Technology can help reduce healthcare costs: Health Minister

New Delhi: The government is committed to technology integration in the health sector, Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel said on Thursday, adding that digital technology could help reduce health care costs and increase accountability and transparency.

She, however, said that investments in new technologies should be done cost-effectively and frugally.

Speaking at the inauguration of 10th Medical Technology Conference, Patel stated that the scope of digital technology in the public health sector has gone beyond service delivery.

She was speaking on a session, Medical Technology Shaping Universal Healthcare, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

"The health ministry is already at the forefront of incorporating the benefits of digital technology towards achieving the goals elucidated in National Health Policy (2017) which are synchronous with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," she said.

The National Health Mission (NHM) is already using throughout the country a web-based Health Management Information System (HMIS) to collect and collate data related to the health infrastructure.

Registration of health statistics like births and deaths and preventing female foeticide through implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition Of Sex Selection) Act 2003 Act are some of the additional tenets that are being brought online for ease of implementation, progressively decreasing costs and most importantly, increased accountability and transparency, Patel said.

"The government is committed to making India a manufacturing hub for medical devices as our medical technology industry is increasing manifolds and is expected to grow from 4.5 billion USD currently to 14 billion USD in 2022," she said.