Smartcards (with embedded chips) issued at some hospitals in India, which generally used to

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contain only personal information of the patients, are evolving as a tool that would contain critical clinical data of the patients.

Hospitals and healthcare enterprises have not really looked at intense investment in IT, as their primary focus is on doctors, medical technology and medicines. Emergency ca­se handling is a common phenomenon and utilisation of smartcards will only enhance the healthcare delivery, according to experts.

Many companies in India create healthcare technologies for the developed world. But, in India IT in healthcare offerings is still in the infancy stage.

Vishal Bali, chief executive officer of Fortis Hospitals, said, “IT adoption in healthcare is low in India because hospitals have not realised that how much more effective and productive they can become by using IT. In future, smartcards will carry all the hospital records, but as of now, there is much more to be done.”

Vijaya Verma, founder and CEO of Bangalore-based Healthcare IT company Yos Technologies, said, “Just as the UID will hold the general identity for all citizens, smartcards and associated personal health record will hold the health identity of all citizens. For a country like India, having a medical identity and database of every individual can be of tremendous use for preventive healthcare and epidemic management.”

Yos has issued about 40,000 such cards in Bangalore through 30 hospitals in less than a year. The company, which helps hospitals to digitalise data through its operation executives, expects the number to cross a lakh by end of 2010 in Bangalore alone.