Author: Newsbit

India’s private hospital systems are undergoing a structural digital transformation. Once seen as lagging adopters of enterprise technology, hospitals are now aligning core operations with data-centric, cloud-native and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven systems. This shift is not being driven by policy mandates or public-facing platforms but by an internal recognition that hospitals must function as full-fledged digital enterprises to remain competitive, efficient, and clinically advanced.

The ongoing change reflects a broader global trend. A McKinsey & Company global survey of 200 health system executives revealed that while 88% of respondents saw high potential in AI and data tools, 75% acknowledged they lacked the infrastructure and funding to scale them effectively. While Indian hospitals may not match global peers in absolute capital deployed, their focus on modular, ROI-linked digital investments allows them to advance core transformation agendas faster in specific areas like imaging, workflow automation, and remote care.

Enterprise technology becomes core to hospital strategy
In the Indian context, the acceleration of digital healthcare isn’t merely about patient-facing services like telemedicine. Hospital boards and executive teams are approving multi-year roadmaps to overhaul legacy infrastructure, embed machine learning in clinical and administrative operations, and build internal tech teams that mirror enterprise IT departments.

Hospitals are investing heavily in migrating from fragmented, on-premise systems to cloud-based platforms. Cloud adoption now spans across imaging archives, hospital information systems, tele-ICU platforms, and patient CRM systems. These migrations are motivated not only by scalability and efficiency, but also by the need to ensure continuity across hospital networks and satellite centers.

Alongside this, AI is emerging as a clinical and operational enabler. AI tools are increasingly embedded into diagnostic pathways, from radiology and pathology interpretation to predicting inpatient deterioration and optimising surgery schedules. Clinical decision support systems are also helping reduce unnecessary interventions, while AI-enhanced chatbots and virtual agents streamline administrative load in patient intake and discharge.

Leadership perspective on what’s driving the change
Hospital leadership across India sees this digital transformation not as a project, but as a shift in business model. According to Dr Simanta G. Sharma, Head of Healthcare Development & Transformation at Ramaiah Memorial Hospital, Bengaluru, “A hospital to provide the best in care and class has to be abreast with all modern emerging technological advancements. At Ramaiah, we have invested in technologies such as AI-powered Cathlab, AI Rehabilitation, 3-T MRI, HMIS, chatbot, digital CRM, doctor and patient mobile apps, and teleconsultations.”

Dr Sharma underscores that this shift wasn’t triggered by a single disruption, but was a cumulative necessity to modernise clinical operations and maintain care quality. Dr Sharma also notes that the integration of digital and clinical teams required persistence, but has now become part of the hospital’s operational backbone.

Dr A Sharath Reddy, Executive Director at Medicover Hospitals in Hyderabad, adds that Covid-19 and India’s national health data blueprint accelerated his group’s investment decisions. “As an interventional cardiologist, I saw how AI-driven tools, like automated TAVI planning and AI-enhanced CT, boosted throughput and accuracy. That became the trigger for broader adoption,” he said. His team tackled clinician resistance by appointing digital ambassadors and offering in-context training through short video modules and on-site mentoring. “The digital-literacy divide was real, but structured peer support helped cut onboarding time by 40%,” he noted.

Transformation beyond the hospital walls
The scope of digital transformation now extends well beyond hospital boundaries. Increasingly, private healthcare systems in India are exploring full-stack models that unify scheduling, diagnostics, teleconsultations, follow-up care, and payments into a single digital framework. Medicover’s post-discharge program uses AI monitoring combined with human coaching to deliver home-based cardiac rehab, addressing the low follow-up adherence that plagues traditional care models.

This expansion of digital infrastructure also includes interoperability and data governance frameworks. Blockchain-based solutions, while still in pilot stages, are being explored for patient consent tracking and audit trail management, particularly in clinical research and insurance claims workflows.

Strategic outlook: Investment vs. capability
While global peers face funding gaps and regulatory hurdles, Indian hospitals are focusing on implementation discipline and cross-functional integration. Technology investment as a share of total capex is rising across tier-1 and tier-2 hospital groups, with CIOs increasingly reporting to the CEO or COO rather than functioning as isolated tech heads. Hospitals are also restructuring teams to include cloud engineers, data architects, cybersecurity specialists, and data analysts, indicating a shift from outsourced IT models to internalized digital strategy.

