Strategies to promote “healthcare marketing” will instil confidence among patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and improve access to public health facilities, besides strengthening health infrastructure, a study on the challenges before public healthcare systems amid the pandemic in rural areas in Rajasthan has said.
Experts and researchers laid emphasis on the role of primary and community health centres in containing the spread of coronavirus infections in villages by generating awareness in the rural population at a virtual event here on Wednesday. Marketing fundamentals were the need of the hour to boost public health services, said the experts.
Jaipur-based Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) has undertaken the study on the public health aspect of “healthcare marketing” to evolve new strategies to promote the safety of patients through communication, and to inculcate confidence among them in the efficacy of treatment. The study also aimed at accelerating the know-how of quality, and improvising access to public health services.
IIHMR president P.R. Sodani said marketing as a component of public services had not yet taken a lead in the public health environment despite its potential to connect with patients who were in need of immediate care. “COVID-19 has thrown up challenges on the availability of public health services in far-flung areas. It is here that the healthcare marketing can help by adopting a role transcending commercial activities,” he said.
While Piyush Sinha of Ahmedabad-based CRI Advisory and Research said a holistic healthcare marketing model would enable corporates to contribute to raising the country’s health status, Sheenu Jain of IIHMR’s Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship laid emphasis on utilising digital platforms for connecting patients with physicians and healthcare service providers.
As a research institution, the IIHMR has launched a programme in health entrepreneurship under the University Grants Commission’s National Skills Qualification Framework. Participants will work on preparing a detailed and focused healthcare marketing plan based on their concepts for tackling the current pandemic and other diseases.
A School of Public Health (SPH), established by the institution here, has also made some important policy interventions for building public health capacity and skills in Rajasthan. The SPH has extended support to the State government in harnessing new technologies for effective healthcare management in the post-COVID-19 scenario.
