Tier II & Tier III Cities Will Find Quality Diagnostics In Their Neighborhood: Narendra Varde

How has the industry evolved in the last couple of years? What new trends do you foresee in the Indian diagnostic space in 2023?

Like all industries, the pandemic brought medical diagnostics to the limelight and at the same time accelerated the speed of innovation, especially those focused on data-driven technologies in the sector. The increased awareness about preventive health and the greater burden of NCDs is driving the growth of diagnostics. Individuals are realizing the importance of preventive healthcare and are getting themselves tested in order to improve health outcomes, aid in early detection, and thus lead to early disease management, while also decreasing medical costs. For 2023, what I feel will impact the industry most are:

Diagnostic accessibility: People living in tier II and Tier III cities will find quality diagnostics in their neighborhood, if not at their doorstep. We are currently present in 450 cities in India. In the year to come, we will see more and more organisations taking modern diagnostics and novel biomarkers into the interiors of the country so that people need not travel to large city laboratories. Additionally, the National Essential Diagnostics List (NEDL) has also helped policymakers in determining which tests are most crucial across the different healthcare facilities of the nation, thus positively impacting delivery of diagnostics.

Market consolidation: In India, standalone diagnostic centers account for 45-50% of the market share while the organized chains own less than 35%. Hospital-based diagnostic centers own the rest. A few reports predict that a number of small and independent labs will become franchisees for big players. In such a scenario, private diagnostics chains, empowered by their better quality services and wider test menus, are expected to capture a higher market share. Online aggregators will further add to this competition, which should result in lower prices for tests for the end customer.

Health Data Digitalization: Over 2022, more than 4 crore citizens have linked their health records with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. This digitalization of data will enable citizens and caregivers to access their health data at their convenience. Digitalization of health data will help in culling out insights into various facets of healthcare. It will be a space to watch how all this data will be leveraged to better healthcare in the country.

Are new launches in the pipeline for 2023 for the Indian market?

India is one of the important markets for us, and one that demands that we bring in our cutting edge products. For 2023, this stance remains the same. During the pandemic, Roche Diagnostics was the first one to introduce an extended range of COVID tests in India. In the coming year, we will continue our work in making clinicians and the laboratory fraternity aware of the new and advanced biomarkers. 

In a country like ours, where there is a huge burden of cardiovascular diseases, Roche cardiac biomarkers can help in the early detection of heart failure and related ailments. Additionally, we launched a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) assay that will facilitate early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, leading to better management of the disease. We are also focusing on digital pathology that will help us offer personalized healthcare in India.

What do you think the future roadmap should be to meet the health challenges of tomorrow?

Healthcare and diagnostics have come a long way in India, but there is a long road ahead to create a truly healthy India. Some challenges we face are fragmented markets, lack of accreditation, and concentration of good quality healthcare services in metro cities. All these challenges give us an opportunity to add value to the future of healthcare delivery and the development of the Indian diagnostics industry. Out of pocket expense for diagnostics is one of the most pressing detriments for people in low-income groups. We need to create ways and find alternatives to make sure that all sections of society have equal access to diagnostics.

One solution that we could look at are Public - Private Partnerships (PPP), which I believe will pave the way for a healthy India. Government alone cannot face a problem as mammoth as high-burden diseases such as CVD, diabetes, and the likes. We started our partnership with the National Aids Control Organization (NACO) in 2018 for AIDS elimination and we continue to work with various state governments in other population screening programs. 

The PPP model was successful in COVID diagnosis and vaccine development and could potentially help solve problems such as scaling up diagnostics infrastructure for infectious disease or NCD management in tier II & III cities. In India, especially in smaller cities, there are many labs that are being run by underqualified technicians within poor quality environments, which can impact the overall delivery and accuracy of the results. To tackle this, standardised regulations for the accreditation of labs are an urgent need of the hour.

How are we harnessing the power of data analytics and workflow integration to gain insights for better patient and operational decision-making?

Roche understands the value of clinical laboratories in the broader healthcare ecosystem and through digitalization, we are committed to developing innovative solutions to help labs and clinicians meet the needs of today and tomorrow. We have a healthcare digital center of excellence (CoE) that focuses on leveraging technologies for delivering actionable insights in the healthcare space.

We also provide personalized consultancy from the first assessment through implementation and beyond. With our solutions, labs can help improve patient care with more efficient management of data - both operational and clinical - and turn that data into actionable insights for fact-based decision-making for clinicians and patients. Our digital and workflow integration solutions reduce laboratory workloads as well as provide for efficient data review and enhanced clinical documentation.