Ayushman Bharat Is The Most Powerful Disruption Happened In Healthcare Space: A. Velumani, Chairman, Thyrocare

In the fifth BW Businessworld healthcare summit that took place on 4th of October in New Delhi, the discussions were held around the importance of diagnosis in the healthcare sector. Problem fully understood is problem half solved, was the core of the entire discussion.

The panel included Amit Mohan, MD South Asia IQVIVA, Arvind Lal, Chairman & MD, Dr Lal path labs, A. Velumani, Chairman, Thyrocare, Ameera Shah, MD, Metropolis Healthcare, Harsh Mahajan, Founder, Mahajan Imaging, Ravi Gaur, COO, Oncquest Laboratories and Joy Chakraborty, COO, PD Hinduja Hospitals and MRC. The session had a valid interlinking topic of Integrating Diagnostics Centers with Hospitals for a Robust Healthcare Infrastructure.

Arvind Lal threw light on how 70 per cent of diseases are resolved or treated through a correct diagnostic. Lal questioned the vague cost structure by the government for diagnostics and also shared that 1,50,000 wellness centers by the government have no state of the art guidelines for it. Lal has gone even further and said that the entire Ayushman Bharat scheme and it's success is dependent on success and justice to diagnostics.

Joy shared that Hinduja group is running it's own diagnostic from two and a half decades because they wanted quick results. Joy has also shared that versatility within the hospital is a requirement of the day. He has also raised the issue of integration of lab chains and hospitals.

Harsh, on the other hand, focused more on differences between biochemistry-based diagnosis and diagnosis based on imaging, where, in the path lab, volume-driven imaging is based on cost input and skilled technical handling capacity.

Ameera has suggested about their trade model that runs on both retail and institutional system and how they effectively reduce costs for various healthcare chains. She also stated how healthcare chain is trying to enter in pathology space. Ameera focussed upon generalisation of healthcare path domain which is not helping stakeholders. She appeared critical while talking about how 40 per cent capacity of diagnostic remain unutilized in hospitals. Ameera also talked about the expertise which is needed in the business model and why discount will only commoditise the healthcare.

A. Velumani shared his journey from a poor rural background to the establishment of Thyrocare and said how his group will witness disintegration instead of integration. Velumani said diagnostic and biochemistry is a 24×7 working model and it faces the critical challenge of delivering the best in the least time. Being diplomatic he said how Ayushman Bharat will pave the way for outsourcing industry in healthcare trade due to the turnout of the huge population. He also termed Indian people as cost sensitive and how Ayushman Bharat will prove to be the most powerful disruption ever happened in Indian healthcare scenario.