What role do public health policies play in preventing the spread of infectious diseases, and how can they be improved?
A good healthcare system is the foundation for individuals to lead productive and fulfilling lives and for countries to have strong economies. However, the Indian healthcare system has been fraught with perennial issues of accessibility and affordability, which include: Over 75% of the healthcare inRead more
A good healthcare system is the foundation for individuals to lead productive and fulfilling lives and for countries to have strong economies. However, the Indian healthcare system has been fraught with perennial issues of accessibility and affordability, which include:
- Over 75% of the healthcare infrastructure is concentrated in metro cities, where only 27% of the total population resides the rest 73% of the Indian population lack even basic medical facilities.
- A doctor in a government hospital in India attends to approximately 11000 patients, which is more than the WHO recommendation of 1:1000.
- Indians pay approximately 63% of their medical expenses out-of-pocket, which is considered to be the highest in the world.
In this regard, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) introduced the National Digital Health Mission (renamed as Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission) in 2020 to establish a federated health information architecture, health information exchanges, and a national health information network.
It can play a crucial role in ensuring accessibility and affordability in the following ways:
- Expansion of telemedicine: It covers various aspects such as tele-radiology, tele-consultation, tele-nursing, tele-ICU and tele-surgery. Telemedicine could effectively bridge the gap between the patient and the doctor.
- Point of care diagnostics (POCD): In the recent past, multiple applications using automated technologies which run on artificial intelligence and/or machine learning algorithms have been developed, which enable the simplification of complex diagnostic procedures to provide immediate tests/diagnosis results.
- Medical virtual assistants: Virtual health assistants and chatbots bridge the gap between patients and physicians and tend to the needs of the patients in between physical appointments through services such as prompting prescription refills, providing information on medical conditions, appointment scheduling, maintaining health records and other administrative tasks.
- Self-monitoring healthcare devices: Monitors and sensors are now being integrated into wearables, which allow them to detect various physiological changes in the body. These smart devices are capable of tracking weight, sleep patterns, posture, diet and exercise. The raw data that is collected can be used to self-monitor by detecting various health symptoms and alert the user in case of potential issues.
- Electronic health records (EHRs): An EHR is a digital version of a patient’s health records. EHRs help eliminate the problems associated with physical records such as loss of records and lack of accessibility. EHRS can be stored centrally and can be accessed at any time, irrespective of where or when the information was collected.
India is home to the 2nd largest smartphone market in the world and the country is expecting to reach 664 million mobile internet users by 2023. Digital healthcare would therefore increase accessibility and affordability of healthcare services to India.
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One essential aspect of health is the implementation of public health policies as they assist in curtailing the spread of infectious diseases by exploring the avenues which may transmit the disease as well as enhancing the health of the people or given population. These include; -Vaccination ProgramRead more
One essential aspect of health is the implementation of public health policies as they assist in curtailing the spread of infectious diseases by exploring the avenues which may transmit the disease as well as enhancing the health of the people or given population. These include;
-Vaccination Programs: The vast vaccination programs, aimed at providing herd immunity against measles, polio and flu as well as other diseases.
-Sanitation and Hygiene: By providing access to clean water, proper sanitation and hygiene to prevent the transmission of water and faeces related diseases.
-Development of Surveillance and Monitoring: Building up of appropriate control and monitoring systems to keep trace of infectious disease outbreaks and therefore initiate control measures early enough.
-Diseases Control through Isolation/Quarantine: Containment or control of outbreak of infections through quarantine and isolation of the identified infected persons.
-Health Policy’s Contextualization: Introduce health policies seeking to coordinate national practices on health, within a global spectrum, to avoid any possibilities of trans-boundary diseases.
-Public Health Education: Awareness campaigns to the public on management of the disease, its prevention, and the administration of the vaccines.
With respect to enhancing Nation’s health policy, certain strategies for improvement include the following;
-Strength of Health Systems: Preparedness and response by strengthening the health system components of infrastructure, human resources and research.
-Intersectoral Collaboration: Build relationships between the health sector and those responsible for social determinants of health including education and work in order to promote equity and lessen health differences.
-Empowerment of Communities: Enhancing their involvement, where they are encouraged to take an active role in policy formulation concerning health and actual health practices, where they stand to gain.
-Policy Change: Sustaining the present scientific knowledge and modifying them when necessary to cope with new communicable diseases and resistance to antimicrobial agents.
– Equity Focused: Equipping every individual with the necessary health services and resources without regard to their location or social class.
This may be particularly true regarding the burden of infectious diseases which can be greatly reduced through the introduction of adequate public health measures and controlling the socioeconomic conditions which promote the disease.
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