Health X Conversations: Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare

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Healthcare is one of the most crucial

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sectors that impacts our society its

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evolution is vital to ensure that

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everyone has the opportunity to live

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their healthiest Life currently there

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are almost 3.5 billion people worldwide

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who lack access to Essential Health Care

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Services with health spending taking up

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to 10% of global economy increasing

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Healthcare expenses are putting an

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immense strain on people and governments

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yet failing to improve life expectancy

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to bring an urgent focus on these core

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issues of access affordability quality

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and experience of care CNBC tv18 in

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association with optum brings to you

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health X conversations decoding

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tomorrow's Healthcare today joining us

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today will be a very special guest who

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will Deep dive into some of the most pressing

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challenges in healthcare and how

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innovative solutions are helping address

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these very challenges across the globe

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before we do that let's take a look at

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this

1:11

[Music]

1:14

report Healthcare a fundamental human

1:18

right but for Millions around the world

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it is still a distant

1:23

Dream from rural villages to crowded

1:26

Urban centers the challenges of

1:28

healthcare are clear

1:30

access affordability quality and the

1:34

experience of

1:36

care remote locations lack basic medical

1:40

services and delayed treatments make

1:42

Access to Health Care a major issue in

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rural

1:47

communities even in cities overcrowded

1:50

hospitals and endless waiting times

1:53

often lead to worsened health

1:57

outcomes along with access a

1:59

affordability of Quality Healthcare is

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another pressing

2:03

issue High out-of-pocket expenses are

2:07

preventing people from seeking essential

2:09

care and even in countries with

2:11

universal health care medical costs can

2:14

drive families into poverty it is not

2:17

just the rising cost of Health Care

2:20

straining communities lack of Quality

2:22

Medical Care is another major concern

2:25

inconsistent standards outdated

2:28

equipment and the shortage of trained

2:31

professionals can all compromise medical

2:33

care but then there's the experience of

2:36

care administrative burdens are a

2:39

constant drain for healthcare

2:41

providers leaving them with less time to

2:43

focus on what matters most their

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patience however Innovation and

2:52

technology is driving a health care

2:55

Revolution with tele medicine breaking

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the geographic barriers to AI by

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augmenting care efforts and mobile

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Health apps enabling patients to manage

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chronic conditions and access crucial

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health information right at their

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fingertips technology is truly reshaping

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healthcare delivery with new

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generations embracing digital Health

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Solutions and United efforts from

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governments communities and

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organizations we can build a world where

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healthcare is accessible affordable

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and of the highest quality for

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everyone and well this is just the

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beginning of not just a tech aid but

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also a med decade which is going to

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revolutionize the way we live and look

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at longevity in a healthy way joining us

3:46

today a very special guest Umar ratnam

3:49

Krishnan managing director of optum

3:51

India welcome to the show Uma so good to

3:54

have you here uh let me start by asking

3:57

you know we are living in times that

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were very different before pandemic and

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after pandemic we are seeing Health Care

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in a new way we are looking at our own

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lives in a very new way we are very

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worried about our Health and Longevity

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and we're looking at entire industry and

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the industries of Tomorrow seeing this

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sector as a very vital sector but there

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are challenges what are some of the most

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pressing challenges that you see that

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need to be addressed

4:28

immediately yeah so I guess the

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challenges of the healthcare industry uh

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we can think of it as a triple aim right

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what do I mean by that uh one is uh cost

4:40

of healthcare uh the second one is

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better quality outcomes and the third is

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improved access and I think at the

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center of all of that is that very

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sacral relationship between the

4:53

clinician or the doctor and the patient

4:55

right uh whatever happens that's

4:58

fundamental to this so let's unpack this.

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a little bit so let's talk about cost.

5:03

right cost of healthcare as you

5:05

mentioned has been increasing at

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skyrocketing at a frenetic Pace uh right

5:11

across the world more in some locations

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and less in others now some of this the

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reasons for the rise in these costs is.

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for good reasons you know no new

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medicines new protocols new uh ways of

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treatment uh people with chronic

5:26

illnesses living much longer lives and

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so on but on the other hand there's also.

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really bad reasons for why cost is.

