In the current healthcare landscape, countless people struggle with inadequate access to high-quality healthcare, especially in rural areas.
Disparities in healthcare delivery become worse because of the difficulties associated with unstructured healthcare systems and the lack of specialized resources, depriving many of the critical help they require.
But amid these difficulties, creative thinking and inspiring leadership provide a glimmer of optimism. There’s a rising demand for programs that close the gap between underprivileged communities and healthcare providers as technology keeps changing the face of healthcare.
The development of telemedicine presents a viable path to increase access to high-quality care, independent of geographic limitations.
However, to fully utilize telemedicine, more than just technological improvements, a strategic strategy combining knowledge, compassion, and a dedication to fair healthcare access is needed.
Dr. Ketan Parikh, a renowned senior surgical pediatrician is on a mission to ensure this innovation and redefine the healthcare landscape.
In order to create a future where everyone has access to high-quality healthcare, leaders like Dr. Parikh will play an important role as the globe struggles with changing healthcare requirements.
Enhancing the Healthcare Accessibility
Dr. Ketan Parikh with close to 37 years of working experience in various hospitals is committed to the improvement of health care in society.
Dr. Parikh has been influenced by his professor’s encouragement to improve the healthcare quality and to be personal in paediatric surgery. His interest in healthcare reform motivated him to take part in policy development and legislation making for governmental bodies.
Three years ago, Dr. Parikh embarked on a journey to further his knowledge and skills by successfully completing a HarvardX course titled “Improving Global Health: The four heart-warming stories that Dr Singh wanted to share at the event were the stories that led to him to pursue the health standard raising project in rural India.
Based on the extraordinary revelations that he had acquired, Dr. Parikh came up with the PyraMed platform, which is supposed to create a new way of health care delivery in the rural areas.
PyraMed is the path he has chosen to address the issue of healthcare accessibility and quality and at the same time he sees this as a means to the achievement of a better health outcome for the society.
Ideal Integration of Technology
His vision is to make expert and specialized medical opinion accessible to patients across India’. Considering that primary doctors in the rural areas have limited diagnostic and therapeutic capability, PyraMed is working on this vision through its mission to digitally empower them with a specialists opinion to enhance patient care besides augmenting their skills through case-based learning.
PyraMed, with a focus on equitable healthcare access, addresses the financial barriers faced by rural patients unable to afford regular consultation fees.
With the support of benevolent individuals, special funds have been procured to subsidize consultations, ensuring quality care for all. Additionally, PyraMed has forged partnerships with organizations facilitating funding for major surgeries for those in need.
Recollecting the services in the healthcare sector provided by tele-consultation, PyraMed focuses on prototyping a solution that can modify the same.
However, it does recognize the challenges of lack of organism and structure that characterize the Indian healthcare system.
To address this problem, PyraMed a company strives to convey accurate information to healthcare professionals who are far from where the consultation takes place, hence they can give the consultation needed by the patients in remote areas for health improvement of the nation.
There are a variety of wearable devices which technology has created, which can transfer this vital information to the specialist.
Unfortunately the large majority of the rural population will find these devices extremely expensive and wieldy to use if they have to personally own and use the same. Pyramed aims to equip the primary doctors in the villages with these devices so that their use can be more optimised- used for a larger number of patients and thus their expenses distributed.
The primary doctors can be more easily trained for its use and interpretations or for conveying their results to the specialist.
Remotely connected stethoscopes, cardiograms and a variety of monitoring equipment, examination equipment like otoscopes, ophthalmoscopes etc can be effectively deployed by the primary doctors to transmit images and data to the remotely located specialists for optimum interpretations and more purposeful healthcare.
Bridging Inequity
Healthcare in India is unstructured. Pyramidal healthcare, wherein the primary practitioners are the care-takers of the patients. They have been forgotten in the past 4-5 decades.
PyraMed recognised that adaptation of this concept is vital for bridging the inequity gap in specialised healthcare and for the country to make the necessary strides in healthcare indices.
PyraMed initiated a campaign through digital media to educate and prime the doctors as to the relevance of pyramidal healthcare. The medical population being serviced by PyraMed has understood and is now experiencing the benefits of pyramidal healthcare.
Dr. Parikh also realised that for effective usage of the concept, the society also needs to be sensitised for the benefits of pyramidal healthcare. PyraMed therefore used its primary care workers to sensitise patients. This has helped us to effectively deploy our platform for their healthcare needs.
