Hyderabad: 14th Foundation Day lecture on ‘Transforming the Healthcare through Digital Health’ held at ICFAI by Dr. Shetty

Dr. Shetty said healthcare was being delivered as it was about a century ago, and the sector has not witnessed a major revolution that other sectors like food, communications, and travel have seen that drove down the prices.

Hyderabad: The cost of healthcare will go down in the next five to ten years and India will become the first country in the world to dissociate healthcare from affluence, said Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty of Narayana Health (formerly Narayana Hrudayalaya).

Delivering the 14th Foundation Day lecture on the topic ‘Transforming the Healthcare through Digital Health’ at ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), Dr. Shetty said healthcare was being delivered as it was about a century ago, and the sector has not witnessed a major revolution that other sectors like food, communications, and travel have seen that drove down the prices.

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“But things are changing, and in a few years, India will prove to the world that the nation’s or family’s wealth will have nothing to do with the quality of healthcare that citizens will enjoy,” he said.

Dr Shetty called for a developing infrastructure to handle simple surgeries, lacking in most developing countries resulting in 17 to 18 million deaths annually. He said health insurance is critical, and with new policies brought out by IRDA, hospitals can become insurance providers.

University Chancellor Dr. C Rangarajan said a combination of universal healthcare and insurance could be appropriate for the country and called for a scheme where the government has an important role to play for providing some medical facilities free of cost.

Sobha Rani Yasaswy, Chair Person, ICFAI Society, Dr. J Mahender Reddy, Advisor, IFHE, Prof Vijayalakshmi, Registrar, students and faculty attended the lecture.