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increasing like administrative expenses

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sucking up a lot of the cost and

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sometimes it's fee for services which.

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means then you don't there's no end to

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it um so cost of care is one of the

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biggest challenges the second one is

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actually access uh access is simply that

5:49

whoever needs Healthcare should be able

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to get it at the time they need it and

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in the most optimal way I think covid um

5:57

changed a lot of behaviors IE tell

5:59

Health became a big thing uh but I think

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there are lots of it it's a trend

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to stay but I think many other issues of

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data and privacy and all of those have

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to be uh

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solved the third one is the quality of

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the outcome uh like you said we're

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spending a lot more but the quality of

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the outcome uh you know uh Health

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outcomes is not great and that is again

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a fundamental challenge to fix now that

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can happen only if we have the right

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tools and techniques and enable uh both

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the clinicians and the patients or the

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consumers to actually uh get to the

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right care Pathways standardize some of

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the things so you actually build some

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efficiency into how you actually use the

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information and data to get better

6:44

quality outcomes when we talk about the

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cost of technology and then of course

6:48

the cost of Health Care it is um it is

6:52

Unfortunately they say that you know

6:54

it's not a poor man's country to fall

6:56

ill and that is and that is so sad um

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how can Innovations in technology bring

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down the

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cost yeah so I think there are a few

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things here right one is affordability

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is sort of fundamental to access so

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there's a need to work on affordability

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here and affordability comes in two or

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three areas right uh one is the fact

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that uh helping move into value based

7:26

care right which is to say that we'll

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integrate the care rather than do it

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for services each time so which

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basically means can I integrate uh Home

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Care can I integrate home care with

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Clinic care after a delivery whether

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it's virtual or in clinic or at home and

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then I can I integrate Pharmacy Services

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then can I integrate so which then means

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for one individual it's an integrated

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model uh which is the value based care

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approach now what that does is actually

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reduces the cost because you're able to

7:57

uh look at the whole picture

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right and because of that you get

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also better quality outcomes because

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you're joining up everything right the

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second one which is really important to

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bring down the cost and how does

8:10

technology help here right which is how

8:12

can we use the analytics to build

8:15

decision support systems for clinicians

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which basically means that the most

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up to-date research the most uh you know

8:23

using the data to say what could be the

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next best action so actually use some of

8:28

that technology to deliver a better

8:30

quality outcome and third I think is a

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big uh thing on transparency so the

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minute you know you give the consumer

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which is already kind of starting the

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consumer is taking more and more power

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and uh taking more ownership of their

8:44

own Healthcare outcomes but it's about

8:46

transparency right uh so transparency of

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the cost of drugs transparency about

8:51

cost of surgical procedures true and

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that's going to play a big role in

8:55

bringing down the cost I'll give you a

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couple of examples in in this right so

8:59

for example if you take uh with at optum

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uh we actually say we have give options

9:05

to people to say here's a generic drug

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and here's another drug so you can see

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the cost and how transparent the costs

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could be and then you can take that

9:14

decision and then talking about um the

9:16

decision support systems and the data

9:18

and input that we provide clinicians uh

9:21

so they can then use that and then spend

9:23

more time for better quality outcomes

9:25

now as a result and also accessibility

9:27

as a result of this right if you invest

9:29

in digital and T Health cost comes down

9:32

because you are getting care in a much

9:35

more um calibrated planned way so I

9:38

think there are and Technology can play

9:40

a big role in many of these right uh so

9:44

it's really about using that technology

9:46

for the right outcome while optum India

9:49

operates as a capability Center but what

9:52

kind of technological innovations are

9:54

you offering to the world so optum India

9:56

as a healthcare company as a healthcare

9:58

Global in Innovation Center uh for optum

10:02

uh we are fundamentally focused on.

10:04

creating better Healthcare outcomes now

10:07

and uh Innovation is culturally what.

10:12

drives us to find ways to get better.