Despite lower per-bed investment compared to systems in the US or Western Europe, Indian hospitals are achieving faster turnaround in select verticals such as cloud-native diagnostics and AI-based workflow optimisation. Their ability to modularise investment and focus on outcome-driven deployments is offering them a strategic edge.

Conclusion
India’s hospital sector is no longer relying solely on clinical excellence to stay competitive. Digital maturity is becoming a core measure of institutional strength. With AI and cloud infrastructure moving from pilot to core operations, and with C-suite leaders deeply involved in tech decisions, hospitals are now functioning more like enterprises, interconnected, data-driven, and outcome-oriented. TechCircle

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged States to fast-track healthcare infrastructure in remote and aspirational districts and asked both Central and state government officials to adopt a results-driven approach when it comes to emergency services and infrastructure development.

Chairing the 48th meeting of PRAGATI meeting at South Block in New Delhi, PM Modi highlighted India’s growing defence self-reliance, and called for wider adoption of indigenous practices. PRAGATI is an ICT-enabled, multi-modal platform aimed at fostering Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation, by seamlessly integrating efforts of the Central and State governments.

During the meeting, Prime Minister reviewed certain critical infrastructure projects across Mines, Railways, and Water Resources sectors. These projects, pivotal to economic growth and public welfare, were reviewed with a focus on timelines, inter-agency coordination, and issue resolution.

Prime Minister underscored that delays in project execution come at the dual cost of escalating financial outlays and denying citizens timely access to essential services and infrastructure. He urged officials, both at the Central and State levels, to adopt a results-driven approach to translate opportunity into improving lives.

During a review of Prime Minister-Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM), PM Modi urged all States to accelerate the development of health infrastructure, with a special focus on Aspirational Districts, as well as remote, tribal, and border areas. He emphasised that equitable access to quality healthcare must be ensured for the poor, marginalised, and underserved populations, and called for urgent and sustained efforts to bridge existing gaps in critical health services across these regions.

The Prime Minister emphasised that PM-ABHIM provides a golden opportunity to States to strengthen their primary, tertiary and specialised health infrastructure at Block, District and State level to provide quality health care and services.

PM Modi also reviewed exemplary practices fostering Aatmanirbharta in the defence sector, undertaken by various Ministries, Departments, and States/UTs. He lauded these initiatives for their strategic significance and their potential to spur innovation across the defence ecosystem. Underscoring their broader relevance, Prime Minister cited the success of Operation Sindoor, executed with indigenous capabilities, as a powerful testament to India’s advancing self-reliance in defence sector.

The Prime Minister also highlighted how the States can avail the opportunity to strengthen the ecosystem and contribute to Aatmanirbharta in defence sector. ETV Bharat

Ransomware groups have consistently tried to break into hospitals’ networks, and they aren’t just eyeing big health systems.

Increasingly, cyberattackers are going after smaller hospitals, industry leaders say. Ransomware groups are going after rural hospitals, federally qualified health centers, clinics, and other facilities with modest resources. The Health Sector Coordinating Council’s Cybersecurity Working Group outlined some of those threats in a May report sent to the White House and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Jennifer Stoll, the chief external affairs officer of OCHIN, a collaborative of hundreds of safety net organizations, said more rural hospitals and federally qualified health centers are suffering breaches.

“We’re the least funded section of the delivery system, and we are the most vulnerable when it comes to cybersecurity,” Stoll tells Chief Healthcare Executive®.

“Everybody needs a lot of money to be able to support the cybersecurity infrastructure, because we are really facing a national crisis, which is a war against our healthcare providers every day, with bad actors domestically, but mostly abroad. And we just don’t have the resources,” she says.

Security or staying open
Hundreds of healthcare organizations have suffered breaches in recent years. In 2024, there were 592 breaches of health data, and 259 million Americans were affected, according to John Riggi, national advisor for cybersecurity and risk with the American Hospital Association. Three out of four Americans were impacted by a breach of private health information last year.

Rural hospitals recognize that they are vulnerable to cyberattacks, but most don’t have the money or manpower to invest in strong defenses, says Jim Roeder, the vice president of information technology of Lakewood Health System, which operates a critical access hospital and several primary care clinics in Minnesota. He served as co-leader of the task force that produced the report on cyberattacks and smaller systems.

