Technology And Insurance Will Change The Diagnostic Future

With the rapid changing technology and sciences, there has been a paradigm shift in the pathology industry. Once being majorly dependent on manual work and highly untrained professionals working with it, now it has been shifted to more to highly efficient equipment with trained lab professionals. 

On the topic of the past, present and future of pathology, Dr Sushil Shah, Chairman, and Executive Director, Metropolis Healthcare, delivered his keynote address at the Diagnostics Summit 2019 organised by BW BusinessWorld. 

While addressing the audience on the past of pathology, Sushil shared his experiences while he was pursuing his MD, he said, “At that time even the most esteemed pathological laboratories had the similar equipment present in the medical institutions and the difference of quality was associated more with manual work rather than the equipment”. 

Sharing his expertise in the domain, Shah highlighted that there’s only a slight difference between what was happening in the past and present. He emphasized the lack of pathological laboratories and qualified laboratories professionals. 

Dr Shah also tagged the pathological industry as a fragmented industry and further said, “Chain of laboratories is changing the face of the industry and the revolution has started. Now it is easier to run labs and as there’s less manual work and with similar equipment across the country, the difference of quality has been marginalised”. 

“Also, with the advent of technological shifts, a huge number of pathological tests are been added and the number of trained professionals in clinical chemistry labs increased drastically”, he further added.  

Further, predicting the future of the pathological industry, Sushil informed that there’s going to be a complete turn-around as the structure of the industry will see a paradigm shift with upcoming technologies and regulations along with the insurance.  

On the role of insurance in the diagnostic sector, Shah said, “Whereas 90 per cent of people in the USA have insurance coverage, in India it covers only five to seven per cent of the population. But there has been a significant increase and India will have better insurance coverage in 10-15 years which will lead to better pathological laboratories and will also lead to a reduction of the cost associated with diagnostics”.