10:15

healthcare outcomes um I gave you some

10:18

examples of what optum health does uh in

10:21

the US market uh the optum health

10:23

delivery is mainly in the US market but

10:26

uh what we do here actually helps us

10:28

create much better outcomes uh for

10:32

the global Health outcomes in in opum uh

10:35

so let me give you so we work with

10:38

technology uh very closely in the global

10:40

uh capability center it's a question of

10:42

zero distance so sometimes technology

10:44

folks just do applications or fix apps

10:47

or whatever right but the way we've

10:50

actually organized ourselves is for the

10:52

technology teams and the business teams

10:54

to work together and pretty much at zero

10:56

distance and actually look for

10:59

s in you know to fix uh which are

11:02

actually outcome related problems right

11:04

which is how can I better the healthcare

11:06

outcome that's the objective uh is not

11:09

just about fixing something uh fixing a

11:11

technology uh platform um I'll give

11:15

you an example again this is from um for

11:18

uh the work we do for opum uh globally

11:21

uh we get a lot of calls coming in from

11:23

people who you know our people in our

11:26

agents uh take calls where people want

11:29

and many of these calls are to fix

11:30

appointments with doctors right and uh

11:34

so the minute an agent gets a call

11:36

saying Hey I want an appointment with

11:38

the doctor then the agent has to do a

11:40

whole bunch of things one first figure

11:42

out where the patient location is uh

11:44

where they're calling from the second is

11:46

what are the doctors available in that

11:48

area right third is are those doctors

11:52

does is it aligned to the customer’s

11:54

insurance plan and so on so one of the

11:56

innovations that we worked with the

11:58

global teams to actually build uh is a

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uh NLP app like uh NLP powered app right

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which does two things the minute the

12:09

customer calls it automatically pulls up

12:12

figures where their location is it

12:13

automatically pulls up the uh the uh

12:17

clinicians in the area or the doctors in

12:18

the area also make sure they get the

12:20

rating of those clinicians also make

12:22

sure that they align with the um

12:25

Insurance all in real time right and

12:27

that was one of the uh you know pieces

12:29

of innovation and then we're also

12:31

looking to integrate Pharmacy

12:32

requirements and then including

12:34

scheduling transport to the hospital or

12:37

to meet the doctor so that's a good

12:39

example of a app that was developed for

12:41

the US U uh market right uh so yeah and

12:45

that happens with technology here uh

12:48

with uh our business and operations

12:50

people and our Global stakeholders

12:52

wonderful uh lots more to discuss but

12:55

we'll quickly slip into a very uh short

12:58

break but stay tuned as we

12:59

continue this insightful conversation

13:06

[Music]

