There is great diversification in healthcare industry and the number of opportunities is growing by leaps and bounds. This is a vast and diverse domain, comprising hospitals, health insurance, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical outsourcing, telemedicine, medical tourism, and medical and surgical equipment, etc. The country’s healthcare can be categorised into two — public sector and the private sector.

Medical technology and medical service sector, especially, provide a great deal of opportunities. Increasing competition and the need to maximise profits, is prompting lead businesses to explore latest trends and dynamics.

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This is leading to a great demand for well-trained healthcare professionals. With the expansion of this sector, there is also a resultant growth in employment opportunities in different segments.

Healthcare placements include software engineers who develop various software and applications, jobs in health Research and Development for new techniques and drugs.

Today you have new job profiles such as biomedical engineers, dental hygienists, occupational therapists, medical sonographers, radiologic technologists, health information technicians, speech-language pathologists, respiratory therapists, surgical technologists, phlebotomists, and more.

Reports predict there will be over 40 million new jobs in this sector by 2020 with a $ 200 billion increase in revenue generation. The Indian healthcare industry is on a continuous recruitment drive. Increased investment, creation of super specialty healthcare facilities, addition of new hospital beds, and increase in medical tourism are expected to enhance opportunities.

Emergency care is still in a nascent stage, but with increase in accidents and injuries, new standalone emergency hospitals and with the Medical Council of India recognising emergency medicine as one of the specialities in the medical education, new prospects are emerging in the areas of emergency medicine and paramedics.

The healthcare sector and allied industries such as medical and surgical appliances have emerged as one of the top destinations for foreign investment over the last few years. The application of existing technology and advent of new technology is going to be the primary driver of change.

In the coming years we hope to see a massive expansion with deployment of tools such as telemedicine, home ICUs, virtual hospitals, tele-radiology, hospital information systems, hospital management information systems, online, electronic medical records, etc.

Greater use of information technology is already creating new avenues. Healthcare technology is an area with huge growth potential and job opportunities.

The writer is director, International Institute of Health Management Research, Delhi.