There are several predictions that healthcare is all poised to lead all other sectors in employment opportunities in the US going forward and the trend in India will only be stronger. Sajeev Nair tells you how aspirants can make it a lucrative option

The recent news coming in from US shows that healthcare sector has made the most dramatic and momentous reversal in employment fortunes, after the knee-jerk reaction of leading in job losses in April. Now, none other than the Wall Street Journal is predicting that healthcare is all poised to lead all other sectors in employment opportunities in the US going forward.

America being one of the largest and most advanced economies would naturally be the first in predicting such trends. But as an entrepreneur in the healthcare sector, we can clearly see that the trend in India would only be stronger. There are several reasons contributing towards this. Firstly, the world and especially the industry has awakened to the undeniable fact that productivity is intimately connected to the health and fitness of its workforce.

Secondly, health insurance and life insurance are all set to boom like it has never done in India, where both suffer from deep under-penetration still. Both families and organisations are not going to take things lying down anymore, having seen the risks for life and savings from the pandemic. This will drive growth in insurance, which in turn will drive a lot of growth in healthcare, especially conventional healthcare like hospitalisation, surgical procedures, medicines etc.

But a much higher growth is likely to come eventually from an unconventional source — health startups or more specifically health-tech startups. Such startups were slowly emerging even before the pandemic, in both India and abroad, but now it is clear that nothing can prevent them from booming to an unprecedented scale. This is not only because of the natural emergence of e-commerce which eases sales and delivery, but due to another peculiar reason.

Covid-19 has exposed the chinks in the armor of conventional medicine, and health-tech startups being innovators and disrupters will be seen to be attempting a one-up on conventional medicine by focusing on solutions for wellness or preventive medicine.

The academic qualifications and career experience needed by jobs in such health-tech startups differ significantly from the requirements of conventional roles like doctor, nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist, lab technician and others.

Clearly, there is significant momentum on both the demand and supply sides when it comes to new jobs emerging in the healthcare sector. This is an ideal situation, just like how it happened in the 90s for the information technology sector in India when the emergence of a wave of IT jobs was consumed eagerlyby a wave of graduate engineers who could be easily taught the requirements of the new jobs. It is no coincidence that industry stalwarts like Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw had recently opined that healthcare is now all set to be India’s new IT.

Many of you may still be wondering how you would fit into the healthcare sector. You may be an engineer, a manager, a sales professional, a marketing expert, a programmer, a writer, a PR professional, a designer, or for that matter any professional, but the fact is that the growth in the healthcare sector can accommodate you.

Already, health-tech startups are creating demand for specialised programmers with skills in artificial intelligence, big data and internet of things, among others. Another exciting arena coming up for those planning sales and marketing jobs in health-tech startups is Work From Home opportunities. With e-commerce getting smoother and social media getting more productive, health-tech startups are expected to pursue digital direct selling models.

The writer is Founder, Vieroots Wellness Solution