BENGALURU: Global health-tech organisation vHealth by Aetna is now strengthening its footprint in South India by expanding its subscriber base across all five states. It is actively expanding its network, subscribers and partner base, as the company has crossed 7 lakh subscribers in these states.
vHealth services are offered in India by Aetna’s fully-owned subsidiary, Indian Health Organization. Aetna is a subsidiary of CVS Health, A fortune 5 enterprise, which is a health care benefits company in the US, serving over 46.7 million people.
Anurag Khosla, CEO, vHealth said, “South India is an important market for us where we have seen tailwinds. We have established an extensive network in all the five states, and are looking at strengthening it further.”
The Indian health tech market is projected to grow at a rate of 39% CAGR to reach $5 billion by FY2023, and the healthcare industry is undergoing a major digital transformation. Many start-ups are operating in this space, including ZiffyTech, Affordplan, Practo and Portea, offering different services.
Khosla told TNIE that India has the opportunity to leapfrog in adoption of digital health, telemedicine and electronic medical records. In the past few years, India has made substantial advancements in the field of healthcare technology.
“Wider applications such as robotics, AI and wearables are transforming the future of healthcare. The enhanced focus on digitalisation of patient medical records and a common Health ID can become key enablers for tech integration,” he said. Like in the case of banks and financial institutions, data sharing between healthcare providers should be under a strict data protection framework, he added.
While Covid-19 revealed the inadequacies in our healthcare system, technology is enabling us to bridge the gaps in existing medical care. It is expected that this year will witness a steep surge in automation and telemedicine. Over the last 5 years, vHealth has been achieving 45% CAGR. The company is expecting to maintain the same run rate with renewed digital focus and revamped online customer journey.
“The increase in demand for telemedicine, remote health monitoring and a hybrid phygital (physical and digital) healthcare experience for patients will fuel the next growth spike,” he said.