Laying the Ideal Foundation
PyraMed as an organisation is in its infancy. The path ahead is so long, and arduous that we have not had the luxury of celebrating our achievements till now. Every brick contributes to building an edifice and at present PyraMed can only be proud that it is laying a foundation for the edifice.
PyraMed is working to improve quality of care at a micro- level. A vast (80% 0f the country’s population) does not have easy access to quality medical care. Routinely, they have to satisfy themselves only with basic healthcare.
Specialised healthcare could be 300-500 kms away. PyraMed is making this section of population access specialised healthcare in an optimised way by adhering to the pyramidal healthcare model.
There are several examples wherein a timely consultation has helped for early diagnosis or a more structured line of treatment. Each individual who benefits in this process, serves to purify the ocean of unstructured healthcare.
PyraMed has helped several individual patients to get genuine, quality medical consultations. The major specialities have included Diabetology, neurology, pediatric surgery, pediatric endocrinology, surgery, ENT and certain other specialities.
PyraMed adheres to a very strict protocol of confidentiality and therefore cannot divulge dentities of these patients. The organization is happy that it has been able to make a sizeable contribution to the health outcome of some of these patients.
Fostering a Culture of Modernisation
As a leader, Dr. Parikh strives to guide the team and foster a culture of modernisation and excellence. The team is primarily sensitised to the ‘humanity outcomes’ of its activity.
The stress has been on transparency and fairness in all concepts and implementation. They are also sensitised that the progress of the company is the basis of their progress because ‘A rising tide raises the level of all ships’.
Being a tech-based company, modernisation is PyraMed’s root and excellence is the way to success.
Dr. Parikh believes following values are crucial for leadership in the dynamic and fast-paced healthcare and technology sectors
- Vision:
- Domain knowledge:
- Patience
- Empathy
According to Dr. Parikh, Healthcare costs are burgeoning globally. Part of this is due to funding of the rapid pace of research but a large part of this is also due to the un-optimised application of quality resources.
He believes the race to get the most recent form of investigation or treatment needs to be reined and wasteful expenses will need to be drastically curtailed. He also emphasizes on the importance of ideal leadership and how they should have a deep knowledge of healthcare.
According to him, Healthcare in India will need to concentrate on:
- Quality of care and consistency in the deliverance
- Accessibility
A Voyage to the Ideal Future
PyraMed has positioned itself to become a medium of accessible, quality healthcare. Using technology optimally, it aims to plug the inequity in quality healthcare which primarily arises due to the imbalanced geographic distribution of quality personnel.
Pyramed is aiming to become a medium for rational, optimised, accessible healthcare especially for the rural population of India.
The organization would further expand its reach to various other countries where the gaps in quality healthcare need to be plugged.
Indian economy is galloping at a unique pace for it to reach the 5th position in the world. In many fields including some of the scientific achievements, India is amongst the top 10-20 countries of the world.
Some of the Indian healthcare institutions and personnel have inked a distinct position of leadership and capabilities in the world. Sadly, in some of the major health indices, the country is ranked beyond 100.
The principle reason for this is the inaccessibility of a large section of the population from quality health personnel. Telemedicine can pave the way to bridge this gap if used effectively and optimally.
A mechanism needs to be devised that the expertise of the limited pool of medical specialist is optimally exploited for those who need it the most.
PyraMed is emulating the pyramidal model of healthcare in its telemedicine portal so as to drastically reduce frivolous teleconsultations and optimally use the capabilities of these specialists when accessed by medical peers.
The medical profession has a responsibility to the society so that they play the necessary role in the national health. If every doctor agrees to spend just 1 hour/week of their time to this mission, they will be doing a great service and also earning a small fee for the same.
Name: Dr. Ketan Parikh
Organization: PyraMed
Quotes:
“Our vision is to make expert and specialized medical opinion accessible to patients across India, considering that primary doctors in the rural areas have limited diagnostic and therapeutic capability, We are working on this vision through our mission to digitally empower them with a specialists opinion to enhance patient care besides augmenting their skills through case-based learning.”
“PyraMed is committed to ensure quality care to whosoever cannot afford for the same. We have therefore procured special funds from benevolent individuals to subsidise these consultations.”
“We are aiming to become a medium for rational, optimised, accessible healthcare especially for the rural population of India.”
