COVID-19 and its influence on the health care sector

Dr. Kanchan Sanyal, Health Advisor, Columbia Pacific Communities, gives a talk on how COVID-19 affected our physical, social, emotional, and financial system in 2020.

The world changed in all ways imaginable in 2020 and now with the advent of vaccines, it will change again in 2021, hopefully bringing some form of normalcy to our lives, physically, socially, mentally, and financially.

The impact on the healthcare sector will be distinctly visible, lessons learned from the pandemic that shook its core.

It took a pandemic for us to be aware that India has the largest vaccine manufacturing capacity in the world, taking on 60% of global production with cities like Hyderabad which has the medical infrastructure to meet one-third of global vaccine demand, earning it the title of “vaccine capital of the world.” The Serum Institute of India, or SII, Pune, already churns out more than 1.5 billion doses of vaccines per annum. This positioning of the vaccine world will only improve along with the subsequent requirements of syringes, needles, and sanitizing agents.

The health care sector will change to meet the real and perceived needs of PPE, trained healthcare workers for Intensive Care, diagnostic fields, and follow-up and home care of patients – anywhere in the world!

Telemedicine has already been accepted in the new scenario with the point of care medical devices for diagnosis, wearable technology for preventive, curative, and mental health boosted by Video Consulting from the comfort of home.

AI will be the new contender for health care especially for the older population and will change the definition of ‘patient’ to ‘consumer.’ The global path of recovery is well on an upward trend with the health sector leading the way.