13:11

with welcome back to optum presents

13:14

healthx conversations decoding

13:16

tomorrow's Healthcare today joining back

13:19

in conversation with Umar ratnam Krishnan

13:21

managing director of opum India and we

13:24

were talking about the Innovations we

13:26

were talking about the challenges um and

13:28

some of uh the latest tech offerings

13:31

but one of the things that we uh have to

13:34

address is the talent pool do we

13:37

have enough and more talent pool how do

13:39

you at optum India look at that and

13:42

where are these health professionals The

13:44

Cutting Edge professionals coming from

13:46

yeah I mean if you look at the macro and

13:48

I'm sure you've seen these numbers right

13:50

we more than 65% of our uh people are

13:54

below 30 uh we're going to be one of the

13:57

youngest countries in the world for the

13:58

next maybe 30 40 years um and we have 9

14:02

and a half million graduates coming out

14:05

every year uh we've focused a lot on

14:08

engineering right but the fact is we

14:10

also have a lot of talent in the

14:12

non-engineering spaces which is not just

14:14

the Arts but also um The Sciences and

14:18

some of the medical paramedical

14:21

paramedical and sort of ancillary uh

14:24

disciplines right so the fundamental

14:27

raw pool of talent is absolutely

14:29

available now what's also interesting is

14:32

as we go forward the way we need to

14:34

think about Talent given the

14:35

conversation we've just had about

14:36

technology and how it's going to uh

14:40

accelerate uh I think there is going to

14:42

be a whole bunch of technologists who

14:45

will build systems and tools and you

14:48

know platforms to actually help with the

14:51

delivery of Healthcare on the other side

14:54

they have to work with people who

14:56

understand the business who understand

14:58

the clinical part and who

14:59

understand operations and efficiency I

15:01

spoke about uh inefficiency of

15:03

operations being one of the big uh

15:05

reasons for higher cost as well so I

15:07

think the way we're looking at Talent is

15:09

we're looking at Talent across areas

15:12

right and for them to actually intersect

15:14

and work with each other to solve some

15:16

of these Health Care problems right now

15:19

the way and when people ask me you know

15:22

uh in India tech services is a big thing

15:25

uh there are many Industries there are

15:26

traditional Industries and I think

15:28

healthcare is now

15:29

uh coming more to the Forefront and I

15:31

keep telling people if you have uh an

15:34

understanding of Technology if you like

15:35

solving complex problems but at the end

15:38

of the day you want to make a real

15:40

difference to big problems and touch

15:42

individuals lives um please you know

15:45

consider the healthcare uh world and

15:48

Healthcare world is not necessarily just

15:50

being in a hospital it's also working

15:53

with companies like us where you know

15:55

you have a bigger opportunity and why is

15:57

that a bigger opportunity because you

15:59

also work with our Global teams right to

16:02

understand uh different types of

16:05

Health Care models delivery models and

16:07

can work with global teams to actually

16:09

build and solve some of the problems so

16:11

I think Talent uh is exciting uh but

16:15

it's got to be I think intersected and

16:17

work together and collaborate in the new

16:19

world to build the healthcare models of

16:20

the future I think The Young techies and

16:23

the and the young um uh talent pool also

16:26

needs to be told about how purposeful

16:28

and lucrative the industry is going to

16:29

be because it is the industry of

16:31

tomorrow in a very huge way we come

16:34

to a very interesting aspect of the

16:37

current talent pool which is upskilling

16:40

a lot of the times we see that the

16:42

employability index is not as huge and

16:46

also there is a lot of uh relearning and

16:49

uh reimagining things and keeping up

16:52

with the technology needs to be done how

16:55

do you think we can grip uh we can

16:56

Bridge the upskilling and the re

16:58

learning Gap yeah so you know one of the

17:01

things that always resonates with me is

17:04

learning is lifelong right every day you

17:07

have to keep that learning uh Habit and

17:09

the learning muscle alive right uh it

17:12

doesn't matter what you do when you do

17:13

and I think with today's world that's

17:15

become even more critical because it's

17:17

changing so much I think from our

17:20

perspective uh we uh focus a lot on

17:24

learning and training and of course it's

17:26

not a simple thing because we train and

17:28

make people ask people to learn across

17:31

domains across functions across U Global

17:35

practices or us Healthcare Systems um so

17:38

it's a very big ask right but I think

17:41

the focus is we kind of make it uh

17:43

happen in three or four ways right so

17:46

one is we have many e-learning modules

17:49

uh and very uh specific e-learning

17:51

modules some are directly related to the

17:54

US Healthcare System some of it is just

17:56

simply your function or your domain or

17:58

your pro process so that's uh that's a

18:01

continuing part of what we try and do

18:03

the second thing which we do uh is we

18:06

actually have uh what we call an always

18:08

learning on mode now what we've done is

18:11

uh we keep getting asked this quite

18:13

often right uh we've done um sort of

18:15

gamification of training uh we've done

18:18

virtual reality I'll give you one

18:20

example so we deal with a lot of seniors

18:24

uh in the US Healthcare System and many

18:27

of the people here are young people

18:29

