Bringing Healthcare Closer to Rural India

The internet penetration rate in rural parts of India has grown 13 percent to 299 M internet users in 2020

This stat clearly states that how fast rural India is turning tech-savvy. Moreover, people are more willing to use the Internet to improve their lifestyle. Rural India will be the key influencers in powering a digital ecosystem, wherein Remote / Digital Healthcare will be the highly adopted service, making Telemedicine, a fast emerging sector in India.

As per Statista, the Telemedicine sector is expected to grow at a CAGR of 31% annually from 2020 to 2025.

This indicates the growth chart of Telemedicine without rural areas is on an upward swing. Indeed, we have a long road to cover when offering quality healthcare services, especially in rural India.
Here, Telemedicine could be a phenomenal tool to remove the clutter of healthcare imbalance through Wi-Fi technology.

Substantial benefits telehealth offers to the rural area

• Emergency care can be accessed in real-time for evaluations and consultations via telehealth services
• ICUs-can provide around-the-clock monitoring of critically ill patients via telehealth by a team of subspecialists and critical care nurses
• Chronic care management gets easier using telehealth
• Telecare is a unique service offered by telehealth. Here specialized care is given to elderly populations looking for long-term care facilities in rural areas
• Tele pharmacy brings medication counselling and community pharmacies to the doorstep of patients
• Remote counselling allows patients to get medical assistance through video and calling features for their mental health

Home monitoring enables patients to seek medical assistance and manage their conditions through Telemedicine without traveling.

The Gen-Z Wi-Fi technology solutions have brought Telemedicine to the mainstream healthcare ecosystem of rural India.

Undeniably, Telemedicine is transforming the way people access healthcare in the rural turf. Considering the shortage of super-specialist doctors in rural and semi-urban areas, Telemedicine has bridged the gap.
With high-performing internet connectivity, the improved healthcare facility is made available to millions out there. With Telemedicine, anyone can access verified doctors 24*7*365 effortlessly, irrespective of their location. They no longer need to struggle with low bandwidth due to poor internet connection. The smart Wi-Fi connectivity extends uninterrupted internet services to even the remotest of corners in the country.

Wi-Fi 6 improves patient care beyond belief!

Telemedicine enables the efficient exchange of medical information from one location to another using Wi-Fi 6 technology.

• Wi-Fi technology is a ubiquitous feature in healthcare settings today. It is used widely to communicate patient records, imaging results, and storing and sharing real-time patient monitoring data

• Wi-Fi technology holds the capacity and efficiency to connect a proliferating number of devices while offering sought-after healthcare services

• With Wi-Fi 6, it becomes easy to accommodate numerous devices in dense locations, provide better coverage, and improve user experience

Technical advantages of Wi-Fi 6 for Healthcare

• OFDMA allows highly aggregated throughput and lower latency in close-packed environments in hospitals. It further helps in prioritizing life-saving traffic data such as patient monitoring over less sensitive traffic
• MU-MIMO lets Access Points transmit more data at a given time and offers many concurrent clients. This feature further supports MRI images to HD video for physician and patient consultation, requiring higher bandwidth
• TWT allows IoMT devices that run on battery power and can “wake up” at negotiated times. Within the hospitals and district clinics in rural areas, WLAN deployment is based on congested environments. This feature helps in reducing power consumption and longer battery life for IoMT devices
• WPA3 brings a security shield to medical information and patient records when transmitted over the air. With the WPA3 standard feature in Wi-Fi 6, hospitals/clinics need improved security protection
• Backward compatibility allows legacy clients to co-exist with the latest Wi-Fi 6 devices. It serves the purpose as numerous devices from various Wi-Fi generations get served by the same network at any given time

“Wi-Fi technology has streamlined the concept of telemedicine and brings an aperture to a rural area while strengthening the medical infrastructure to achieve robust healthcare for countrymen.”

– Ashutosh Dutta, GM-Architect Wi-Fi, HFCL

Wi-Fi in healthcare; What Future Beholds?

It is a Million-Dollar question; the advancement in Wi-Fi technology has spurred innovation and creativity.

The ultra-low latency lets healthcare organizations deploy robotics and AR/VR solutions to remotely conduct surgical procedures and medical training.

The integration of AI within Telemedicine would downpour improved diagnosis and treatment at larger. 

As per WHO, the Indian health system offers a poor doc-patient ratio that describes one doctor for 1700 patients.

Final Thoughts

The improved technical mechanism of Wi-Fi solutions would address healthcare challenges through improved telemedicine services, such as robotics, AI, medical file sharing, wearable sensors, and much more.
Finally yet importantly, for a massive chunk of rural people out there, Telemedicine fulfils their medical needs online. It is undeniably the first line of choice not just during the pandemic but much beyond it as well.

Stay connected to this space to unleash how the Next-Gen Wi-Fi is #ConnectingTheUnconnected with FUTURE-READY healthcare services!