Rahul Dubey, Head | Digital Marketing - Paras Healthcare Pvt Ltd has been recognized as Most Prominent Digital Healthcare Professional of the Year - 2022 by BusinessMint.

Mr. Rahul Dubey – Currently heading the digital marketing for Paras Hospitals has been in the Digital Marketing vertical for over a decade now and is one of the known personalities offering the best of the digital marketing services in the healthcare sector. He is the man behind revolutionizing the digital marketing campaigns and digital marketing strategies in the healthcare vertical and the person who has renovated the domain of healthcare communication by implementing contemporary and advanced strategies.

Interviewer – Congratulations on receiving the digital marketing professional of the year award once again!

Rahul – Thank You! Getting recognition on such a huge platform is an honor. I would like to thank my family members – My father – Mr. R. C Dubey, My mother – Mrs. Sushma Dubey, and my wife – Mrs. Monika Shukla for extending their support throughout.

Interviewer – As an Industry stalwart with over a decade of domain expertise, what would be your advice to the healthcare industry for the near future?

Rahul – You need to be focused on your business as well as the requirements of your target audience. Make sure you are flexible and committed to improving constantly in terms of Digital Branding, Online Reputation Management, and UI/UX on your website, and focus more on video consultation and online reporting systems. What may have been popular digital marketing practice a few years ago would become outdated. When it comes to digital marketing, there is always a paradigm shift that propels businesses and entrepreneurs to post more personalized content, adapts new SEO/ SMO rules, and embraces smart digital technologies. Healthcare start-ups that want to follow the tide of digital marketing can afford to overlook emerging trends in the space. The key is to figure out how a specific trend may change the digital marketing landscape and impact business position.

Interviewer – Can you mention some of the major challenges that you have faced in the industry and how you overcome them?

Rahul – During the pandemic, when most businesses struggled, we (Then, Social Media & ORM Head at Apollo Hospitals) increased the focus on the digital platforms by educating people (touching approximately 6 billion lives) about the COVID-19, safety protocols followed by Apollo Hospitals and by introducing “Kavach” a program under the aegis of Apollo Hospitals that was replicated by many healthcare groups across the globe.

Interviewer – How do you see social media is going to impact the next generation?

Rahul - Ten years from now, social is likely to be a seamless fusion of on- and offline. I believe the metaverse, which may still seem futuristic right now, will have become mainstream. Most of its key components that already exist will have been refined, and new technologies, responding to our as yet unknown needs, will be woven into the mix.

Interviewer – What is the future of digital health?

Rahul - When I think of the future of healthcare, I think of ‘your care, your way’. We’ll see a proliferation of access points, from text to video, to retail and ambulatory care centers, in addition to hospital care and post-acute care. Behind each of these access points, there are going to be digital technologies that remove friction from care experiences – allowing patients to receive high-quality care anytime, anywhere.

Interviewer – To conclude, how do you see the shift in the priorities within the healthcare sector?

Rahul – (a) Starting from the unmet needs of patients and healthcare professionals to co-create solutions that integrate into their workflows and daily routines, supported by virtual training and education to promote continuous learning. (b) Using the power of AI to support and enhance the human care experience – whether it’s through augmenting the expertise of healthcare professionals and aiding their decision-making, or by improving operational efficiencies that allow them to focus on patient care. (c) Building and maintaining trust in digital health technology through robust data privacy and security policies, while promoting controlled data sharing and digital innovation through federated data infrastructures.