately leading to more holistic and effective patient care solutions.
How can healthcare organizations shift towards more patient-centric care models while balancing the complexities of managing large hospital chains? Can you share any innovative practices that have been successful in achieving this balance?
Shifting towards a patient-centric care model while managing the complexities of large hospital chains is indeed challenging but an achievable goal. Here are some strategies and innovative practices that have been successful:
- Leadership Commitment: Strong leadership is crucial. Leaders must understand the importance of patient-centered behavior and help create a culture that helps give priority to patient’s needs.
- Patient and Family Engagement: Actively involving patients and their families in care decisions can improve outcomes and satisfaction. At Fortis, the Patient Experience (PE) department is tasked with the role of engaging with patient and their attendants to deliver exceptional care and service. This directly impacts the P-SAT scores which in turn has an impact on the NPS for the brand.
- Staff Engagement and Training: Engaging and training staff at all levels to understand and implement patient-centered care practices is essential and can help in proper delivery of care at patient touch-points.
- Use of digital tools to enhance patient experience: At Fortis, tools such as Medblaze - that helps capture patient feedback so that any issues that the patient face can be addressed promptly or having a dedicated app like myFortis app that can help patients book consultations and services like MRI etc form the convenience of their homes are a must to enhance patient experience.
- Redesigning Care Processes: Streamlining and redesigning care processes to be more patient-centric can help in delivering a much more personalized experience to patients for example implementing a simple QMS can help manage patient wait times.
Some of the innovative practices that are employed across Fortis in this regard include -
- my Fortis App: A one-stop-shop for all patient OP booking requirements including consultations, diagnostic, lab and daycare services
- Patient Support Groups: Umang – Breast Cancer Support Group & Sankalp – Kidney Patient Support Group
- Patient Benefit Programs: Neighborhood Program & Senior’s Priority Program
- Fortis Select: A special benefit program for high profile clients
- Guardians of Health: Corporate Engagement Program
- Pathshala: A weekly patient education session within the OPD
- Medblaze: A patient feedback tool
- Psych-ED: India’s first and only national mental health quiz for school children
How can hospital chains leverage innovation to improve healthcare accessibility and affordability, particularly in underserved regions? Are there specific technologies or models that you believe hold significant promise in this area?
Hospital chains can leverage several innovative technologies and models to improve healthcare accessibility and affordability, especially in underserved regions. Here are some promising approaches:
Telemedicine and Telehealth - Telemedicine allows patients to consult with healthcare providers remotely, reducing the need for travel and making healthcare more accessible in remote areas. This can be particularly beneficial for routine check-ups, follow-ups, and managing chronic conditions. At Fortis Healthcare, we have launched a tele-medicine center at Mirzapur, enabling remote super-specialized consultations for patients.
Mobile health (mHealth) involves using mobile devices to support public health and clinical practice. Apps such as our myFortis can provide everything from appointment and modality booking to health education, reminders for medication, as well as serve as repository for all medical records.
Data Analytics can help establish benchmarks for clinical outcomes. Like at Fortis, we capture, analyse and report outcomes that matter the most to our patients. From turn around times during cardiac emergencies to success rate of transplants, from stringent infection control practices to judicial use of antibiotics, using data we can make sure we constantly improve on measures that impact our patients well-being.
Internet of Things (IoT) devices can monitor patients in real-time, providing data that can be used for early detection of health issues and continuous health monitoring.
Mobile clinics and implants can bring healthcare services directly to where the patient is available.
E-Health platforms like PAX, EMR, HIS can helps streamline healthcare delivery and enhance overall efficiency of healthcare services.
By integrating these technologies and models, hospital chains can create more efficient, accessible, and affordable healthcare systems, ultimately improving health outcomes in underserved regions.
How do you envision the role of personalized medicine evolving in the healthcare industry, and what steps should hospital chains take to incorporate personalized treatment plans into their standard care protocols?
Personalized medicine is poised to revolutionize the healthcare industry by tailoring treatments to individual patients based on their genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. This approach promises to enhance the effectiveness of treatments, reduce adverse effects, and improve overall patient outcomes. Here’s how I envision its evolution and the steps hospital chains should take to incorporate personalized treatment plans:
- Advances in genomics will allow for more precise identification of genetic markers associated with diseases, enabling targeted therapies that are more effective and have fewer side effects.
- Use of Big Data and AI will help consume large amount patient data sets to yield pattern and predict responses to treatments including side-effects.
- Discovery of new biomarkers can enable more accurate diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
Steps for a hospital chain to incorporate personalized treatment plans
- Invest in tomorrow’s technology and treatments today like Gamma Knife and MR Linac
- Collaboration with research and other leading institutions to stay in forefront of medical advancement like Fortis has partnered with with ImmunoACT, an IIT-Bombay spin-off and pioneer in India's first fully indigenous and commercially approved gene-modified cell therapy – CAR-TCell Therapy
- Educating patients about the benefits and implications of personalized medicine will be crucial for its acceptance and success. Engaged patients are more likely to stick to personalized treatment plans
- Establishing protocols for collection, storage and analysis of patient data (as done in the case of clinical outcomes that published by Fortis) will ensure uniformity of personalized treatment plans,
- Data protection measures to ensure there are no ethical and privacy concerns relating to use of genomic data.
