Power Letters 2022: Alisha Moopen, deputy managing director, Aster DM Healthcare

The last two years have been the toughest in the recent history of healthcare with the pandemic creating havoc with healthcare systems worldwide. Aster DM Healthcare remained right in the epicentre of managing the pandemic, serving a large number of Covid-19 positive patients who sought care with us across countries, and also working in partnership with governments to strategise and implement Covid management protocols to address the crisis.

While Covid took a major toll on our business, we were required to be operational and even expand capacity on several occasions to ensure that we serve and help as many people as possible. This pushed us to adapt quickly, innovate to introduce new solutions and optimise to bring in best operational efficiency. The year 2021 proved to be turn-around year for Aster where many of these strategies were put into action and we are now set on the path to ensure sustainable and accessible quality healthcare for all.

Digital transformation and the use of technology has become integral to our core operations with the adoption of efficiency measures. For example, we introduced the E-ICU model during the peak of the pandemic and lockdown which ensured that our best critical care experts across operations in different countries could come together to form a central expert hub to provide the best medical care to a large number of critically ill Covid-19 patients. Similarly, during the second surge in India, over 100 Aster doctors from the GCC came forward to provide free teleconsultation to Covid-19 patients based in India who had no means of accessing medical care.

While all of us at Aster believe that technology – or rather the right use of technology – is going to be a powerful changemaker in healthcare, I do think the current wave of quick service companies or restaurants or supermarkets that promote healthcare is not the way forward.

It’s unsettling to see people selling services to mop homes and do nose swabs in the same service menu. While our desire for convenience is important, the access to quality healthcare that people can trust is paramount. Also, having a holistic view of a patient, where a health partner looks at the full history of a patient and supports his health journey, rather than episodic intervention to help just access care, is important.

This is where a seamless omnichannel integrated approach becomes extremely important and key for the future of healthcare. And only those organisations that truly place your wellbeing and your convenience as complementary drivers will stand the test of this new rage of health-tech boom that we see.

While the opportunities are endless, let us not allow healthcare to be sold as a commodity. Health is the most powerful and dynamic state of being, and we as Aster are excited about the power of technology in the hands of the right healthcare providers to change the rules of healthcare for better outcomes and service levels.