News
Health X Conversations: Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare
Discover how artificial intelligence can drive preventive care, improve access and help build a more inclusive healthcare system.
July 15, 2025 | 1-minute read
May 24, 2025
In a compelling in-studio episode of Health X Conversations aired on CNBC-TV18, Sandeep Dadlani, Chief Digital & Technology Officer at UnitedHealth Group, joined journalist Mugdha Kalra for a discussion on the transformative role of artificial intelligence in India’s healthcare sector.
Presented by Optum India, the episode delved into how AI is moving beyond the buzz to address critical challenges such as affordability, accessibility and the need for preventive care. Dadlani emphasized the importance of scalable and ethical AI solutions in building a more inclusive and resilient healthcare system.
The conversation offered a forward-looking perspective on how technology can empower healthcare providers and consumers alike, making care smarter, more efficient and more patient centric.
The episode and its promotional content were also featured across CNBC-TV18’s and Firstposts’s digital platforms.
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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
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[Music]
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report Healthcare a fundamental human
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right but for Millions around the world
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it is still a distant
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Dream from rural villages to crowded
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Urban centers the challenges of
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healthcare are clear
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access affordability quality and the
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experience of
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care remote locations lack basic medical
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services and delayed treatments make
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Access to Health Care a major issue in
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rural
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communities even in cities overcrowded
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hospitals and endless waiting times
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often lead to worsened health
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outcomes along with access a
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affordability of Quality Healthcare is
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another pressing
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issue High out-of-pocket expenses are
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preventing people from seeking essential
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care and even in countries with
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universal health care medical costs can
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drive families into poverty it is not
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just the rising cost of Health Care
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straining communities lack of Quality
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Medical Care is another major concern
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inconsistent standards outdated
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equipment and the shortage of trained
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professionals can all compromise medical
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care but then there's the experience of
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care administrative burdens are a
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constant drain for healthcare
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providers leaving them with less time to
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focus on what matters most their
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patience however Innovation and
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technology is driving a health care
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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
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today a very special guest Umar ratnam
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Krishnan managing director of optum
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India welcome to the show Uma so good to
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have you here uh let me start by asking
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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
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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
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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
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clinician or the doctor and the patient
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right uh whatever happens that's
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fundamental to this so let's unpack this.
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a little bit so let's talk about cost.
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right cost of healthcare as you
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mentioned has been increasing at
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skyrocketing at a frenetic Pace uh right
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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
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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
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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
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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
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quality outcomes when we talk about the
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cost of technology and then of course
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the cost of Health Care it is um it is
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Unfortunately they say that you know
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it's not a poor man's country to fall
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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
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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
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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
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technology help here right which is how
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can we use the analytics to build
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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
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using the data to say what could be the
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next best action so actually use some of
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that technology to deliver a better
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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
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own Healthcare outcomes but it's about
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transparency right uh so transparency of
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the cost of drugs transparency about
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cost of surgical procedures true and
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that's going to play a big role in
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bringing down the cost I'll give you a
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couple of examples in in this right so
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for example if you take uh with at optum
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uh we actually say we have give options
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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
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decision and then talking about um the
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decision support systems and the data
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and input that we provide clinicians uh
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so they can then use that and then spend
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more time for better quality outcomes
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now as a result and also accessibility
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as a result of this right if you invest
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in digital and T Health cost comes down
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because you are getting care in a much
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more um calibrated planned way so I
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think there are and Technology can play
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a big role in many of these right uh so
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it's really about using that technology
9:46
for the right outcome while optum India
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operates as a capability Center but what
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kind of technological innovations are
9:54
you offering to the world so optum India
9:56
as a healthcare company as a healthcare
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Global in Innovation Center uh for optum
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uh we are fundamentally focused on.
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creating better Healthcare outcomes now
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and uh Innovation is culturally what.
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drives us to find ways to get better.
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healthcare outcomes um I gave you some
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examples of what optum health does uh in
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the US market uh the optum health
10:23
delivery is mainly in the US market but
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uh what we do here actually helps us
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create much better outcomes uh for
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the global Health outcomes in in opum uh
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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
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or whatever right but the way we've
10:50
actually organized ourselves is for the
10:52
technology teams and the business teams
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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
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actually outcome related problems right
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which is how can I better the healthcare
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outcome that's the objective uh is not
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just about fixing something uh fixing a
11:11
technology uh platform um I'll give
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you an example again this is from um for
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uh the work we do for opum uh globally
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uh we get a lot of calls coming in from
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people who you know our people in our
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agents uh take calls where people want
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and many of these calls are to fix
11:30
appointments with doctors right and uh
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so the minute an agent gets a call
11:36
saying Hey I want an appointment with
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the doctor then the agent has to do a
11:40
whole bunch of things one first figure
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out where the patient location is uh
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where they're calling from the second is
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what are the doctors available in that
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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
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sure that they align with the um
12:25
Insurance all in real time right and
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that was one of the uh you know pieces
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of innovation and then we're also
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looking to integrate Pharmacy
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requirements and then including
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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
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