As the healthcare industry ushered into a post-pandemic world, it looked at the dawn of a foundational change – a change driven by ‘smart’ and novel technologies, improved patient experience, new resources, and healthcare for all. The new-age healthcare paradigm is driven by seamless information, informed decisions, personalised care, and a higher quality of life. Healthcare today is aimed at providing patients with better, value-added, and cost-effective healthcare services while also improving the industry's efficacy and efficiency.

ISB Healthcare 4.0—the inaugural healthcare conference organised by ISB Max Institute of Healthcare Management (ISB MIHM)—brings together multiple stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem, including ISB alumni, industry leaders, academia, corporate professionals, government officials from the health sector to discuss "trends and early use cases for the healthcare of the future". The one-day conference will be held at ISB’s Hyderabad Campus on 10 February 2023 from 9 am to 5:30 pm IST.

The conference will include four panel discussions:

Panel 1: Operational models for value-based care

India's healthcare system is dominated by fee-for-service payment models and creates incentives for the overprovision of care without necessarily improving health. Although various stakeholders have clamored for increasing health spending, it has been difficult due to the tight fiscal environment and competing demands on limited government budgets. The sustainability of Universal Health Coverage, private insurance, and OOP spending is dependent on deriving the maximum "value" from the health expenditure.

Early promising signs in this direction include the setting up of the Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) by the Department of Health Research and the National Health Authority (NHA) publishing its Value-based Incentives policy. This panel will discuss the need to contextualize the notion of "value" from patients' and societal perspectives. It will then identify key challenges for scaling up these ideas in a large, fragmented health system that depends heavily on the private sector for the provision of healthcare services. Finally, it will brainstorm a few solutions to address these challenges. 

Panel 2: Evolution of the payor ecosystem and its implications to providers and patients

With changing landscape of financing in India, we are discussing what role can private and public payors play. The discussions will include new, need-based products, products for integrated care through HMOs in the current ecosystem, improving health outcomes, incentivising quality of care, hospital rating, and their pros and cons where applicable. 

Panel 3: Healthcare in the digital era and strategies for SME hospitals

Small and medium-sized hospitals currently deliver the bulk of healthcare in India. While a lot is discussed from the perspective of corporate healthcare providers, there is a lot of opportunity to discuss how these smaller, city-based hospitals need to evolve in the fast-changing healthcare landscape of today. This panel will discuss how the business model of SME hospitals is evolving/needs to respond to the changing competition in the industry to stay ahead of the curve.   

Panel 4: How is AI shaping care delivery?

Artificial Intelligence or AI can lead to better care outcomes and improve the productivity and efficiency of care delivery. A lot has been spoken about this and few companies are expertimenting with this technology to do some ground-breaking work in healthcare. This panel will bring together speakers who are currently integrating AI through research and product development. This panel will discuss how AI is reshaping care delivery and what are some of the issues around digitalisation of healthcare.