Dr Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Chairman of the Academy of Digital Health Sciences in an interaction with Express Healthcare explains about newly launched post-graduate program in digital health and an Executive Programme for Founders and CEOs of hospitals by the academy
Tell me about the Academy of Digital Health Sciences
We started the Academy of Digital Health Sciences in 2019, much before COVID-19, realising the immense potential for ‘experiential learning’ for clinicians and working professionals. Since then, we have done exceedingly well in our courses for doctors and professionals in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. We have partnered with the premier management institute- IIM to launch a post-graduate program in digital health and an Executive Programme for Founders and CEOs of hospitals. In the fast-paced times, senior management would need to keep themselves updated on the latest developments to stay relevant and focussed on driving a strategy, to be irreplaceable in their field of practice or profession.
Doctors are known to be averse to technology. What has been the response from doctors?
We have formed a wrong perception about doctors. Our experience shows that doctors are waiting for the wave of technology and equipping themselves with the latest knowledge and tools. Most course participants are senior clinicians, and in the first batch, the average experience was 20 years. We have had senior industry professionals joining the course as well. But still, most people enrolled in the course are senior doctors with the highest experience being over three decades.
What are the main reasons for people to join such courses?
Today, everyone realises that digital health is integral to healthcare. By 2025, every doctor and every healthcare professional will need to implement technology or compete with their colleagues who use technology. Given the push from the insurance companies, government, and tech-savvy consumers/patients, coupled with the advances in consumer-friendly technologies, it is the best time to join the course, learn about digital health, and be prepared to implement digital health. Otherwise, the patient may embarrass the doctor with their knowledge about the latest technology developments. Also, the time to deliver care conventionally is over. It is time to use technology.
Technology solutions are available across the continuum of care, and using technology brings doctors closer to the patients, builds more trust, and improves care outcomes. So, doctors who care for their patients are deploying digital health in their medical practice, more so for their chronic patients.
You have launched a course for founders and CEOs of hospitals. What’s the need?
We have been working with the founders and CEOs of hospitals for nearly a year. We realise that hospitals with less than 300 beds have an excellent opportunity to become preferred service providers in their area if they do the right things and do things rightly. But this calls for a thorough understanding of how you increase the scope and scale of hospital operations and remain profitable. Otherwise, the bigger hospitals will expand to smaller towns and eat into their business. We identified seven key areas and worked with successful founders and CEOs to help smaller hospitals become smart hospitals and a preferred service provider in the area. We have partnered with IIM -Raipur to offer this six-month fully online course taught by super-successful hospital founders, delivering the lessons based on their success. This is an application-oriented course, and the founders can learn the science of implementation. We have received an excellent response to our call for applications.
What are the plans for courses?
We are focused on addressing the skill sets that are needed to transform healthcare and equip the doctors, hospital CEOs, and pharmaceutical industry to prepare themselves for the technology disruption, which will start impacting them before the end of 2024, 2025 as a year will be disruptive and those who don’t learn the new ways of doing business and leveraging technology, have scant chances for survival. In the age of multi-modal AI, Not adopting technology in healthcare is a fatal proposition and a formula for failure. As an Academy founded by world leaders in digital health, we are the go-to place for digital upskilling, and our program, ‘Essentials of Digital Health,’ is an on-demand program for people across the world taught by the world’s foremost leaders in healthcare and technology. We will remain focused on preparing clinicians and healthcare professionals to be future-ready to leverage the full potential of digital health.