Dr. Neeraj Mahindroo
COVID 19 has bought several implications that the mankind needs to learn from. While the global economy has been hit hard, the virus has taught even the most technically advanced nations: it is not all sunshine and rainbows. Healthcare sector is one such field that is primarily in the need of talented medical and nursing assistants, home health aide, physicians, therapists and pharmacy technicians among others. And as the world grapples with the ramifications of this global malady, the need for the healthcare professionals will increase manifold in the coming years.
With the world changing its outlook towards healthcare and people gaining awareness about staying healthy, a much needed boost to per capita expenditure is expected in the healthcare sector. This will naturally multiply significant requirement for trained manpower and will open up exciting career avenues for the millennials.
According to McKinsey report, Healthcare has been amongst the least effected sectors due to COVID unlike many others: Automobile, Consumer Durables, and Hospitality etc. The report also indicates that share prices of several pharmaceutical companies are now higher even in year-to-date terms. These indications showcase a positive sentiment in the marketplace place for the healthcare sector.
Moreover, India in particular is one of the leading destinations for high-end diagnostics services. The country’s pharmaceutical market is estimated to grow at a CAGR around 12 per cent over the next three years. By 2020, India could be among the top three pharma markets by incremental growth and the sixth largest globally in absolute size. The government’s push to provide affordable healthcare to the citizens, establish new institutions and technically advanced medical education, will further escalate developments in this sector.
India being a talent pool of researchers, scientists and educationists attracts several foreign companies to invest and harness the opportunities that the country has to offer. In the past decade, this has led to a huge demand for sales and product specialist role in the pharmaceuticals sector. This also indicates that the need for Research and Development and innovation professionals will increase in the times to come.
Here is a look at some of the areas and specialisations that will attract greater demand for professionals in the coming years:
- Formulation Scientist: Besides conventional dosage form, revolution in pharmaceutical sector leads to develop novel drug delivery systems in the view of individualised need of a patient. The collaboration of pharmacy with other disciplines like pharmacogenomics, artificial intelligence, and design can provide the bright opportunities in this competitive era of development of medicine and medical devices.
- Production Managers: The industries are modernising their production lines based on digitalisation and complete automation. The industries are looking for the personnel having not only basic knowledge of pharmaceutical technology but also the knowledge of robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and their troubleshoot.
- Clinical Scientists: Each drug has to undergo meticulous testing in clinical trial for its safety and efficacy. Research and development in the pharmacy, pharmaceutical chemistry, and ayurvedic pharmacy leads to develop various novel molecules, day by day and hence need their clinical trials. A degree in fields like pharmacy, clinical pharmacy and management degrees in healthcare provides trains students for the career as clinical scientists or clinical trial managers.
- Medical Writing/ Scientific writing: The field deals with basic medical writing support for documents produced by clinicians, scientists. The personnel review and provide the scientific feedback on the essential documents related to conduct of clinical trial. They also indulge with write and review scientific abstracts, publications, related to clinical studies. The sector provides excellent opportunities for the students with the basic knowledge of healthcare discipline.
- Patent Attorney: Beyond the research and development, the product need to be successfully commercialised. Pharmaceuticals and healthcare sectors are the leading sectors for development of new and novel products where research firms needs to file applications for IPR or handle any issues related to IPR. That is where a patent attorney comes in. A patent attorney plays a role in advising the clients on protection of their intellectual property.
- Pharmacogenomics Scientists: The field of pharmacogenomics is going to be one of the most important in healthcare and can provide vast opportunities in healthcare sector. It is collaboration of pharmacy, microbiology, genetics and medical disciplines and deals with the study of the role of the genome in drug response, especially the influence of acquired and inherited genetic variation.
- Health data Scientists: Data Science plays a pivotal role in monitoring patient's health and notifying necessary steps to be taken in order to prevent potential diseases from taking place. Data Scientists are using powerful predictive analytical tools to detect chronic diseases at an early level.
- 3D printing Specialists: A state-of-the-art proposition in the healthcare sector, 3D Printing is a big opportunity to help pharmaceutical and medical companies to create more specific drugs, enabling a rapid production of medical implants, and changing the way that doctors and surgeons plan procedures. Moreover, the technology can find the application in development of individualized novel drug delivery systems to deliver drug as per need.
- Epigenetic counsellors: Epigenetics is the study of changes in the expression of genes that do not result from alterations in the sequence of the genetic code. Each person's DNA lays a groundwork for the development of physical and psychological characteristics, but the activity of genes can be modified by various factors. Scientists who work in epigenetics explore the mechanisms that affect the activity of genes.
- Insurance underwriter: Personnel trained in healthcare and business administration, are in high demand with health insurance companies. The insurance claims are reviewed by an underwriter, can efficiently analyses the circumstances, and can take decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of the insurance claims in the view of the terms of the plan.
Citing the present market scenario, while everything else seems to be grim, this is definitely an opportunity for those who want to establish their career in the healthcare sector.
A postgraduate Diploma or specialisations like BPharma, BBA in Hospital and Healthcare among others are the courses that students can explore to pursue a career in this field.
The pandemic has made the healthcare institutions realise the importance of management for an efficient and sustainable health ecosystem. The need to streamline various aspects of healthcare will open up lucrative career opportunities for the aspirants in the coming future.
— The writer is Dean, School of Health Sciences, UPES, Dehradun