Health Watch, Gomantak Times 30 May 2010

While a routine health check may seem frivolous and unnecessary, today’s lifestyle makes it more of a necessity. But is Goa ready for health check-up packages, asks Giovanni D’Cunha

[The writer is a faculty at the Marian Institute of Health Care Management, Panjim]

You walk into a restaurant and the first thing you ask for is the menu. The day is not far when you walk into a hospital and demand for the best deal on offer. Or if you are a health conscious executive on the fast track, but don’t have the time for a regular blood test, would this option appeal to you? Your blood sample is collected by personnel from the path lab in the comfort of your home and the reports are delivered to you the next day, or you collect them on your way home.

One way that an individual can monitor his health today is by going for a periodic health check-up which may include diagnostic tests. These tests help to identify specific problems that may crop up due to unhealthy food habits, lack of exercise or a sedentary life style. As a result of the lifestyle that we lead we can become victims of modern diseases-diabetes, cardiac problems, obesity and hypertension-to name a few. Corporate hospitals and diagnostic labs today try to meet the need to provide facilities to conduct diagnostic tests which will aid a doctor to make a conclusive diagnosis of the patient’s current health.

A common process is the following: the patient goes to the doctor, the doctor conducts a physical examination of the patient. Depending on the initial diagnosis, the doctor may prescribe certain diagnostic tests which the patient has to do. He may get these tests done in the hospital’s diagnostic lab or may go to any diagnostic lab in the vicinity that would do the tests for him. Armed with the results the patient goes back to the doctor. The doctor now makes his final diagnosis and prescribes the treatment.

Health packages take this scenario to a different level. Not only does it call for preparedness on the part of the patient but more efficient use of the doctors’ time. Doctors today are dealing with an informed patient. The internet has thrown open doors of medicine and technology to a lay person like never before. Looking at meeting such a need, a number of diagnostic labs have come up in Goa. Hospitals too have recognized a demand for self-prescribed pathological health check-up packages coupled with their revenue potential. Any person can avail of this independently without consultation from a doctor. Packages of this kind are available at many hospitals, but often come at a cost.

Would people in Goa be looking for such a high cost, yet high convenience benefit?

HEALTH CONCIOUS

An extensive study was conducted in Goa this year to understand the patient and doctor perception towards such health packages. The target population was the people in and around Panjim.

The study served to confirm the assumptions of the researchers that people in Goa, living a fast-paced

lifestyle, welcome the idea of health check-up packages. This was chiefly seen among office goers. It was also found that office goers in a higher income bracket preferred to go in for general tests and blood profiling and would also like to design and develop their own test package with the tests that they need. Ronald May, marketing manager at Manipal Hospital, affirms this fact when he says, “Goans are becoming increasingly ‘preventive-conscious’ today. There is a growing trend in people to invest in such packages and curb any illness, if any, in the initial stages itself.”

There are various categories of health packages one can avail of, be it cosmetic, dental, eye, pre-marital, or just a general body-watch. Besides general blood tests, a comprehensive health check-up consists of tests such as the lipid profile, liver, thyroid and kidney screening, stress screening, eye and ENT examination, pulmonary function tests, gynaecologist consultation and pap smear tests.

Today’s unhealthy lifestyle makes it mandatory for everyone to undergo a complete health check up, at least once in a year. The periodic check up helps in identifying the cause of diseases at a very early stage and provides the opportunity for the proverbial “stitch in time”.