For smaller providers, Roeder says, “We could have a couple million dollars for cybersecurity, or we can get that CT machine that we need to bring in more revenue and keep the doors open. And so that’s the constant battle that we face from our budget, when we have to go to the board.”

At first blush, a small, 25-bed hospital in a rural community wouldn’t seem like it would be worth the time for a cyberattacker. But analysts say there are reasons why ransomware gangs would go after a rural hospital or a federally qualified health center.

First, even a small organization still has a great deal of private health information, which is very valuable to bad actors. And that’s also true of clinics and health centers serving neighborhoods where many have low incomes.

“Just because they’re low resource communities doesn’t mean that it’s not great data to be able to hijack or steal,” Ochin says.

“Even if you’re dealing with low income and underserved or rural communities, you know, it still creates havoc, and it still allows them to have a very powerful weapon, with lots of things that they can do for nefarious purposes,” she adds.

Federally qualified health centers aren’t being spared, she says.

“They have just as many breaches. They really do,” Ochin says.

Retired Army General Paul Nakasone, the former leader of the U.S. Cyber Command, warned of the growing risk of cyberattacks aimed at rural providers at the HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition in March.

“These rural hospitals have limited funds, have limited capabilities, and they are often the target of ransomware actors,” Nakasone said.

Plus, ransomware groups know smaller hospitals are more likely to have less imposing defenses, so they reason they could get a payday with relatively low effort, experts say.

Limited staffing
Hospitals and health systems often are exposed to breaches involving many of the vendors they utilize for all sorts of business functions. Leaders of smaller hospitals are increasingly frustrated by the risks of attacks tied to vendors, and they are left wondering whether those vendors are staying up to date with software patches to address vulnerabilities. And smaller systems don’t have the staff to do some of the leg work to be sure vendors are doing what they should be doing.

In the cybersecurity report, Roeder says some hospital leaders expressed frustration that they have to take on all the risk involving vendors properly updating their systems. They want vendors to take more responsibility.

“If they want these devices to be put into healthcare systems, they have to be willing to patch them, support them, make sure they stay secure,” Roeder says.

Rural hospitals and health centers typically may have one person focused on cybersecurity, and sometimes even that individual is juggling other responsibilities.

While many hospitals struggle to find talented cybersecurity pros, it’s especially difficult for rural hospitals.

Roeder says it’s difficult to “find people that have the knowledge that want to work in healthcare in a rural area.”

Some hospitals and health systems have allowed cybersecurity staff to work remotely, which helps to a degree, he says. But that’s a bit of a double-edged sword, because cybersecurity pros living in rural areas don’t necessarily have to work at the local hospital.

“It kind of hurt us, because these people with that knowledge all of a sudden can work for bigger companies elsewhere, too,” he says.

‘It’s also patient safety’
Hospital cybersecurity leaders have stressed that breaches have costs beyond the bottom line and even reputational damage. Cyberattacks threaten the safety of patients, particularly when attacks succeed in knocking electronic health records offline and disrupting vital systems.

“Cybersecurity for one is cyber security for all, and it’s also patient safety,” Stoll says.

Cybersecurity leaders are also talking more about the “blast radius” of a breach, because an attack at one hospital can force patients to be transferred to other facilities.

But the risks to patient safety may be magnified at smaller hospitals, particularly those in rural areas. In plenty of rural areas across the country, a small, community access hospital may be the only hospital within an hour or more.

If an attack happened at Lakewood Health in Minnesota, Roeder says patients may have to go to another facility that may be an hour or two away.

“We got to try and hope they have room for these patients,” Roeder says. “And you know, we have two ambulances. How do you get them there? How do you transport them there in a timely manner?”

That vulnerability for rural providers makes them a target. As Stoll notes, some rural communities may not have another hospital within 150 miles. And that puts rural hospitals in a terrible position when an attacker gets into their system in hopes of a payday.

“If you have a gun to your head, because they’ve got all your data and they’ve frozen your system, you’re down,” Stoll says. “And you are creating a real vulnerability in terms of patient care.”

Stoll, Roeder and other advocates for federally qualified health centers and rural hospitals stress that those facilities are going to need more federal funding to defend against cyberattacks.

The federal government is looking to impose tougher requirements on hospitals to maintain certain cybersecurity standards, and healthcare leaders say smaller facilities are going to need more help.

“It’s really different, and we have to think differently about the needs of those that have the least amount of resources,” Stoll says. Chief Healthcare Executive