The outbreak of the Covid-19 virus across the globe subjected human endurance and intelligence to arduous tests. Every individual’s hope was mostly mounted over two elements, the divine and the doctor. A lot of information about diagnosis and home treatment of the victim of the virus circulated all over the internet. A lot of reading material was floating recklessly on social media. Whether it’s a fad or the most genuine and authentic information, most circulars come with a disclaimer – “Check with your healthcare professional.” Now, the question that precedes is, what to check with a healthcare professional, ‘Who is your healthcare professional?’ The year 2020 is now history but the lessons it has left us with are pertinent ones. From the medical industry’s perspective, the past century has seen exponential development and the whole concept of healthcare has transformed multifold in the last three to four decades. In terms of doctors, we have the ‘superspecialists’ ; they are the ones with specialized skills. Their expertise narrows down to
specific skills concerning an organ or organ system, example: Endocrinologist, Nephrologist, Podiatrist or a Gastroenterologist.
The technological development has aided increased success rates in robotic surgeries and AI-driven
data analytics paired with computer-aided diagnosis and surgical tools are able to achieve precision like never before. This is supported by a cohesive pharmaceutical industry that is emerging stronger by the day both technologically and economically. Here, the focus is on what these developments mean to a patient?
The ability to seek, find, understand and interpret medical information on electronic devices adds challenges in narrowing down care providers. The whole idea of managing health with diet plans, exercise plans, supplements and nutrition pills, only gets complex, and the situation turns into an organized chaos. The need of the hour from the patients perspective is to have a healthcare professional or a family doctor to be precise, that makes us understand the idea of our state of health or the nature of our ailments that’s as unique as us. A person who sees a patient as a whole and does not restrict himself to a specific part of the patient’s body!
The idea of family doctors in India is probably as old as its civilization. The doctor-patient relationship is one of the oldest personal relationships established outside of family and friend circles, that was considered sacred not only in India but in most ancient civilizations. Today, with
the development of technology, soon there will be a system in place where a bot on the other side can assimilate the symptoms of a patient and suggest a treatment plan. It certainly saves waiting periods at the hospitals/clinics, automation leads to doorstep delivery of medicines suggested and also timely follow-up becomes seamless. But the question is, is the robot efficient enough to reduce the anxiety of a patient and calm his nerves about the treatment plan? Or can an AI-driven system tell the patient confidently that his symptom is common among all his family members and hence he has nothing to worry about? Database-driven technology generates variable information about an ailment or treatment plan because the results/output varies every time new data is fed into the system, thus how reliable is it for a patient? Even in the current times, it is difficult for a system/technology to report patient-specific, accurate personalized information. Algorithm driven output and Neural networks based analysis are a probability, as it is data centric and not patient centric and this technology and data driven information is extremely beneficial to the medical industry but has very little and direct advantage to the patient.

This is where a human doctor has a huge impact on the patient. In this regard, the system we have in place in India is a boon. Here, patients have absolute freedom to pick their doctors. They are not bound by the rules of any insurance company like in the Western countries. Having one family doctor for the family is super beneficial as the doctor has enough data to understand certain ailments that run in the family, what an individual is prone to and what needs to be prescribed and ‘advised’ is understood by human doctors better. This makes healthcare easy, more importantly, less anxious for the patients and caretakers. It is no wonder why our grandparents saw just one doctor all their lives. It was a matter of convenience, to say the least as every time they had a cough, fever, or even pain in the chest, they were not subjected to umpteen number of tests immediately, instead, the doctor would take a call based on his past experience with the patient and the patient’s current health conditions in mind. The doctor would be pragmatic in providing solutions while ascertaining various factors in play for the patients, such as his current ability for lab visits or the support system he has at home to get stable at the desired rate, sometimes even his economical situation as well. This idea of looking at the patient as a sick human being and not just a case of disease is not new to India and it has worked in perfect harmony with both doctors and patients. In most cases, follow-ups were just a formality, an opportunity to thank the doctor with utmost gratitude. Family doctors come as a blessing for caretakers, especially for those who are taking care of bedridden or terminally ill patients as it reduced the fear of missing out on information crucial to the treatment because the doctor would be aware of the current status of health of the patient in question. I am sure we have now cracked “Who is ‘Your’ healthcare professional?”, “who is it when we visit multiple doctors for various ailments?”. Here, we should understand when we are referring to a Healthcare professional, he/she is a general practitioner who is aware of one’s general status of health and provides comprehensive and holistic advice and treatment plan as he or she is equipped and trained to do so. Thanks to technology, video conferencing and online consulting are making it possible for the current generation too to choose a doctor as a family physician and continue with him irrespective of proximity to the doctors office. This is very much needed irrespective of a pandemic because a human being assuring us of our safety can be more assuring and calming than a bot throwing the numbers out and asking us to analyze it ourselves. We have not achieved technological advancement in understanding the impact of the human voice, touch and assurance in curing ailments and diseases for the human mind and body is the most complex mechanism there is and we have not cracked it yet!