right so we actually developed as part

18:32

of this training a gamification where

18:34

for one half a day they virtually

18:37

spend time with somebody who's between

18:39

80 and 85 right which then means they

18:42

can actually see what's going on how

18:44

they behave and that can actually help

18:46

them and it's really helped in

18:48

increasing customer engagement and uh

18:50

feedback right so you understand what

18:52

they need a bit better uh so another

18:55

example of how we use this and upscale

18:57

is uh we have people uh reviewing

19:00

clinicians clinical reviews of you know

19:02

to see whether somebody's uh defrauded

19:05

the system for some payments or done

19:06

some wrong things or whatever so for

19:08

them to actually understand how this

19:10

works we do a virtual uh setting in a CL

19:14

in a clinic so we actually take them

19:16

into a clinic and then they do some

19:18

virtually and then they do some mock

19:20

exercises so we kind of we kind of

19:22

make this a little more fun than you

19:25

know and the last one is really uh

19:28

upskilling in areas outside your core

19:30

day-to-day work right whether it's Cloud

19:33

whether it's design thinking whether

19:34

it's AI whatever it is but there's a big

19:37

set of um learning opportunities and

19:40

that simply is hey if you're really

19:42

interested and you're the kind who wants

19:44

to learn every day you have every

19:46

resource and every opportunity um and I

19:49

think we take our training and

19:50

development uh you know uh a seriously

19:53

but also try and make it

19:55

fun uh um before I let you go I have to

19:58

ask you this what are you

19:59

personally excited about in this

20:01

Healthcare uh new uh decade and what are

20:05

the innovations that you're looking

20:06

forward to yeah I I'll pick it

20:10

up in four buckets right and then within

20:13

each of it anything can happen right one

20:16

is this whole consumerization of the

20:18

experience you know personalization

20:20

personalization

20:22

consumerization yes of course whatever

20:24

that means it's variables it's apps it's

20:27

uh you know uh personalize I'm taking

20:30

responsibility for what's important to

20:31

me uh diet is important something else

20:34

is but the whole consumer experience is

20:36

actually changing right the third the

20:39

second one for me is this concept of

20:41

well-being we spoke about it briefly

20:44

which is each one's idea of well-being

20:46

is different some is Diet some is you

20:48

know will I what are the issues I will

20:50

face how do I prevent it uh some is am I

20:53

eating the right food but the whole idea

20:56

of Wellness so which basically means

20:58

prevent

20:59

is going to play a really big role and

21:01

you know as uh Healthcare uh State all

21:04

the parts of the healthcare ecosystem

21:06

kind of understand that uh that's going

21:09

to change a lot of the Dynamics of the

21:11

how and the what and then it will

21:13

actually also integrate the way care is

21:16

given right it could be in your house it

21:18

could be anywhere so that that whole

21:21

thing the third one is the whole how

21:23

will the digital platforms evolve and

21:25

there could be two or three ways to do

21:26

this one is uh digital Health platforms

21:29

for individuals and consumers but also

21:32

digital Health platforms at a um sort of

21:36

uh ecosystem level which is if you go to

21:38

a doctor today and you have a health

21:40

record how easy will it be to have

21:42

interoperability with the right data

21:45

protections and privacy and all of that

21:47

which then means there's a single record

21:49

which means you can then decide where

21:51

and what and how right so the whole

21:53

digital platform and the

21:54

interoperability at various levels I

21:57

think is going to evolve

21:59

um in a very big way and the last

22:01

one uh I think we're in in the early

22:04

stages of uh value based care which is

22:07

instead of dealing with one thing at a

22:09

time how do I look at full

22:11

accountability as well right so this

22:14

is my health beginning to end who's

22:17

responsible it's a full accountability

22:19

model with an integrated way of

22:22

delivering and I think that will rather

22:24

than just one service at a time and then

22:26

you're running around trying to figure

22:27

out what to do so I think that's so I

22:29

would say four big buckets and I think

22:32

the uh The Innovation and the kind of

22:35

ideas in each of these uh are going to

22:38

be really interesting what comes out but

22:40

I think as a collective it's going to

22:42

fundamentally shape the health care uh

22:45

of the future well all I can say is

22:48

exciting times ahead and we are living

22:49

in very interesting times all right that

22:52

brings us to the end of this

22:54

enlightening discussion a heartful thank

22:57

you to um of course for sharing all

22:59

these wonderful insights and valuable

23:01

insights in the next phase of this

23:03

series The healthex dialogues will take

23:05

us to the campuses of India's Premier

23:08

management and Engineering colleges

23:11

where leading Healthcare innovators

23:13

experts and Founders will offer deeper

23:16

insights into how Innovation is

23:18

reshaping the global Healthcare

23:19

landscape and engage with students on

23:22

some critical questions such as are we

23:24

inspiring young talents to make an

23:25

impactful difference in healthcare and

23:28

is the next generation of leaders ready

23:30

to bring fresh ideas to transform

23:33

Healthcare stay tuned and thank you for

23:35

watching

23:40

[Music]

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