Every challenge is an opportunity for a visionary. The healthcare industry in India is one area where numerous opportunities are present for entrepreneurs.
Weak public health infrastructure, the scarcity of trained emergency personnel, lack of trained medical human resources, and minimal focus on preventive care are only a few challenges that are present in the Indian healthcare industry.
On one side, these challenges are major threats to the country having a population of over a billion people and on another side, the same challenges are offering massive opportunities for entrepreneurs who are looking to make an impact in the healthcare industry.
They have a chance to create some amazing success stories by launching helpful and innovative solutions for healthcare, their keenness will also help them to fill major voids in services and care delivery.
People living in urban areas can imagine how people are living in rural areas and what kind of situations they are facing in their daily lives. The majority of the Indian population is living in rural areas where the healthcare facilities are not as good as in urban areas.
According to some stats by National Rural Health Mission (NHRM), the ratio of people to the doctor is almost 6 times lower than in urban areas. Almost 30 percent of the rural population of India has to travel for more than 40km for any medical treatment.
Even most of the small towns of India lack the proper and quality health care services; therefore, people have to travel to major cities to avail treatments.
People who have an entrepreneurial mindset watch these problems and challenges as opportunities. Setting up clinics or hospitals in or near rural areas and designing them to work with minimalist costs can be the change in the healthcare industry of India for good.
As huge hospitals are set up in major cities, now the healthcare sectors should expand towards the rural population as maximum opportunities lie there.
Jaipur foot, which is a cost-effective highly workable artificial limb, was invented in the year 1968 and this proved to be a complete game-changer product.
This was an amazing life-transforming product for many disabled people who were unable to buy those costly artificial legs present in the market. The same kind of innovation is required in Indianow.
In a country where less than 35 percent of the people have health insurance, most healthcare requirements from diagnosis to surgery are paid out of pocket.
Therefore, creating and promoting helpful innovation and cheap healthcare solutions are not just social charity but also an awesome business opportunity to start in a country like India.
Innovators can create some low-cost diagnostic kits, cheap sanitary napkins, low-cost dialysis technology, and many more for rural households. Innovations like these in the healthcare sector can boost the country's social as well as economic growth.
With the help of telemedicine or remote care, now doctors can access a large population who live in rural areas. This will also drastically reduce the burden on district hospitals that attend to thousands of patients every day.
Many entrepreneurs and independent innovators are focusing on creating technology for telemedicine. Every hospital should have a telemedicine center so that they can attend to several hundred patients at the same time.
his will allow people with minor health problems to get treated without even visiting the hospital and hence more serious people can be called up for personal examination. This process will drastically reduce the crowd at the hospital.
In the year 2009, the Medical Council of India recognized emergency medicine as a separate specialty in medical schools but the area of emergency medicine is still in a budding stage in India.
There is a massive scarcity of emergency departments and protocols; also there is a shortage of nurses as well as paramedics trained in emergencies to help doctors in the trauma department.
Another opportunity for entrepreneurs in the healthcare sector is that there are not many ambulances that are equipped with accurate emergency tools.
According to statistics, only 4 percent of ambulance persons are well-trained and certified in India, and almost one-third of all ambulances work as a medium of transportation with paramedical staff.
Unluckily, there are no pre-hospital services present for rural and semi-urban areas and more than 30 percent of the patients die before they reach a nearby hospital.
Every entrepreneur should look forward to these opportunities; they can launch educational and training initiatives to fill the above-mentioned gaps and invest in developing new and helpful ambulances with all types of equipment that can enhance the complete healthcare industry in India.
